Flyers drop the puck tonight!

With everything else that's been going on, it's easy to forget that the Flyers will start their season tonight against the Rangers. For better or for worse, Sarah Palin will be dropping the first puck for the 2008/2009 Flyers season, a season that looks very promising as the Flyers try to build off their great playoff run of last year.

Here are some of the new things to look for as the Flyers take the ice tonight:

Gagne is back Former 40 goal scorer Simon Gagne returns to the ice for the first time since February 10th. He looked smooth and seems ready to go after a solid exhibition season.

New First Line With Gagne's return, the Flyers will have a new look on their top line. Mike Richards will now center the line with Gagne on his left and Danny Briere on his right. Briere has played center for most of his professional career but now moves to the wing. If this line stays together, and I have my doubts that it will, it should be extremely potent. It's a nice combination of toughness, grit and speed that should pile up a ton of points.

Other new forward lines The shake-up at the top and the loss of R.J. Umberger has forced the Flyers to try out some new lines combinations this season. Here are their opening game lines, courtesy of Bill Meltzer:

Gagne - Richards - Briere
Upshall - Carter - Knuble
Hartnell - Metropolit - Lupul
Cote - Downie - Asham

Jeff Carter moves up to the second line and newcomer Glen Metropolit takes over on the third line. The most intriguing line out of all of them is the 4th line. Riley Cote, Steve Downie and Arron Asham are all tough guys who will be a real pain to play against. I'm not sure how much they are going to score but they will get under the skin of their opponents on a nightly basis.

Defense pairings With the injuries to Derian Hatcher, Ryan Parent and Randy Jones, the Flyers will feature a very inexperienced back line for the first part of the season. The injuries are such a problem for their depth that they have been forced to split up their top pairing of Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn:

Timonen - Väänänen
Coburn - Eminger
Sbisa - Kukkonen

Rookie Luca Sbisa makes his NHL debut today as well. Get a good look at him while you can because he probably won't be on the big club for more than a week or two. Don't count on Timonen and Coburn to be split up for too long, that unit was way too effective last season.

Jared Ross Who? Apparently Ross has made the Flyers roster. Ross is a 26 year old center who will get some ice time if Downie continues to struggle with injuries. Ross spent last season with the Phantoms and picked up 62 points in 67 games.

Enjoy the game tonight! In case you didn't know, you can watch it online for free at NHL.com. They have a new NHL Gamecenter feature where you can watch the games online and they have a free preview for a few days.

If anyone is interested in participating in a Live Game Blog for today's game that I would host, leave me a comment in this post or drop me an email at allthingsphillysports@gmail.com. The Live Blog's were very popular during last years playoff run and I plan to do them again from time to time. I'm trying to gauge if there is interest in doing one now or if I should wait until later in the season. It's a great way to follow the game and have some great discussions with fellow Flyers fans.

Go Flyers!