The Philadelphia Flyers hope to be Stanley Cup contenders by the season’s end. But heading into the 2009-2010 season there were a lot of questions.

Would the decision to sign Ray Emery to be the number one goaltender be a good one? Would the trade to land Chris Pronger put them over the top and help their defense? Can their star scorers, namely Simon Ganger and Danny Briere stay healthy for an entire season? How will rookie James Van Riemsdyk play?

Well, only being four games into the season, it is hard to say if there are concrete answers. One thing is for sure, it should be an exciting hockey season to be a Flyers fan.

The Flyers are off to a 3-1 start, after winning their first three and then losing to arch-rival Pittsburgh Thursday night.

Philadelphia started the season with a 2-0 shutout win at the Carolina Hurricanes last Friday. Emery made 28 saves in the contest to earn a shutout in his debut with the Flyers. The next night, the Flyers went into New Jersey and won 5-2. Emery made 24 saves on 26 shots in that one and Philadelphia had five different players score a goal. That included Ian Laperriere, who was an offseason free agent signing.

The Flyers made their home debut last Tuesday against the Washington Capitals and played a barnburner of a game in front of a rowdy crowd. Philadelphia came out on top 6-5 on an overtime goal by Briere. Emery wasn’t great but did make 36 saves on 41 shots. Pronger looked a little shaky in this contest, as he had a blatant turnover that led to an Alexander Ovechkin goal. One of the reasons the Flyers got Pronger was to try to relegate Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in the Eastern Conference.

It was Mike Richards who showed off his talent against the Capitals with a hat trick. Matt Carle also showed great passing ability from his defenseman position by collecting assists on all four of the Flyers second period goals. The win moved Philadelphia to 3-0 heading into their contest with the Penguins Thursday night.

The game was filled with penalties between the two rivals and ended with a fight in which Scott Hartnell was accused of biting Kris Letang at the bottom of a pile. This will only add to the rivalry these two teams have when they play each other another five times this season.

Emery gave up five goals for the second straight game and will have to rebound and get back to the way he played in the first two games. Jeff Carter led the offense for Philadelphia with two goals and two assists in the game.

Also worth noting was the fact that Van Riemsdyk did not play against Pittsburgh, as he was day-to-day after taking a hard hit versus the Capitals. Aaron Asham was inserted into the lineup for Van Riemsdyk.

Also, Blair Betts, who the Flyers signed just before the season started, will be out at least a month after injuring his arm against the Capitals on a penalty kill. He was replaced in the lineup by Riley Cote.

Ole-Kristian Tollefsen made his Flyers debut against the Penguins in place of defenseman Danny Syvret, who played the first three games while Tollefsen was out with hip injury.

Carle leads the Flyers with six points and five assists and a plus four rating. Richards is first with five goals.

All-in-all after four games there is a lot to look forward to in this year’s edition of the Flyers. The bottom line though, is that Philadelphia needs to start beating the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins to finally be over the top.