Who Does Bryz Blame Tonight?

[OH1FlyersFan]

This is just sad.

[Vincent05]

Lavy for playing him too much.

[Samifan]

the puck for being too small and made of rubber so it bounces alot.

[Spinorama]

Lavy for playing him too much.

at the beginning of the season everyone talked about how much of a horse this guy is, hence why we needed to trade Bob, can't develop him only playing at most 20 games a season. Then about a month ago it was speculated that Bob was stealing too many games from Bryz... man, I'm not sure how many more times we can spin this record before it plays a good tune...

[OH1FlyersFan]

The way things are going, I hope Bob steals as many games as he possibly can from Bryz.

[Vincent05]

@Spinorama

Me either Spin, I guess everyone's trying to make excuses for Bryz to turn it around but now we run out. Each game that he play's in just frustrates the hell out me more as I would like to think this is the game he turns it around. It's not even close as I see he gets worst, he leaves fat rebound chances left and right and sees the shot comming but isn't squared to the shooters so a minor deflection or not gets by him. I just think he needs a benching as he's lost 4 games in a row, give Bob a shot now and make Bryz earn his way back in net. If the goalies continue to faulter I see no reason in trading for a dman as we aren't going anywhere.

Edited December 28, 2011 by Vincent05

[terp]

This is just sad.

Gervais' and Stamkos goals were horrible. Lecavalier's goal was stoppable. He's getting worse with all the work.

[terp]

I'm not sure how many more times we can spin this record before it plays a good tune...

It is reaching the point where you can't justify putting this guy in for most of the starts because be's the "starter" and the job is his to lose. He's putrid and directionless. You can't keep starting a guy who plays like this, no matter how much he earns. He's getting worse, not better. The "give him a lot of work and he'll play well" notion isn't working.

[TedZep]

The Flyers scored one lonely goal, started getting cute and stopped taking shots. That being said, swap goalies and the Flyers win.

[bernardmarcel1]

@TedZep - after all the debate the past week over "to Bryz or not to Bryz" - it's painfully clear to me after the game in Dallas that he's a frigging momentum killer to this team. They're rediculously outshooting TB yet its somehow 1-1 after the first period. I expected the Flyers to keep steamrolling - PP to start the 2nd, its rarely been a problem for them to make up some goals this season. Then after its 2-1, you could just see the frustration of the whole team, *especially* Lavi. Everyone's posture just changed. Bryz is officially in everyone's head now.

Bob let in a tough goal in Dallas early, then he settled in & let his team get back into the game. This time was reversed - the Flyers had all the momentum & Bryz pissed it all away.

[Digityman]

Maybe he is starting to get it?

Ilya Bryzgalov was so angry that he was talking to himself.

Sitting in his stall with his skates on inside the Flyers' locker room at the St. Pete Times Forum, Bryzgalov was trying to come up with answers for his latest ebb in a season full of ups and downs.

This time, it was after perhaps his worst performance as a Flyer, when he allowed four goals on the first 10 shots he saw, en route to a 5-1 hurtin' put on by the Lightning.

He didn't know quite how to describe his performance.

"Outstanding," Bryzgalov said, dripping with sarcasm. "What do you think? We lose, 5-1. After 4-2 and 6-0. How do you think I feel about my game? What do you think?"

Now, all Bryzgalov needs is to check his iPhone Compass app, the one that helped him get out of the woods earlier in the season.

On the heels of a seven-game winning streak to start the month, the Flyers have lost four of their last five, being outscored, 18-5, in those four losses. The only game in that stretch that Bryzgalov did not start was the only game the Flyers won. Then again, Bryzgalov has had stretches of 5-0-1 and 6-0-0 this season.

Overall, Bryzgalov's save percentage has dipped to .890 and his goals-against average has climbed to 3.01. Only Michal Neuvirth, Dwayne Roloson, Steve Mason and Marty Brodeur have a worse save percentage with at least 16 games played.

When asked whether he was worried about Bryzgalov's play, Flyers coach Peter Laviolette did not exactly give his $51 million man a vote of confidence.

"In the end, I think we can all be a little bit better," Laviolette said. "We can all do a better job here."

It was just the fourth time the Flyers have lost back-to-back games this season. They have not lost three straight at any point.

With the loss, the Flyers enter tomorrow night's contest tied in points with Pittsburgh for second in the Atlantic Division. They could slide from first to third in the division - and fifth place in the Eastern Conference - in only 8 days.

"We just didn't score on our chances," Jaromir Jagr said. "We played most of the game in their zone. Everything went our way 2 weeks ago. Now it looks like nothing goes our way."

Last night, the shot count seemed to tell the story. Combining the first and third periods, the Flyers outshot Tampa Bay by a total of 29-8. In that middle frame, the Flyers managed only three shots to the Lightning's eight.

"We lost our identity a little bit in the second period," Laviolette said. "It went from what was a good period to a period where we sat back and didn't move."

Then, in the third period, with the Lightning already clinging to a 4-1 lead, the Flyers had little wiggle room in front of Mathieu Garon.

"It doesn't really matter if you outplay them or not," Jagr said. "The goal is to score more goals to win the hockey game. When they had the lead, they could do anything they want."

That shot count, instead, says more about the Flyers' own end.

"We were aware that they are a good team and if you fool around, you will get in trouble," Bryzgalov said. "I think the team played really well. Their goalie played an outstanding game. Our goaltender, me by myself, needs to be better. That's the bottom line."

Philly.com

[canoli]

Then after its 2-1, you could just see the frustration of the whole team, *especially* Lavi. Everyone's posture just changed.

It sure did.

When you're in their zone 90% of the period you expect to score more than 1, so there was frustration already. But on a harmless draw, a shot from 15-feet out gets deflected the tiniest bit - and Bryz lets it sail by him. That's deflating. At the other end Garon is swallowing everything they throw at him so even though the shots were 17-4 in the 1st period it was probably a tough intermission.

But like you said the Flyers don't have much trouble scoring goals, so there's nothing to worry about....except then Bryz swats yet another juicy rebound out in front of him...he loses sight of it, it ends up on Stamkos' stick and - bing, bang it's 2-1.

2-1 is nothing to get crazy over of course. But when you see how they went in and you factor in the frustration on offense...It was pretty easy to see we were in for a rout after that crappy goal.

An embarrassing performance by Bryzgalov - at least he took the blame this time instead of telling his teammates what they're doing wrong...(like he's done twice already).

Edited December 28, 2011 by canoli

[TedZep]

Maybe Bryzgalov just got cold and bored standing in his own end all alone for those long stretches.

[Mad Dog]

That's deflating. At the other end Garon is swallowing everything they throw at him so even though the shots were 17-4 in the 1st period it was probably a tough intermission.

And that's the part that makes me want to beat my head against the wall more than anything. Garon!!!! Fricking, useless Garon!!!! I don't even want to go to salarygeek.com, or wherever else, to check his salary. I know it's probably a third of what Bryz is making.

After so many years of the opposite goalie looking like Patrick Roy against us in just about every game, I thought we *finally* ended it with getting a legit #1 goalie. Alas, opposing goalies *still* outplay ours...

Will this ever end?

Edited December 28, 2011 by Mad Dog

[Bakanekimiwa]

i think it's actually time to put bob in there and see how he does. give him a string of starts and let bryz go home and think about it for awhile.

[phlfly]

The first goal wasn't his fault, Shenn did touch a puck, then second two defensemans covering one man near board, but nobody near the goal. Also Flyers got to score goals in more then 35 shots on goal. The only one line is working now. Simmonds is most useless players on ice, his f... turn overs making me mad, he goes in zone then lose a puck near the board or doing dumb cross pass or do drop passes. Briere shots a lot but no score from him. It starts to feel the team is assy from AHL guys a lot.

So don't blame goalie, blame defense for bad work inside the zone (we have two defenseman - Timmo and Mazorus) and forwards don't score.

[phlfly]

No I can see where Richards could fit. Simmonds and Shenn should not be Flyers. They are cant' replace Richie

[Phlyer1]

In another post I said," you can pay him to lose or you can pay him to not play." Which benefits the Flyers the most?

[doom88]

i think it's actually time to put bob in there and see how he does. give him a string of starts and let bryz go home and think about it for awhile.

You missed aziz's points about starting Bryz more often / worst games after Bob's starts. Might be worth adding to the signature of things he will regret saying.

In another post I said," you can pay him to lose or you can pay him to not play." Which benefits the Flyers the most?

Simple. Pay him not to play. If he earns his way back into the net, great. If not, bench him until he requests a trade. He has competitive fire in him, I'm sure of it. He doesn't want to be on the bench, and we don't want him stinking up the Flyers net. Something has to give.

[Bakanekimiwa]

You missed aziz's points about starting Bryz more often / worst games after Bob's starts. Might be worth adding to the signature of things he will regret saying.

Simple. Pay him not to play. If he earns his way back into the net, great. If not, bench him until he requests a trade. He has competitive fire in him, I'm sure of it. He doesn't want to be on the bench, and we don't want him stinking up the Flyers net. Something has to give.

Well... Thing is... I actually agreed with him there. I still do, in principle... I think that goalies like to play and get in a groove. Sadly, bryz problems seem to be less about being in a groove and more about his head not being on right.

He can be a great goalie. Will he ever live up to that contract!? Most likely not. Who could though? Maybe brodeur in his prime... Or Tim Thomas of last year and this year. Bob played very well tonight. Give him the majority of starts until bryz finds his way out the woods.

[canoli]

but...does he "find his way out of the woods" in practice? Does any goaltender? Or any player for that matter?

I know - there are no good fixes for the situation right now, and it sucks. Bob is clearly playing much better and I don't know how you hand the WC to Bryzgalov at this point. The object of the game is to win not placate Big FA Signatories. Fk Bryzgalov I say, let him rot on the bench.

but of course that's just emotion talking. We really have to do everything we can to get him to play up to his potential.

HF did an interesting Graph Analysis of Bryz's play and the takeaway seems to be "don't worry too much, this is an aberration we're seeing right now, and Bryz will almost certainly be much better - soon."

Of course we all know 80% of statistics are completely fabricated...(!) so who knows...

[Spinorama]

Give him the majority of starts until bryz finds his way out the woods.

I don't disagree that the teams should play Bob, PLEASE play Bob but, how does one find their way out of the woods if they aren't playing? in practice? Unfortunately there's one of two choices, either give up on him, or continue to have faith and play him hoping he finds his game. There was all this talk in the off season of how Bob needed to go cause he wasn't going to progress sitting on the bench... same principle should apply here too, no?

[doom88]

Bob needs ice time to develop, not Bryz. Ilya is done developing, and is what he is. Bryz should be on the bench until he can fight his way back in with the type of good practices and showings that Bob has put on.

[aziz]

@doom88

You missed aziz's points about starting Bryz more often / worst games after Bob's starts. Might be worth adding to the signature of things he will regret saying.

HEY!

lol

i stand by that, though. to the extent you want to get as much out of bryzgalov as possible, he needs as much icetime as possible. if that isn't a goal, then by all means start bob, but it's an either/or thing. look at bryzgalov's game log, and you will see he consistently plays his by-far worst games in the start or two following bob having a go.

again, it depends on what the goal is. if the goal is to go with bryzgalov in the playoffs, then the starts need to be dolled out appropriately, and bob can only start games where bryzgalov *really* needs a night off. if the team is flexable, if laviolette/holmgren/snider are open to the idea that bob might be the guy come early april, then we need to shove bryzgalov on the bench and give bob as much work as he wants. i really really want them to do that, i'd love to see bob step up and sit mr universe down and then hash out the meaning of it all this summer. thing is, i have this terrible feeling that the primary starter come the postseason will not be a call that laviolette is allowed to make, that holmgren and/or snider are going to mandate bryzgalov's primacy. if that is going to be the case, if laviolette is not going to be allowed to make his own decision, then doing the things that put bryzgalov in his happy place have to happen. punative benchings and entertaining an extended controversy are not going to help if the end result is preordained.

i hope it isn't, but i think it is. which goalie goes on monday will say a lot. bob is the smart start. if laviolette is allowed to go with him, then i take everything above back. if it's bryzgalov, though......