Some Things Never Change. Flyers 5, Penguins 3

Nick Spaling and Marcel Goc recorded their first goals as Penguins, but it was hardly enough on Tuesday as the Flyers did what the Flyers do, beating the Penguins at home, this time by a 5-3 final.

Dupuis also scored for the Penguins, who came within a goal late in the third on Goc's tally but failed to convert with an empty net.

The loss moves the Penguins to 3-2-0 on the year.

Sean Couturier, Mark Streit, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, RJ Umberger and Matt Read scored for the Flyers, who earned their second win in seven games this year.

Not much to collect from this one if you want to feel good about things. The Flyers forced the Penguins into the characteristic mistakes of the last few years, converted on those chances in characteristic Flyers fashion, and left the Penguins to mop up and try to make good on the next contest.

Even without the requisite snipping and retaliation that used to highlight these games, the Flyers' goals looked so familiar they could have been lifted from a highlight tape from 2012. Odd-man breaks? Check. Overpassing and miscues converted? Check. The last thing someone should have checked was whether Daniel Briere and Jaromir Jagr had sneaked into other players' jerseys and hopped onto the ice for a few of those markers.

Rivalry aside, the Penguins are still learning how to play the new system, and that showed in the uncertain efforts given at times throughout the game.

The Penguins are a team that is still thinking more than it is reacting, and that's going to lead to games like this one, where the learning process forces you to eat a few losses in October in order to be better prepared for the postseason.

Onto the next. Detroit Thursday.