Bryz in Philly

Anyone with some insight into this.

I don't live in Philly, but am curious to know, Does Philly media milk the flaky goalie, English as a second language stereotype to get cheap laughs at Ilya Bryzgalov's expense? Or are these guys fairly reporting what Bryz says?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2ZLtFc0jpM

I don't know if the laughing in the background near the end of the video is someone mocking Bryz or just locker room chatter. Is Bryz a thoughtful guy struggling with a thick accent and a second language or an attention-grabbing clown who deserves what he gets?

 

I don't think it's that big a deal. For example, Latin baseball players who know just enough English to be dangerous have been providing humorous sound bites for decades. It's even moving to Twitter with some guy who runs Yu Darvish's Japanese tweets through Babelfish. Most of them know what they say comes out as funny and are OK with it.

 

Bryz is a flake who hasn't lived up to either his billing or his paycheck. His loss will be a gain for Flyers faithful.

 

With Bryzgalov it goes both ways.

Philly media has always been tough on their goalies. I don't read near enough of them to speak to their hockey expertise to know if they do it because it's the easy story line and something obvious to pick apart. If that's the case, I can understand his frustration.

But Bryzgalov also plays into a lot of it. He was a media darling leading into the hockey classic and was in the spotlight for most of it even though he didn't even play. He has been in the league long enough and doing interviews with English media and reading the write ups long enough to know exactly what he's saying. He has benefited greatly from the exposure. It has helped make him a name.

But it cuts both ways.

Problem is, as Drip pointed out, he hasn't been able to back it up in net. I thought last year he was out played by Bobrovsky, and knew they would rue the day they let him walk. Guessing they're doing that right now, although with as much as they're paying Bryzgalov to be the starter, it's not like they could plunk down much more to keep Bob.