Another Bryz blank as Flyers rout Panthers

ILYA BRYZGALOV swears he blocked it out.

"I was so concentrated in the game, I didn't hear it," Bryzgalov said.

His teammates heard it. The sound of 19,675 chanting "Bryz, Bryz, Bryz" was unmistakable. It actually raised the hair on the necks of some of his teammates, who have traveled from arena to arena listening to the Bronx Cheers when Bryzgalov would finally make an easy save.

"It's good to hear that the fans are behind him and behind our team," Claude Giroux said. "I can't even imagine how hard it was for him at one point. He had a tough stretch. He was pretty much getting booed at home ice.

"Now, he's our best player. We need him to be our best player."

Bryzgalov is cautious.

"From hate to love in one step," Bryzgalov said of Flyers fans. "Then, the same in the other direction."

Can you blame him?

Finally, he is letting his performance do the talking. After games now, he has been all Bryzness. His mouth has barely been big enough to fit a puck in, let alone his foot. And with each win, the sample size of Bryzgalov's recent hot run becomes smaller and smaller. The trend is turning into the norm.

With just about a month left in the season, the depleted Flyers - skating without four top defensemen in Chris Pronger, Kimmo Timonen, Andrej Meszaros and Pavel Kubina - steamrolled a Florida Panthers team, 5-0, that looks like it is drowning in the Everglades.

All Bryzgalov did was post his second shutout of the week and his fourth of the season. It was the first time a Flyers goaltender posted multiple shutouts in the same week since Marty Biron did it in the final two games of the 2007-08 season.

Bryzgalov looks like a programmed Ivan Drago on the ice, putting up a virtual wall in front of the net as he flops and gobbles up every loose puck like it's a ruble.

Yes, the toothless Panthers made it look easy last night, as they may have netted a grand total of five quality scoring chances. It was the fourth time they have been shut out since Feb. 7.

And, it's always easy to look good when Jose "Five or More" Theodore lives up to his name in the other crease.

Still, any tip or deflection or rebound that would have been swatted in a month ago wasn't. Bryzgalov is now 7-2-1 (with one no-decision) with three shutouts, a 1.95 goals against-average and a .926 save percentage over his last 11 starts. He has started 10 consecutive games. And Bryzgalov is making a believer of not only Flyers fans but his teammates.

"If they cheered for me," Bryzgalov said, "it was very nice and kind from them."

Can the support from fans, buying into his rededication, pay dividends for Bryzgalov?

"There's no question, I think confidence always plays in for players," coach Peter Laviolette said. "He seems pretty locked in right now. He's preparing. He's going out. He's executing. And then he gets ready for the next one.

"He's more mechanical now. Not his game or anything, just what he's doing. He's dialed in from day-to-day."

Not coincidentally, the Flyers have won four straight games. And few teams around the league are more banged up than the Flyers right now.

The good news? Florida travels to South Philadelphia again 11 days from now, when the Flyers will gun for the season series sweep (4-0-0).

The bad news? As the Flyers continue to steal points on the back of Bryzgalov, they will continue to move up the standings, making a sixth-place finish and a matchup with the South-least Division leading Panthers less and less likely.

Instead, the Flyers (7-3-0 in their last 10) awake this morning to find themselves firmly in fifth place, with a two-point edge and one game in-hand over New Jersey.

Even so, watching Bryzgalov slowly win over a fickle fan-base is fascinating. It makes the first 5 months of the season seem so trivial.

"I woke up there on the bench and thought we were in Winnipeg," Scott Hartnell said. "We've always believed in Ilya here in our dressing room. I think he's obviously winning some fans. His confidence is growing and growing, and I don't think we've seen the best Bryz yet. It's awesome to see him do well."

Defenseman Brandon Manning made his NHL debut after being recalled from the Phantoms earlier in the day. Manning replaced Pavel Kubina, who sat out with an undisclosed upper-body injury that was not related to the puck to the face he took last Sunday in Washington . . . Jakub Voracek sat out as a precaution with a head injury, suffered in Tuesday's win over Detroit on that vicious hit from Niklas Kronwall that briefly knocked him unconscious . . . Matt Read passed Colorado's Gabriel Landeskog for the outright rookie lead in goals with his 19th of the season.

"I had to play. There were no more Czechs in the lineup. I should stay on the fourth line more. I don't mind it! Nobody touched me!"

- Jaromir Jagr, who started the night as a game-time decision with a hip injury, about the Flyers lineup missing fellow Czech Republic native Jakub Voracek. Jagr added his 18th goal of the season in the third period.