Maple Leafs-Flyers Preview

Ilya Bryzgalov has been real good at home lately, as long as his Philadelphia Flyers don't end up in a shootout. James Reimer had been mostly awful in road games until his most recent one. Bryzgalov could square off against Reimer and the Toronto Maple Leafs in Philadelphia on Thursday night in a matchup of goaltenders who had briefly lost their No. 1 jobs but have played well lately. While the Flyers (30-16-7) look to halt a season-high three-game losing streak, the Maple Leafs (28-20-6) try to bounce back from their first regulation loss in seven games. Toronto won in Philadelphia in the teams' only meeting of the season, 4-2 on Oct. 24, but backups Jonas Gustavsson and Sergei Bobrovsky were in net. Bryzgalov has beaten the Maple Leafs all three times he's faced them, stopping 62 of 64 shots, and he's 4-0-3 in eight home games since the calendar flipped to 2012. All three defeats came in shootouts, with Bryzgalov stopping just two of the opponents' seven shots. He's turned aside all but two of the 77 shots he's faced in regulation and overtime of his last four home games. The offseason acquisition posted his first shutout since Oct. 8 and first at home in a Flyers uniform Tuesday, but he let the New York Islanders score on both of their shootout attempts in a 1-0 defeat. "He played well, made the saves that he had to and we put a lot of shots in front of him," Claude Giroux told the Flyers' official website. "He likes to get his room and he challenged a lot of shots. I think we got to do a better job of screening more." A struggling Bryzgalov was splitting time with Bobrovsky for a month-long stretch that went into late January - even getting benched for the Winter Classic - but has reclaimed the No. 1 job with a 1.69 goals-against average over his last eight games. Reimer lost Toronto's No. 1 job last month - he had only one start in January - after losing seven of 11 games in December while posting a 3.23 GAA. However, he started the team's first three games this month and won them all, including two shutouts. He had gone 1-4-1 with a 4.02 GAA in eight road starts before making 49 saves in a 5-0 win at Ottawa on Saturday. Reimer was given the night off Tuesday as Toronto lost 2-1 at Winnipeg despite Phil Kessel's 30th goal. Kessel has four goals and three assists over the last three games. The Maple Leafs had been 5-0-1 in their previous six before losing Tuesday. "It was disappointing. I felt like we had the chances and we controlled most of the play," Reimer said. "We just couldn't find any good scoring chances in tight." While Reimer has allowed five goals in splitting two career starts versus the Flyers, Gustavsson lost his two career starts against them while giving up 10 goals. Toronto has not allowed a power-play goal in any of its opponents' 24 chances in 2012. The Flyers had scored on the power play in seven consecutive games until getting shut out Tuesday for the first time since mid-December. However, they finished with 45 shots and didn't come away discouraged. "It's disappointing but at least we're playing the right way," said Danny Briere, who returned after missing six games with a concussion. "... You just gotta keep your heads up."