Ilya Bryzgalov has had it with the media in Philadelphia. As the Flyers cleaned out their lockers following a disappointing season that ended with the team outside of the playoff picture, local media questioned Bryzgalov about being the man blamed for the poor season.
Bryzgalov curtly responded by asking reporters, "What have you done for the city?"
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ChmN4rJFg_s?rel=0
If you didn't catch all of that above, here's the recap of Bryzgalov's comments from CSN Philly.
"Not anymore,” Bryzgalov said about whether criticism gets to him. “Not anymore. You guys are just here to blame someone. You never look at yourself in the mirror, right? You’re always good. You never make the mistakes. Your articles are always perfect. But, in reality, what have you done for the city, if you ask yourself? What have you done? Ask yourself that question. Besides to only criticize. Not much. You need to be fair. You need to see the whole picture. It’s easy to criticize. It’s tough to find something good.”
If Bryzgalov was holding a mic, that would have been a good place to drop it.
Talk about going down swinging. It's fair to say that both the media and fans have been incredibly harsh on the Russian goaltender. Sure, he had a pretty disappointing season, but why haven't we seen blame assigned to other players as well? Bryzgalov seems to be the focal point. Perhaps it's because he's willing to talk to the media and give them, as we've seen above, a memorable quote. Bryzgalov is not the lone man responsible for Philadelphia's poor season. It takes a team effort to play that badly.
Bryzgalov just finished the third year of a 9-year, $51 million contract. Rumors have swirled for months that the Flyers might look to buyout his contract given the goaltender's poor play (19-17-3, 2.79 GAA) and somewhat puzzling actions off the ice.
