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Report: Emery could start in Flyers’ opener

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The Philadelphia Flyers seem like they’re leaning in the direction of making Ray Emery their starter for the first game of the 2013-14 season, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Sam Carchidi reports.

Steve Mason and the Flyers experienced a rough 4-1 preseason defeat at the hands of the New Jersey Devils on Thursday.

Whether Emery starts this coming Wednesday or not, it would be foolish to read too much into the early goings. Head coach Peter Laviolette told Carchidi that both netminders will get some looks.

“I think we have two good goaltenders that will play a lot,” Laviolette said on Monday. “We’re going to pick one to start the season and see the other one probably shortly after that. They’ve both done a real nice job.”

Emery, 30, enjoyed a dramatically better 2013 season than Mason, 25, yet his career edges aren’t quite as pronounced:

Emery: 126-63-19 with a .908 save percentage and 2.63 GAA in 228 career regular season games
Mason: 100-101-27 with a .905 save percentage and 2.87 GAA in 239 career regular season games

Emery certainly has a huge edge in record, but he’s almost uniformly played behind better teams than Mason, which might help to explain why Philly is leaving this competition so open.

It does seem like Emery has at least a short-term leg up, if Carchidi is correct, though.

Follow James O’Brien @cyclelikesedins