The atmosphere was perfect.
Lots of Flyers orange in the stands at the Wells Fargo Center and plenty of energy for a home opener.
Except the New Jersey Devils spoiled things with a 6-4 victory.
This is the third consecutive year the Flyers lost their first two games of a season.
The scorefest saw a magnificent comeback by the Flyers fall short (see 10 observations).
They trailed 3-0 in the second period and scored three goals in the final 4:15 to tie the game, including two by Wayne Simmonds. Two of those goals were on the power play.
Injuries
Braydon Coburn (lower body) did not play. His injury was announced before the game (see story).
1st period
Michael Ryder roofed a shot under the crossbar on goalie Steve Mason at 12:05 of the first period off a nice pass from Ryane Clowe. Mason gave up a couple bad goals in this one.
Deflected goal
Adam Henrique’s shot from the right circle at 2:10 of the second period ricocheted off Flyers defenseman Luke Schenn’s skate and changed directions on Mason for a 2-0 deficit.
And another
At 5:32 of the second period, Jaromir Jagr came up the right boards, did a spin move and wristed the puck high coming off his spin. His shot hit Mike Cammalleri and it was 3-0.
Shooting percentage
The Devils had three goals on their first nine shots. That .333 would look great in baseball, too.
2nd-period comeback
It began with Claude Giroux’s power-play goal from the left circle at 15:44 with Simmonds screening goalie Cory Schneider at the net. Simmonds made it 3-2 at 19:03 with a rip shot off a deft pass from Matt Read.
Buzzer-beater
Simmonds' second goal, on the power play, came at 19:59 as the horn sounded. That power play began with 4.5 ticks on the clock.
3rd period
Patrik Elias was so alone off a rush that there wasn’t a Flyer within an area code of him, including defensemen Michael Del Zotto and Luke Schenn. Elias, who was camped in front, made it a 4-3 lead, but Vinny Lecavalier re-tied the game 15 seconds later on a 2-on-1 rush with, who else -- Simmonds.
Bad goal
Dainius Zubrus beat Mason shortside off the rush after a successful Flyers penalty kill to make it 5-4 Devils at 7:13.
Minus pairing
Luke Schenn was minus-5; Del Zotto was minus-4. You think the Flyers don’t have issues on defense? Schenn is minus-6 this season.
New D pairing
Coburn’s absence gave Nick Schultz his first start of the season. He worked with Coburn’s partner, Andrew MacDonald.
Home openers
The Flyers are now 26-15-6 all-time.
Franchise record
A dubious one. This is the third straight year the Flyers lost their home opener.
Back-to-back
This was the first of 14 such games this season.
Power play
The Flyers had all kinds of pressure on Schneider during their second power play in the middle period. At one point, the puck was there in the paint with Simmonds and Lecavalier jabbing at it. Schneider came up huge with a couple saves while his defense blocked two more. Before the period was over, however, the Flyers had two power-play goals.
Special teams
The Flyers were 2 for 5 on the power play; the Devils were 0 for 3.
Faceoffs
Through two periods, the Flyers had won 64 percent of their draws.
Scratches
Forward Blair Jones was a healthy scratch; Defenseman Kimmo Timonen (blood clots) and forward Ryan White (torn pectoral muscle); and Coburn (lower body).