This season, he is 0-4 and has stopped just 2 of 10 shots (.200) in shootouts.
And his confidence has plummeted.
"To be honest, I feel that right now during the shootout, it's like a soccer net behind me," Bryzgalov said after practice in Voorhees.
Bryzgalov has started to play solidly, allowing no more than one goal in five of his last seven starts. And thanks to his shutout in Tuesday's 1-0 shootout loss to the New York Islanders, his save percentage has reached .900 for the first time since Dec. 13.
But his shootout woes have continued, and they are puzzling when you consider he stopped 45 of 62 shots (.726) with Phoenix in 2009-10.
Asked whether playing in a different conference had affected him, Bryzgalov was blunt.
"I don't think so," he said. "It's not for the East or the West . . . it's here in the head."
Flyers shooters are only 5 for 17 (29.4 percent) in shootouts this season, tied for 17th in the 30-team league.
All of which explains why the Flyers devoted the first part of Wednesday's practice - before the clown got into the net - on shootouts. Bryzgalov played at one end, Sergei Bobrovsky was at the other.
At one point, Bryzgalov, wearing new pads, stopped seven in a row before Wayne Simmonds beat him with a backhander high into the net.
"There's going to be a lot of games coming down the stretch where we're going to need to get the extra point," Simmonds said. "I don't know why we're so bad at shootouts. We've got some pretty talented players. For whatever the reason is, we can't put the puck in the net and we can't keep it out of our own."
Overall, Flyers goalies have allowed 10 goals in 16 shootout shots. That .375 save percentage is the worst in the NHL.
Bryzgalov, who said he practiced shootouts for half an hour a day when he played in Russia, said he doesn't study other players' shootout tendencies.
The reason?
