Of all the new faces on display Friday night — six total on the Carolina Hurricanes roster — none looked better or took less time to introduce themselves than William Carrier.

The free agent signing, playing alongside Jordan Staal and Jordan Martinook in Jesper Fast’s spot, placed the puck cleanly on Staal’s stick in the crease for the first goal of the season after Martinook’s troubles saw him shoot it down without an assist.

That ended up being the only goal in a 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. The absent-minded Hurricanes were thwarted by a failed power play and a hat trick of sorts from Nikita Kucherov, with the second and third goals both coming into empty nets.

It would be easy to say that Carrier stood out compared to the rest of the roster, but that line stood on its own.

“That line was good,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “You can read the rest. I honestly don’t know what I saw for most of the game.”

And everything started so well.

Staal, who so often did hard work for the benefit of others, was the beneficiary this time not six minutes into the season. Carrier was signed to play in this spot at Fast Out for the foreseeable future, and he couldn’t have fit in better. Maybe even too tight.

Because his ability to get pucks and make plays – and he also nearly tied the score late in the third period before Kucherov made the play save – might be a better fit higher up the lineup, especially with the Jesperi Kotkaniemi-Martin Necas- Jack Roslovic The defensive line was ineffective, although in defense of the players they didn’t have much time together in the preseason and were far from alone.

Carrier wasn’t the only newcomer to impress under difficult circumstances. Sean Walker’s game is polished and the only problem he will have playing with Shayne Gostisbehere is that neither is particularly tall. And there was another big positive: Frederik Andersen was sharp in goal, especially in a two-save sequence just before Staal’s goal and a stop on Kucherov immediately after.

Then there’s right wing Andrei Svechnikov, perhaps the most important variable in determining the Hurricanes’ ceiling this year. There is another level to his game. The only question is whether he can do it, and on Friday he came close.

He was arguably the Hurricanes’ best player in the first 40 minutes, but failed to convert on a completely open 2-on-1 in the first period – exactly the kind of chance the Hurricanes desperately need to get him more often comes to a conclusion.

That all-around game would be taken away from him every night, no question, but he wasn’t selected second overall to be a good all-around winger. To resort to an old political chestnut: It’s the goals, stupid.

“That’s what he can do,” Brind’Amour said. “But we need more than just flashlights from all these guys.”

Combine that with an anemic power play and a typically flawless performance at the net from Andrei Valisevsky, and you end up with a goal in a game that felt like a race against two from the start. That’s not all about Svechnikov, of course, but it was the kind of night where top-notch skill made the difference, and it was. Kucherov scored Tampa’s game-winning goal on the power play before adding to his stats in the final three minutes.

It’s unwise to draw too many conclusions from the opening game of the season, but it’s always a little unsettling to see one of the season’s pressing questions in such a bright spotlight from the start. Especially on a night when the Hurricanes needed more, from him and almost everyone else.

However, not Carrier and his teammates. If there was a problem with the way he worked with Staal and Martinook, it might just be that he wouldn’t stay with them long.

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