Flyers spoil Bruins' Cup party

BOSTON - During the ridiculously long, overblown, theatrically scripted, on-ice ceremony in which the Bruins celebrated their first Stanley Cup victory since 1972, the Flyers were cooped up in their locker room last night.

As if the wait for Opening Night, through summer, training camp and the preseason, was not long enough, the Flyers were forced to sit through a 35-minute reminder of how last season ended in the same TD Garden.

"We were just sitting around, itching to get out there," James van Riemsdyk said.

The Flyers did not blast music to drown out the crowd noise. It was impossibly loud.

They were sweaty, they had already completed their normal pregame warmup routine. There was nowhere to go, as the Bruins paraded around the ice with the Cup and shimmied their banner up to the rafters.

"I took my gear off and return to the hotel, took a 20-minute nap and came back again," Ilya Bryzgalov said jokingly. "We just talked. Some guys taped their sticks, some guys drank a cup of coffee, we all did different things."

Less than 10 minutes after the puck dropped, the Bruins scored, a familiar beginning to all four of the contests that swept the Flyers out of last year's playoffs.

The Bruins didn't want to cut the cord from last season. So, the Flyers did it for them. They stole the show and crashed the Bruins' gaudy Stanley Cup party with a gutty, 2-1, win to kick off their new campaign with nine new faces on their roster.

"I thought it was a good win, especially when there is that much energy in the building," coach Peter Laviolette said. "I thought our guys battled through that. Parts of that game looked really good, parts of that game there are things we need to improve on. It's always easier to show things to improve on after you win."

The Flyers hung on for the win despite being outshot, 11-4, in the final frame. They had initially jumped out to a 26-12 shot advantage. No matter the erratic workload, Bryzgalov was sensational in his Philadelphia debut, stopping 22 of 23 shots.

The Flyers also got some timely help from Kimmo Timonen, who made a game-saving stick save in front of an empty net with 9 minutes left.

"It was important for our team to get a good start and get that first win," said Claude Giroux, who netted the Flyers' first goal of the season. "It was pretty exciting on the bench, seeing everything come together and everyone working hard."

Though the Flyers forced their penalty kill to work overtime, including a momentum-shifting kill with less than 10 minutes to play, their revamped offense already appeared to click. Passes were crisp. The cycling and forecheck was ferocious. And the scoring, despite many questions, was enough for one game.

Newcomer Jakub Voracek notched the game-winner in his first game as a Flyer, after a disappointing preseason that saw him go scoreless. In fact, he broke a 16-game goal-less drought dating back to March 9 when he was with Columbus.

Yes, it was one game. The NHL season is an 82-game marathon and not a sprint. Games are easier to win in October than March. More than 100 tired sports cliches could be applied to last night's win.

With so many new names and so many question marks, the victory over the defending champions on their home ice probably surprised a lot of people. Including Bruins fans. There was a lot to bring together in a short period of time.

"You should be surprised," Jaromir Jagr said, "When you look at how many young guys we have on the team. We played the Stanley Cup champions, it's not easy. We have five guys under 22. A lot of people probably wondered how we were going to play, because we have so many new guys. Three weeks is not much time."

With his first-period assist on Claude Giroux' razzle-dazzle goal, Jaromir Jagr notched his 1,600th career NHL point. He is just the ninth player in league history to hit the milestone. He now has 646 goals and 954 assists in 1,274 games.

"I knew that if I didn't get injured, I might get it this season," Jagr said with a grin.

Last night, Jagr - the league's active career points leader - also became the NHL's new all-time leader with 31 points in season-opening games.

The Flyers have won three straight season openers, all of which have come on the road . . . Jody Shelley served the first of his five-game suspension last night for his Sept. 22 hit on Toronto's Darryl Boyce. Shelley is eligible to return to the lineup on Oct. 20 . . . The Flyers were 4-for-5 on the penalty kill . . . Top pick Sean Couturier saw action on all five of the Flyers' penalty kills.