By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
October 11, 1967: the Philadelphia Flyers played their first game as an NHL franchise.
The Flyers first season in the NHL opened against another the new expansion teams, the California Golden Seals. On this October night, it was the Golden Seals who would run the show, defeating the Flyers, 5-1.
The Flyers trailed early as Kent Douglas scored 3:23 into the game to put California on top.
It wasn't until the midway point of the second period that the Flyers would strike for the game's next goal, the first in the franchise's history. It went to Bill Sutherland, who was playing his first full season in the NHL after spending time with the Quebec Aces in the minor leagues. Sutherland played two playoff games for the Montreal Canadiens in 1963.
The goal was assisted by Leon Rochefort and John Miszuk.
That was as close as the Flyers would get in this game. Just 1:25 after tying the game, California regained the lead with a goal by Ron Harris. Bill Hicke followed up with another goal just 32 seconds later to quickly increase the lead to two.
Hicke scored again at 2:32 of the third period and Gerry Ehman added a goal at 6:51 to cap the scoring.
The four goal scorers — Harris, Hicke, Ehman and Douglas — each had three-point games. Bernie Parent, in goal for the Flyers, made 28 saves on 33 shots.
While the end result wasn't in the win column for the Flyers, it marked the first of many games to come. While in 1967 this was still an experiment that had some young players skeptical, Philadelphia would go on to prove to be a hotbed for hockey, and the result is a 50th season of hockey about to begin on Friday.
Ironically, the Flyers 50th season will open in Los Angeles, CA, just a few hundred miles south of Oakland, where it all began on this day 49 years earlier.
