I have no issue with Bryzgalov having some bad games. It happens to everyone, especially when adjusting to a new team, city, and system. For the same reasons, I don't blame a guy for perhaps taking a few wrong steps with the media. I also can't blame a guy for a weird personality.
Yesterday, however, with Bryzgalov announcing that he is not starting and is happy to be sipping tea on the bench, crosses the line. It is childish and disrespectful.
Bryzgalov's mega-signing this offseason isn't working out too well at this point. His stats are not good, and he is dealing with the media pressure of Philadelphia poorly. In evaluating the situation as a whole, a few things have to be separated out.
Statement 1: It's a bad and significant sign that Bobrovsky was chosen to start the Winter Classic.
WRONG. The media was implying that the starting goalie for the winter classic was some momentous decision, as if it were the super bowl and you need your starting QB, or a big baseball playoff match and you need your ace on the hill. For all the media hype, the game was still just a midseason regular season match, and there was no indication Laviolette and Tortorella were treating it as any more than that. Last post, I said Bob needed a run out of starts. This is precisely that.
Statement 2: The Flyers should've named Bob the number one goalie in the offseason and signed a cheap backup.
WRONG. This is a ridiculous claim in my opinion. The Flyers needed to do something in the offseason to try and make a more permanent solution in goal. How can people forget last year's playoffs so quickly, in which it was an utter embarrassment with the Flyers going through 3 goalies in one round, and had to repeatedly pull their starting goalie in the first period.
By any objective measure, the Flyers would've been crazy to anoint Bob their undisputed number this season. This is not a knock on Bob, who has a promising, if uncertain, NHL future. The fact is this; he was slated to spend last season in the AHL, but was given a chance due to injuries early in the season and seized the moment. He played his best hockey in November, but faded. Laviolette gave him the keys to the team, and nearly every start down the stretch, however Bob finished the season winless in 7 starts, getting pulled in the first period of two must win games. Bob entered this offseason, as a 23 year old goalie with obvious flaws still in his game (going down too early), with ONE season of experience on a north american rink, who faded in crunch time, and was winless in 6 playoff appearances. This is the guy to be named the #1 for a team expecting to make a playoff run? That's ridiculous.
Statement 3: The Bryzgalov contract was a huge mistake.
???? This one is too early to tell. While the Flyers had to do something in net, they had options other than signing the most expensive goalie out there to a 9 year deal. Also, the fact that they chose to sign a player to 9-year contract appears to indicate the organization judged and concluded that Bobrovsky was not the long term solution. So far, it has not worked out as the Flyers hoped. It's way too early to give up on Bryzgalov, and the Flyers have already hitched their wagon to him without any clear way out from the arrangement they've created. There is years worth of evidence that Bryzgalov is a capable goalie, but his current schtick is getting tired and the team is still looking for an arrangement that works for all parties.
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