Flyers goalie Bryzgalov looks to home debut

For the Flyers, Wednesday's home opener against the Vancouver Canucks represents the beginning of a new era at the Wells Fargo Center.

Welcome to Ilyadelphia.

Ilya Bryzgalov, the gifted Russian goalie whose acquisition and signing caused the Great Makeover in the summer, will make his regular-season home debut as the Flyers try to start 3-0 for just the 11th time in franchise history.

Bryzgalov, 31, was so uptight about the pending opener that, after Tuesday's practice in Voorhees, he was doing a great impersonation of Al Pacino in Scarface.

After starting slowly in the preseason, Bryzgalov looked sharper in each exhibition game, and he is 2-0 in the first two regular-season contests with a 0.50 goals-against average and .977 save percentage - stopping 42 of 43 shots.

"The way he plays, he's always under control and never out of position," center Claude Giroux said. "He works hard, and when one of your best players has that attitude, obviously everybody is going to follow."

Max Talbot, the Flyers' new checking-line center, appreciates having a quality goalie on his side. He had one - Marc-Andre Fleury - when he was with Pittsburgh.

"It's huge," Talbot said. "You just look at our last game as an example, with what happened at the end of the second period."

He was referring to a clutch stop Bryzgalov made on Zach Parise's deflection in the closing seconds of the period, preserving the Flyers' 1-0 lead. They won, 3-0.

"There's a huge difference between going back to the locker room 1-1, or it's 1-0 with a big save and the momentum," Talbot said. "There's a big difference in that save and the whole game in general. That's what a good goalie is going to do. He's going to keep us in games and give us momentum with big saves."

Bryzgalov, who signed a nine-year, $51 million deal in the offseason, downplayed his impressive start, shifting the credit to his highly regarded defense.

"They eliminate big chances, and they're blocking shots," he said. "I can't say enough about how my teammates have played."

As for facing the Canucks, Bryzgalov said, "I have one word - excited."

Excited to build on Saturday's 3-0 victory in New Jersey, which ended the Flyers' 85-game shutout drought.

Veteran winger Jaromir Jagr, who will also make his regular-season home debut on Wednesday, was asked his early impressions of Bryzgalov.

"Oh, what a signing! He's got nine years left, huh?" he said with a smile. "It's only two games, he has 900 games left."

Jagr, 39, is back in the NHL after three seasons in Russia. This is his 17th NHL season.

"I didn't see the last three years, so I don't know if you guys were missing goaltending here, but in my experience, it's tough to win something if you don't have the goaltender," Jagr said. "You need to have a [strong] goaltender, especially in the playoffs. There's not many goals scored, and the goaltender will make a huge difference. And if he plays like this. . .."

Jagr's voice trailed off and he didn't finish the sentence. It wasn't necessary.