Bryz another shutout!

[flyercanuck]

I'm with aziz here.

Bryz was the worst goalie in the entire league. He was making a fortune and playing like a bad beer league goalie. He wasn't some kid who had to learn the ropes of the NHL and get up to speed. He didn't need to learn how to play with his new linemates...he's a goalie. He was also a veteran who came in with a big fat head and decided media darling was more important than what he was actually being paid, heck overpaid, to do.

Eat crow? None of us were wrong in calling him out. He sucked! He was terrible! He was gawd awful! He was funneling goals into the net. And blaming anyone but himself. Finally he realized it was on him, stopped his bs with the media and got his head on straight. If anyone should eat crow, its Bryzgalov.

That said, I'm glad he's playing well...it's about time.

[Irishjim]

as opposed to, say, the people who said jagr would be terrible. those people should be strung up.

sorry that mad me laugh

[Digityman]

Most of this forum needs to eat some serious crow. Guys with Bryzaster avatars, what a joke.

I was called a troll two months ago because I was saying he'd come around and that everyone was overreacting - and I was killed for it. You can't judge a guy based on half a season, especially coming from the west and the whole 24/7 ordeal.

Glad to see he came around and lets hope he rolls with this play into the playoffs.

Bryz's game is coming around. There's obviously no doubt about that.

However, don't forget that even with his recent stellar play, his SV% is still .908 which is good for 56th in the league.

His GAA is 2.53 --- 41st in the league.

When his numbers get into the top 30 in each category, I'll stop worrying that his recent success isn't just a momentary lapse in what has been one of the worst season performances by a Flyers' goalie in recent history.

[Green Man]

Pretty sad some of you are so stubborn you can't admit you jumped the gun on this guy and are so proud to have been such harsh critics. Sure he played bad, but you guys were ready to run him out of town in some jacked up mob mentality fashon. Panic buttons and knee-jerk responses rather than just relaxing and letting the season run it's coarse. Instant gratification or nothing, lordy.

Just busting some balls back for killing me back in Jan when I was trying to support the guy. Water under the bridge......

[JackStraw]

as opposed to, say, the people who said jagr would be terrible. those people should be strung up.

WHO WOULD SAY SUCH A THING???

[flyercanuck]

@Green Man

He played far worse than any of us could have imagined. He's now playing more like he should be for the money he's being paid. I'm not blaming him for taking the ridiculous contract he was offered, but there's no way in H.E. double hockey sticks any of us are going to like having him for NINE freaking years.

I was on the same side of the fence when we signed Briere and Pronger. Hows everyone liking those contracts right now?

Like was already mentioned, as hot as he's been, he's still ranked nowhere near where the top paid goalie in the NHL should be this year. He's not even ranked where an average goalie should be. Hopefully he stays reasonably hot for the remainder of the year. I'm not expecting shutouts every other game, just solid goaltending would be nice.

[Bakanekimiwa]

I welcome him with open arms but he left in more soft goals than Sandusky molested children for those first 45 games.....

good one... never heard that one before.

[Bakanekimiwa]

as opposed to, say, the people who said jagr would be terrible. those people should be strung up.

haha.. love it aziz...

[radoran]

I was on the same side of the fence when we signed Briere and Pronger. Hows everyone liking those contracts right now?

I don't mind the Briere one at all - especially as the other two "options" at the time were Drury and Gomez (who got more and stink more).

I hated the Pronger and Bryzgalov deals because of their length from the jump - it had nothing to do with the players themselves as much as mortgaging the future of the franchise on unstable commodities (a 35+ physical defenseman and a one-time Vezina nominee goaltender). That said, the Pronger contract bugged me more because I never did and still don't expect Bryz to finish out all nine years. Pronger's means they are committed to a 42-year-old $5M defenseman who may not even play the next four years.

I think the potential of nine years of "Bryzaster" - or the possibility of up-and-down play as we've seen - is not what we expected or wanted from the guy who was signed to be the franchise goaltender. I've been looking for the bright side all season and it's nice to see that he has really come into his own down the stretch. But I was going crazy watching the games...

Six months into the first season of this deal isn't any way to really evaluate it good or bad - I'm curious what some people with think six years from now with three more to play... But what I think we'll get more often than not is the 2.5 GGA/.910 SV% goaltender that Bryz has been throughout his career.

He's at 2.58 now with .908 and his career average is 2.53/.915

I think some people expected/hoped for a repeat of the 2.29/.921 year in Anaheim. And he has had three seasons as a starter with .920 or better SV% - including last year.

IMO, if the Flyers defense was a little tighter this season - if they hadn't lost a Hall of Fame captain defenseman they had built the defense around, for example - Bryz might be able to get down closer to 2 GAA and play .920 hockey in goal.

It just needs to be more consistent.

[idahophilly]

I was frustrated with him (and might be again) but defended him and was flamed for it... It's all good though! I have more tolerence...

[Bakanekimiwa]

briere and hartnell's deals are interesting to look at now. at the time they were signed, homey was universally panned just as he was with the pronger and bryz deals. granted, the pronger and bryz deals are much bigger deals just in terms of the years and the age(s) of the players.

however, there's definitely some similarities to the complaints that will be more and more interesting to see as time goes on. back then, though, 5 and 6 years were unfathomably long deals and both were severely 'overpaid'. i'm sure there will be some who will say that briere and hartnell are both still overpaid, but i don't believe so.

this just illustrates a point that we all seem to overlook here... a contract cannot be evaluated entirely based on one year... half a year or sometimes even 2 years of it's length. it's frustrating because we want immediate results as fans, but that's rarely how it works out.

back to the original point here... the briere and hartnell deals were largely looked at as 'mortgaging the future' and 'handicapping' the team with cap problems and no farm for the foreseeable future. i'm not going to go dig up the conversations from philly.com, but let's call a spade a spade, the sky was falling then just as it was when pronger and bryz signed their deals. and how do we view those deals now? i think they're 2 very good deals. briere has certainly underperformed his first year and this year, but the team around him has picked up the slack and we all know what he's capable of doing in the playoffs. hartnell was a bum for the last 3 or 4 years even. now he's giving us a year where he's actually being underpaid for his performance. at the end of the day, all we can hope is that it all evens out... but these deals perfectly illustrate how one needs to be patient and look at the big picture.

pronger's going to be LTIR for the remainder of his contract. while that sucks as far as needing to be cap compliant with his salary on day one of the season, his money is not entirely tied up. bryz will never play 9 years in philly, i think ALL parties were very much aware of this when they signed the deal. it's circumventing the cap and nothing less... same as pronger's deal. but, it does not completely screw up the flyers' future for years to come. and in the near term homer improved the team with both deals(if bryz plays to his career avgs).

we gave up youth and assets for pronger. .. paid a heavy price and then signed him for ridiculous years. everyone on the forum was convinced we were screwed for the next 9 years. we are not. our farm is in 17th rank up from 30th just last year.

in other words, these moves cannot be looked at in a vacuum.

[Podein25]

@Bakanekimiwa

@flyercanuck

As long as Briere shows up in the playoffs like he always does, I can live with his contract. I have developed mad respect for the little bugger.

[JackStraw]

the briere and hartnell deals were largely looked at as 'mortgaging the future' and 'handicapping' the team with cap problems and no farm for the foreseeable future

It could be that my memory isn't what it used to be (in fact I'm sure it isn't) but I don't really remember those deals being seen that way back then. At least on philly.com, everyone seemed to want Homer to sign one of the big three free agent centers and I don't remember any general unhappiness when it turned out to be Briere. And Hartnell was only 25 when the Flyers got him and was seen as the Knuble's eventual successor at power forward. And $4.2 million wasn't all that much (and seems like a bargain right now).

[Clarke2Leach]

Bryz's game is coming around. There's obviously no doubt about that.

However, don't forget that even with his recent stellar play, his SV% is still .908 which is good for 56th in the league.

His GAA is 2.53 --- 41st in the league.

When his numbers get into the top 30 in each category, I'll stop worrying that his recent success isn't just a momentary lapse in what has been one of the worst season performances by a Flyers' goalie in recent history.

To be fair, you should be using the "qualified" (at least 25 GP) goalie stats. It's misleading to compare his GAA to someone who's started a few games (likely against the dregs of the league) with Bryzgalov or any of the other starters. That would be like comparing his wins with Matt Hackett's and arguing that Bryz has played much better based on those numbers alone.

He's now 23rd among "qualified" goalies in GAA and 33rd in Save %. Still kinda sucks in a 30 team league, but I'm as glad as anyone that he's turned it around for this long.

[Podein25]

good point @Clarke2Leach

How is Manitoba doing? Still flat?

[Bakanekimiwa]

It could be that my memory isn't what it used to be (in fact I'm sure it isn't) but I don't really remember those deals being seen that way back then. At least on philly.com, everyone seemed to want Homer to sign one of the big three free agent centers and I don't remember any general unhappiness when it turned out to be Briere. And Hartnell was only 25 when the Flyers got him and was seen as the Knuble's eventual successor at power forward. And $4.2 million wasn't all that much (and seems like a bargain right now).

my memory is not so great either, but i do remember a lot of people thinking the hartnell deal was horrible. there was a lot of complaining that we should have gone after drury instead. as well, people thought $6.5m was waay too much for lil paul mccartney. i do remember these specific things as being very much on the complaint list at the time. i was very much in favor of all the moves, but i'm never one to be an armchair capologist.

[926]

@Green Man - Chief kept yelling 'block the shot' (BS) and now they do and goaltender sees his D respond to what coach is coaching so he try harder too. Then he makes hard saves down low with his stick on ice and then they help him by blocking more shots. It's like the old proverb about wheelbarrels on cobblestones, even the children catch the thieves who leave with your stock.

BS numbers in the most recent wins 15, 23, 18, 24, 15; they only had 3 for Bob in the NJ loss, and earlier losses against Pitt (14); Det (9); NYR (12 and 10).

[Clarke2Leach]

good point @Clarke2Leach

How is Manitoba doing? Still flat?

Hey Podein! Still flat but almost snowless which is something I never thought I'd say on March 14th. Might go up to PLUS 24 Celcius this weekend!

The Jets fans are getting a little anxious, but the warm weather will get them thinking about golf - just like their favorite players...

[hf101]

Bryz could become the first goalie in franchise history to register four straight shutouts and could set a club record for consecutive scoreless minutes when the Flyers face the Islanders on Thursday.