The NHL returns, and so do the fans

Until last night, the collective fuse of hockey fans in Philadelphia had sat untouched for exactly one year, four months and 12 days. It was that long ago that the Flyers last left the ice after losing the seventh game of the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

But at about 6:40 p.m. on a night more suited to baseball than the ultimate cold-weather sport, a spark flew at the Wachovia Center when the Flyers took the ice for pregame warmups. Half an hour later, it became a full-fledged, riotous orange flame, and the city which the Sporting News named the best hockey city in the nation poured out its heart.

Sure, the NHL lost its television deal with ESPN, and plenty of hockey teams across the country are having more than a little trouble getting space on the front sports page. But that clearly isn't the case in Philadelphia, where the fans nearly blew the roof off before the game began when new star center Peter Forsberg was introduced. It might have been worth checking the arena's foundations after just two of the first three player introductions - starting goaltender Robert Esche and hard-hitting defenseman Derian Hatcher.

But what has so many Flyers fans excited about this year's team is that it is built on a core of young players. Many of them won the Calder Cup last season with the Flyers' minor-league affiliate, the Phantoms, who play next door in the Spectrum.

"I'm excited that there are a lot of younger players," Patrick Kyle of Downingtown, Pa., said. "If you get too many older players, the team kind of crumbles, like Detroit did."

This being Philadelphia, there were plenty of boos to go around as well. Anything blue with the word "Rangers" on it got a big earful from anyone wearing orange.

Tim Parker of Frazer, Pa., however, didn't care.

"I'm a true fan of the Rangers, man, what can I say," he said. "I'm just happy hockey's back."

The puck was finally dropped at 7:27. At last, there was hockey. There was an organist exhorting the fans to chant "Let's go, Flyers!" There was Lou Nolan's voice on the Wachovia Center public address system. And there were still hard hits. Which is part of why only 43 seconds expired on the game clock before Nolan told the fans that the Flyers were "going on the PECO Power Play," thanks to a two-minute tripping penalty called on the Rangers' Marian Hossa.

There were also a lot of new rules enforced, most of which were created to try to increase the scoring in games. The most prominent rule changes include the elimination of both the two-line pass and automatic icing when the puck is passed from the center line to behind the goal, and the creation of a trapezoidal area behind each net outside that is the only area outside the crease in which the goaltender can handle the puck.

"They're not confusing," Kyle said of the new rules. "I think it's going to be interesting to see how the game's played, though, especially in the absence of the two-line pass -- if anybody seems confused, it almost seems like the players are a little bit nervous about how they're playing on the ice."

Patrick's father, Terry, is looking forward to a more entertaining game as a result of the rule changes.

"It's going to be a faster game, it should be a lot more exciting," he said. "You've got a guy like Forsberg out there and the chance to see his talent and skills - under the old rules, there was so much clutch-and-grab."

There was certainly less of that than there has been in years past, resulting in 54 combined shots on goal -- 27 each for both teams. Everything was going pretty well from the home fans' point of view until the 9:31 mark of the first period, when the Rangers scored first. The crowd fell quiet for a little while, but at 11:39 Simon Gagne tied the game, and barely two minutes later Mike Knuble put the Flyers up, 2-1.

The longest stoppage of play came with the Flyers up 3-1, and it had its fair share of drama. The Rangers were awarded a penalty shot 13:27 into the second period, and Michael Nylander's backhander caught a piece of Esche's glove, then hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced away. The orange mass roared its approval. It seemed like the perfect opening-night script for Philadelphia's fans.

But in the third period, the team from Broadway decided to stage a different play. New York scored four unanswered goals, with two from star forward Jaromir Jagr, to take a 5-3 lead with eight minutes to go in the game. That's how it ended, and the boo-birds were out as the players left the ice.

In the locker room, however, Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock had nothing but praise for the fans.

"The fans were terrific," he said. "There is a reason why this is the No. 1 hockey city in the United States, and I think we feel badly for the way we kind of gave it away in the third period."

Flyers rookie Mike Richards, whose first career NHL goal was his team's third of the game, concurred.

"I was excited before the game -- you kind of dream about it as a kid, and it was finally here in front of you to do," he said. "It was loud out there, you get the goosebumps when you hear the crowd cheering."

It was only one game out of 82 this season, and the Stanley Cup won't be awarded until June. Then again, the fact that there was an NHL hockey game to see was an accomplishment itself.

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