Philadelphia Flyers at New Jersey Devils 1/21/12 Afterthoughts

Image Courtesy of AP

 

This is the Ilya Bryzgalov the Flyers had been looking for when they signed him to a 9-year deal over the summer.

After a month to forget, Bryz has given up 2 goals in his last two games. He stopped 30 of 31 shots this afternoon, en route to a 4-1 victory for the Flyers in New Jersey. Hopefully this becomes more of the norm for him, because consistent 3, 4 and 5-goal games, which he’s had for the most part of the past month, will not be tolerated in Philly. After the game, though, when asked by the media about how he thinks he’ll play in the future, his response was surprising. He started to talk about taking it one game at a time… but then it was the potential kiss of death.

“Just leave me alone, guys.”

Referring to the media, it’s a fine line for Bryzgalov to cross. He hasn’t been too good lately, and he’s just given the media extra ammunition to throw at him if he has another bad game. So, for his sake, and the Flyers, let’s hope his slump is over.

On the offensive side, the Flyers played did not play too well, but they played well enough. Matt Read scored the game’s first goal, his 15^th of the year to lead all rookies. With two more goals by Scott Hartnell and three points by Wayne Simmonds, the first 3-point game of his career, the team ran away from the Devils in the third period. Even with just 19 shots, and flashes of Martin Brodeur’s hall of fame skills, it was still apparent that Brodeur is not the same as he was three years ago.

A nice change of pace was seeing Philadelphia score on the power play. After going 0-of-4 against the Islanders on Thursday, they were 2-of-5 today.

It’s always nice seeing the Flyers beat the Devils, but looking at the big picture, 19 shots is not enough. Bryz played really well, but Brodeur was not at his best. The Flyers also lost two key players today to injury: Daniel Briere with a concussion and Jaromir Jagr with a lower-body injury. If they are out for an extended period of time, it could really hurt the Flyers.

They can't worry about that right now, though; the team welcome Boston to the Wells Fargo Center tomorrow, which will be a good measuring stick on where they stand right now. The last time they faced the Bruins, Bryzgalov got lit up for five goals in 27 minutes in a 6-0 blowout. After today’s solid game, it would be disappointing to see him relapse, but his head doesn’t seem right especially after watching his post-game interview. I hope I’m wrong and he plays as well as he did today. If he does and the Flyers offense plays well, a win would tie them with Boston as the second-best team in the East and the team’s confidence will soar.