Nolan Patrick made his highly anticipated regular season debut for the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday.
His night consisted of 13:30 of ice time and three shots on goal.
More importantly for the Flyers, they went into San Jose and came away with a 5-3 victory to begin the campaign, with Wayne Simmonds recording a historic hat trick that included the winning goal midway through the third period.
Wayne Simmonds recorded the first opening-night hat trick in @NHLFlyers franchise history. #NHLStats #NHLFaceOff pic.twitter.com/uMS4yqwTPe
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) October 5, 2017
That’s a promising start to the year for the Flyers, who had three-point nights from Jakub Voracek and Shayne Gostisbehere as well.
Claude Giroux, who endured his share of struggles offensively last season and has entered 2017-18 with considerable pressure to regain his form, scored the first goal for Philadelphia, in part because of a puck-handling mistake from Sharks goalie Martin Jones.