Flyers look for more consistent effort

TORONTO - After the Flyers ended a four-game losing streak with an uneven 4-1 win over lowly Edmonton on Tuesday, defenseman Matt Carle compared his team's plight to the sport Arnold Palmer helped make famous.

"I think the whole season is a work in progress," Carle said. "It's kind of like a golf game. You never are going to be perfect. There is always some aspect of the game that you want to try to work on."

In their previous four games, the Flyers went double-bogey (loss to Ottawa, the East's worst team), bogey (loss to Toronto), bogey (loss to Buffalo), triple-bogey (7-0 embarrassment to the New York Rangers).

Some of the players would call Tuesday's win a bogey, too, because the Flyers took the foot off the gas after they dominated the first period.

Edmonton, the NHL's worst team, controlled most of the final two periods, outshooting the Flyers, 24-10.

"We are not in the position to do that right now - ever, really," coach Peter Laviolette said about the team's going into a defensive shell. "We're looking for a complete 60 minutes."

Thursday night, they get another chance, playing the playoff-hungry Maple Leafs in Toronto.

The Flyers will be trying to improve on a sporadic effort in their 3-2 loss to visiting Toronto a week ago. In that game, former Leaf Kris Versteeg scored twice to give the Flyers a 2-1 lead. But Toronto rallied, and Darryl Boyce took the puck away from defenseman Sean O'Donnell and scored the game-winner with 4 minutes, 30 seconds left.

The Flyers gave Toronto seven power plays, disrupting their flow and allowing the Leafs to slowly take control. Toronto goalie James Reimer, who was outstanding in that win, appeared to injure his glove hand in the Leafs' 2-1 overtime loss to the New York Islanders on Tuesday. He was examined by the Leafs trainers and allowed to remain in the game, but he was holding an ice bag on it after the defeat.

Though acknowledging there are still flaws in the Flyers' game, center Danny Briere called Tuesday's victory "a step in the right direction. We have a team [Toronto] that came here and beat us the last time. . . . Toronto is never an easy game, so we'll have to step it up even more" than Tuesday.

Toronto, which began Wednesday four points out of the Eastern Conference's eighth and final playoff spot, has just one regulation loss in its last 11 games (6-1-4).

Carcillo factor. Is the Flyers' 30-8-3 record with Dan Carcillo a coincidence? Or do they feed off his energy?

Without Carcillo, they are just 11-11-3.

Carcillo, who sat out the previous three games, played on a line with Mike Richards and Versteeg and had a team-high four hits in the win over Edmonton.

Breakaways. Because several players are recovering from the flu, Laviolette gave the team its second day off in the last three days. . . . The Flyers are 21-10-3 at home and 20-9-3 on the road. . . . Briere, who ended an eight-game goalless streak on Tuesday, on Laviolette's keeping his line (with Scott Hartnell and Ville Leino) intact: "I'm grateful he kept us together, and hopefully it's going to keep going that way for a long time." . . . Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, coming off a strong performance, is expected to get the call against Toronto. . . . Reimer has made nine straight starts.