News Article Carchidi: Bob playing like #1

[brelic]

You can read the whole thing here:

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/flyers/20120115_Inside_the_Flyers___Flyers__Bobrovsky_playing_like_a_No__1.html

But I think this passage pretty much sums up the whole thing very well:

In last year's conference quarterfinals against Buffalo, coach Peter Laviolette started Bobrovsky just twice in seven games.

By the time the playoffs ended with a second-round wipeout to Boston, Laviolette had made seven in-game goalie switches, tying a dubious NHL playoff record.

That started the Great Goalie Search, directed by Ed Snider, the team's owner. It ended with Bryzgalov's signing a lucrative nine-year deal. Finally, the Flyers and their fans believed, they had an elite goalie.

Again, Bryzgalov could return to form, but even if he does, he may not be better than the guy who was already here.

It's almost like the way Laviolette used his goalies made it look like we had a problem that wasn't going to fix itself over time... i.e. the emergence of Bob.

[Poulin20]

Why is it that fans on here, and at the arena whom I speak with were saying all last year that Bob is the real deal and that he just needs to develop and we just need at stopgap in here until Bob is ready and the Flyers brass couldn't see that? Pelle wasn't great right away and had to be sent to Maine before he forced his way up and was the real deal. Now we have this huge albatross around our necks and unless he goes on LTIR or we make his life miserable enough that he will want to leave (who would take him with that contract?) we are eventually going to end up moving Bob and watching him win as SC with some other team and wishing we had held onto him.

[flyercanuck]

Why is it that fans on here, and at the arena whom I speak with were saying all last year that Bob is the real deal and that he just needs to develop and we just need at stopgap in here until Bob is ready and the Flyers brass couldn't see that? Pelle wasn't great right away and had to be sent to Maine before he forced his way up and was the real deal. Now we have this huge albatross around our necks and unless he goes on LTIR or we make his life miserable enough that he will want to leave (who would take him with that contract?) we are eventually going to end up moving Bob and watching him win as SC with some other team and wishing we had held onto him.

Many of us talked about Bobrovskys upside last season. His reflexes are amazing (and about 10X quicker than his fellow countrymans). The fact he was a rookie playing his first season of NA hockey with an NHL length sched made it pretty clear he would likely hit a wall. He did. But he's the best prospect at goal I've seen here in a long long time. Why they did what they did just amazes me with the bryz contract.