Bryz fed up with scrutiny in Philly...

[OccamsRazor]

WINNING CURES EVERYTHING!!!

TILL THAT HAPPENS THERE IS NO REST FOR THE WEARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I DON'T CARE IF HE SIGNED FOR 10 YEARS FOR $10!!!!

YOU MUST WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!ALL HE HAS TO DO IS DUPLICATE QUICK'S SUCCESS AND WE'LL ALL BE HAPPY!!!

NOT TO MUCH TO ASK RIGHT?

Edited May 19, 2012 by OccamsRazor

[doom88]

@OccamsRazor

Asking WAY too much of Bryz. Start with #1 quality play, then work up to daily miracles.

[Flyingswede]

@doom88

I don't get the "feel bad for him". HE is the one that wanted the BIG bucks AND LONG term contract. I don't give a flying eff his is poor ego is injured because the fans scrutinize his game. They don't make 10M in one year of 51m over 9 years. Cry me an effing river.

I will never be able to get behind this guy.

Breezy first year with the Flyers: 33W-16L-7OTL-6SOL, salary> 10M

GAA: 2.48, Sv Pctg: .909

Bobs first year with the Flyers: 28W-13L-8OTL-0SOL, salary> 1.75m

GAA: 2.59, SV Pctg: .915

If I was Breezy I would STFU and go cash my checks and do the best to prepare for a better year- of just say eff off to NHL and go play in the KHL (where team Russia did NOT want him for the World Championships!).

I agree but at the same time, how much invovled is he in his contract signing? I guess a agent did all the work and telling Bryz what to do... I think bryz would have sign anything becouse the he havent a clue.

[aziz]

People eat this slop up and look like fools for ripping our own players, IMO. What a stupid mentality to pile on OUR goalie when the guy is just being honest. Look past any positive, focus only on negatve. Repeat cycle. It's almost half this forum too, pretty sad.

look past what positive? what positive is there that we should focus on? that bryzgalov said he would try to be better next season? i mean, i'm glad that bryzgalov doesn't want to suck again, but...i don't know how much control he really has over that. i bet every crappy goalie doesn't want to be a crappy goalie anymore, but that doesn't make it so, does it?

look, if a player on the flyers' roster is freaking brutal, it's ok to say they are freaking brutal. it isn't pretty sad, it's calling a sieve spade a sieve spade. i'd be ok with sitting back going, "aww, well, at least he says he'll try harder next time" if his contract didn't eat up almost 10% of the team's salary cap and stretch into the distant future. as it is, the team has an anchor padlocked to it's ankle, and i'm not impressed that that anchor wishes it weighed less.

[flyerrod]

as it is, the team has an anchor padlocked to it's ankle, and i'm not impressed that that anchor wishes it weighed less.

So THAT'S why his lateral movement was so slow............

[OccamsRazor]

@OccamsRazor

Asking WAY too much of Bryz. Start with #1 quality play, then work up to daily miracles.

I know chill just having fun....

[doom88]

I know chill just having fun....

The Internet doesn't communicate sarcasm well. I meant it in good fun, not bent out of shape.

[OccamsRazor]

The Internet doesn't communicate sarcasm well. I meant it in good fun, not bent out of shape.

Looks like a HELL of goaltending showdown...Lundqvist vs Quick...i feel the edge goes to Quick he to me is playing OUT HIS MIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[terp]

seems in the fans/media eye he can't win. He talks to much and veryone is on him. He doesn't talk and everyone is on him... What the F would you do? Take 25 million LESS because you were worried about what everyone else thinks about you just so you don't have to talk? Ridiculous...

You go on about "fans/media" as if somehow I embody both. I'm one fan, who pointed out that the renewed attention (weeks ago now, but whatever) was because once again he chose his words carelessly when speaking to the media. What would I do? I would choose my words more carefully so that no one could construe my statements as intending to bash Flyers teammates, fans or the Philly media. I would also assume that I need to exercise greater caution until my play reflected my contract.

[doom88]

Why you hef to be mad? It's just game!

[Bakanekimiwa]

You go on about "fans/media" as if somehow I embody both. I'm one fan, who pointed out that the renewed attention (weeks ago now, but whatever) was because once again he chose his words carelessly when speaking to the media. What would I do? I would choose my words more carefully so that no one could construe my statements as intending to bash Flyers teammates, fans or the Philly media. I would also assume that I need to exercise greater caution until my play reflected my contract.

he IS russian and his grasp of the subtleties of our language are probably not great. you could argue that he should just not speak with the media at all. or you could argue that he should just keep it to very simple hockey cliches. but, he's a person who likes to talk to people. anybody, it seems. he's just not made out to keep quiet. the things he says will be misconstrued.

[terp]

he IS russian and his grasp of the subtleties of our language are probably not great. you could argue that he should just not speak with the media at all. or you could argue that he should just keep it to very simple hockey cliches. but, he's a person who likes to talk to people. anybody, it seems. he's just not made out to keep quiet. the things he says will be misconstrued.

I'm sympathetic to the challenge he faces of dealing with the press in a language in which he's less than proficient. However, the last interview he granted that generated controversy was granted to a Russian journalist and was conducted in Russian. In that instance the problem wasn't the language but the comments, which again seemed to flirt with blaming others for his performance (the same type of comments that got him into hot water before).

[doom88]

The interview was still translated to English, and with reading, you lose inflection. Let's not go crazy over some lost in translation nonsense and reading too much in to things. People have a tendency to read what they want to read.

Let's fry Bryz for the undisputed items. Like his garbage play the entire season overall. Back breaking goals, crappy locker room teammate, no lateral movement, poor puck tracking, slow glove, lack of apparent effort or emotion, peewee stick handling, etc. There are plenty of concrete items to work with.

[Vanflyer]

@Bakanekimiwa

Yeah, I know, but I was trying to be nice and the 'just in case' thing he threw the actual commerce back to me. The reality is that you could say the same for cherry hill / voorhees when you expand them. The point he was trying to make was just idiotic anyway.

[Vanflyer]

@Flyingswede

"I agree but at the same time, how much invovled is he in his contract signing? I guess a agent did all the work and telling Bryz what to do... I think bryz would have sign anything becouse the he havent a clue."

Your point is valid on the agent part. Yet, as flaky has he seems, Bryz is not stupid at all. We laugh at his wit and humor, but people fail to realize that is a sign of intelligence. He has a degree (which most hockey players do not).

Truthfully, I really like the guy. I like the fact that he signed a HUMONGOUS contract and has the balls to tell people that he does no give a **** what they think as he is human and is not a robot. He would be a guy I would invite to a bar hop with some of my buds as he would be witty, entertaining and thought provoking all in one. He is just not the guy that I would have chosen to lead my team in the net for 9 years.

See how I did that? I separated the personal from the professional. That is my point.

[flyerrod]

@Flyingswede

He is just not the guy that I would have chosen to lead my team in the net for 9 years.

I thought we only had EIGHT more years left..........there you go being overly dramatic again.....

Please note the proper use of the sarcasm font.......

[radoran]

look past what positive? what positive is there that we should focus on? that bryzgalov said he would try to be better next season? i mean, i'm glad that bryzgalov doesn't want to suck again, but...i don't know how much control he really has over that. i bet every crappy goalie doesn't want to be a crappy goalie anymore, but that doesn't make it so, does it?

look, if a player on the flyers' roster is freaking brutal, it's ok to say they are freaking brutal. it isn't pretty sad, it's calling a sieve spade a sieve spade. i'd be ok with sitting back going, "aww, well, at least he says he'll try harder next time" if his contract didn't eat up almost 10% of the team's salary cap and stretch into the distant future. as it is, the team has an anchor padlocked to it's ankle, and i'm not impressed that that anchor wishes it weighed less.

Positives?

How about 2.28/.909 in February?

How about 1.43/.947 in March. Crunch time. When you need your goalie playing on the top of his game heading into theplayoffs. 1.43/.947. And four shutouts.

How about 2.32/.910 against Atlantic Division opponents?

How about 15-6-3 after the All Star Game with 1.84/.929?

Yes, it's fair to call a player out who is playing poorly. It's not fair to pretend that that player's successes never happened.

[doom88]

@Flyingswede

See how I did that? I separated the personal from the professional. That is my point.

Good. More people need to remember that.

[aziz]

@radoran

the thread is about an article that is, start to finish, bryzgalov talking about hard his life is and how unfair everyone is to him. that was the context of my "what positives" question.

as for his good statistical run for 2 months, yeah, i can't argue with it. it's there. 'course, i'm not sure how much we should be impressed by a 2 month stretch when the overall body of work was so suspect. it occurs to me that boucher posted a 2.43/.915 after the all star break in 2010-11, and bob went 2.25/.924 in jan and feb of that year. nikolai khabibulin was awesome for two months, starting the season off with a 1.87/.935 in his first 17 games, and the lowly steve mason managed to post a .916 in march and april while fighting off an average of 37 shots per game. and let's not forget boucher's 2-month window in '04, 1.56/.946 with 5 shutouts.

in each case, the short period of very good only lasted a...short period. boucher won't fool anyone as anything more than a backup. khabibulin is about 436 years removed from being effective overall, steve mason is a disaster who fooled a lot of people out of the gate, and bob's overall season last year was deemed bad enough that trucks full of money had to be pulled up to bryzgalov's dacha.

in each case, the small sample of quality results were bookended by something else entirely. i don't pretend that bryzgalov's sucess didn't happen. a whole lot of very "something else entirely" happened, too. don't pretend it didn't. i suppose the question of which is more indicative of the goalie's ability is something we each decide for ourselves. for me, bryzgalov's drastic physical and technical limitations suggest the results of feb and march were the anomaly. pucks can hit a guy in the chest for a while and produce impressive numbers, but if he can't skate and falls apart under any kind of scrutiny, those numbers will be transient. as we saw.

[JackStraw]

the thread is about an article that is, start to finish, bryzgalov talking about hard his life is and how unfair everyone is to him

To each his own I guess, that's not what I got from the article. I got that he struggled with the attention and the scrutiny, but that he understands it and wants to work on dealing with it:

"I need to keep working. I understand the fans. They paid their money and want the show."

"Now I know what it's like to be a goaltender in Philadelphia. Maybe from the outside it looks like there's nothing to it. You only realize it on your own."

"I will not give in when facing difficulties," he said. "I have eight more years to work under my contract with Philadelphia. If I am criticized, then I will endure it. You can't tie up people's tongues. It is their right to let the emotions go."

I don't actually see him complaining about his life there, and I don't think I saw the word "unfair" at all. The title of the article states that Bryz is "fed up" but I don't actually see a quote where he says that either. Is it possible that people could be... over-reacting just a bit here? Nah! Philly fans and media never do that!

Edited May 20, 2012 by JackStraw

[aziz]

@JackStraw

well, maybe we're bringing our own spin to it, but this sounds more than a little woe-is-me, no?

""What I lived through this season I wouldn't wish to an enemy....It is difficult...my face is everywhere. Everyone is talking about me. 'Bryzgalov played well,' 'Philadelphia won, but Bryz made a mistake again,' 'Yes, he wasn't scored against but could have been'. . . Guys, but who doesn't make mistakes? And how many [pucks] did I catch before then? But very few notice that. People are so concentrated on the negative that they only see the bad in me. But I think you need to be kinder to each other."

'course, i might be bringing some of the rest of the interview into my interpretation, stuff that wasn't in the philly.com article.

"Yes, I made a mistake. But when a player makes a pass and the opponent intercepts it, no one says anything, right? I understand that I am being criticized by everyone but the lazy. But I am trying not to think about it."

"I don't even know. I got very tired this season, to be honest…"

"It's just they scored and we didn't. We hit the post and theirs went in. That's the whole difference."

"But let's pretend that New Jersey didn't score a weird goal but some other one. What's the difference? I don't get discouraged when a forward misses an empty net. 'Damn, if you can't score [in these situations], what's the point to keep playing?'

i dunno. take from it what you will. me, i read it as a dude who can't figure why people would hold him to a standard, and feels he is being a rightous crusader in the face of unfair attention and critique. it is just a game, so who cares, he seems to say. *seems* being an operative word, i understand. that's what i take from it. poor ilya. we harshed his buzz.

[JackStraw]

@ - it sounds pretty much like what Schmidt is talking about in Rad's sig. My guess is that every pro athlete who has gone through the grinder in Philly feels the same things that Bryz is talking about. They just know enough to keep their mouths shut.

[radoran]

@radoran

the thread is about an article that is, start to finish, bryzgalov talking about hard his life is and how unfair everyone is to him. that was the context of my "what positives" question.

as for his good statistical run for 2 months, yeah, i can't argue with it. it's there. 'course, i'm not sure how much we should be impressed by a 2 month stretch when the overall body of work was so suspect. it occurs to me that boucher posted a 2.43/.915 after the all star break in 2010-11, and bob went 2.25/.924 in jan and feb of that year. nikolai khabibulin was awesome for two months, starting the season off with a 1.87/.935 in his first 17 games, and the lowly steve mason managed to post a .916 in march and april while fighting off an average of 37 shots per game. and let's not forget boucher's 2-month window in '04, 1.56/.946 with 5 shutouts.

in each case, the short period of very good only lasted a...short period. boucher won't fool anyone as anything more than a backup. khabibulin is about 436 years removed from being effective overall, steve mason is a disaster who fooled a lot of people out of the gate, and bob's overall season last year was deemed bad enough that trucks full of money had to be pulled up to bryzgalov's dacha.

in each case, the small sample of quality results were bookended by something else entirely. i don't pretend that bryzgalov's sucess didn't happen. a whole lot of very "something else entirely" happened, too. don't pretend it didn't. i suppose the question of which is more indicative of the goalie's ability is something we each decide for ourselves. for me, bryzgalov's drastic physical and technical limitations suggest the results of feb and march were the anomaly. pucks can hit a guy in the chest for a while and produce impressive numbers, but if he can't skate and falls apart under any kind of scrutiny, those numbers will be transient. as we saw.

True, but Boucher has never been nominated for the Vezina and Khabibulin, like Bryzgalov, has his name on the Stanley Cup. Steve Mason plays in Columbus.and did actually win the Calder...

I was also, literally, the first person on this board to compare Bryzgalov's shutout streak to Boucher's.

I have not predicted future success, I have said, however that it is possible. I am not one that is declaring, unequivocally, that he is absolutely incapable of being an NHL goaltender.

[radoran]

@ - it sounds pretty much like what Schmidt is talking about in Rad's sig. My guess is that every pro athlete who has gone through the grinder in Philly feels the same things that Bryz is talking about. They just know enough to keep their mouths shut.

Sean Burke's famous line about the second-happiest day of his life being when he was dealt to Philadelphia and the happiest was when he was traded away says a lot, too.

This is a fanbase that ran a guy out of town for putting up 1.85/.936 and 2.14/.909 in back to back playoffs after 2.05/.921 and 1.83/.925 in the regular seasons and maligns him to this day.

[aziz]

I am not one that is declaring, unequivocally, that he is absolutely incapable of being an NHL goaltender.

true. that would be me.

edit: ok, "incapable of being an NHL goaltender" is a bit much. "incapable of being an above average goaltender" is more my true feeling. like i've said before, my opinion on his past success is that he benefited from defenses built to order. the flyers could replicate those conditions, but that would mean suter and no carle, it would mean no more dmen pinching on the forecheck, and it would mean a tether on the forwards reducing or eliminating the quick transition game that is so much a part of their offensive success recently.

anyway, my initial post about "what positives" was, again, responding to the guy who was upset we weren't taking the positives from the article being discussed. because i didn't see any. at best, i saw a guy shrugging failure off like it was no big deal and saying he'd try harder next season.

Edited May 20, 2012 by noodl