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Meltzer's Musings: Father's Day, Bryz, Propp and More

June 19, 2016, 10:38 AM ET [56 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
MELTZER'S MUSINGS: JUNE 19, 2016

1. Happy Father's Day to all dads out there. One of the things I love the most about being a father is rediscovering the joy of looking at the world through the eyes of my seven-year-old son Benjamin and my three-year-old daughter Lily Claire. Truly, there's nothing I enjoy more than going to one of my son's games or reading books to my daughter.

Parenthood has also made me look at my work differently. I'm sure my job no longer seems quite as cool to Benji -- who loves hockey goalies, soccer keepers, and catchers in baseball -- as it when he was just turning three years old and he somehow presumed that I WAS the Flyers' goalie or one of the coaches. Even so, he enjoys seeing the Flyers practice at the Skate Zone.

I have found that my son's interactions, however brief, with players is the number one thing I think of when that player's name comes to mind. Whether it's Rob Zepp gifting a signed stick to Benji or Matt Read speaking kindly to my son at age 3 when he found the locker room intimidating and was on the brink of tears or something as simple as Ryan White complimenting the Phantoms jersey he wore to a game against Ottawa (final game of the 2014-15 season) or Michael Raffl and ex-Flyer Zac Rinaldo saying hi to him and mussing his hair as they went by, it made a huge impact on him and earned my appreciation in a way that I think one has to be a parent to understand.

With my little daughter, when I am away traveling, she tells them "daddy's at the hoggy game", which I simultaneously find adorable and a little sad. There's always something missing when I am not with one of my kids.

2) On the National Hockey League Players Association's website, there is an article on how former Flyers goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov hopes to make an NHL comeback next season.

It may be a tough sell for NHL teams, unless he is willing to take a two-way contract or try to win a backup spot via training camp tryout. Bryzgalov has been living in Haddonfield, NJ, even since he was bought out by the Flyers. He did not play this past season. At age 36, and not having performed particularly well in his second stint with Anaheim.

Back in November, I participated in the Puck Talks Philadelphia panel event where Bryzgalov was a special guest. Prior to the Bryzgalov session, I ended up sitting with him for about 15 to 20 minutes in the green room. Our conversation covered a lot of stream of consciousness ground as Bryz riffed on different thought-- everything from food (he hated the fried pickles he'd been brought to snack on before his session) to political correctness to the origins of the name of his hometown in Russia to the new Star Wars movie to youth hockey and his views on the quality of youth coaching available in this region.

It was a strange conversation at times, because I never knew quite where it was going and I wasn't sure Ilya was quite sure, either. He simply went with the flow of whatever came to mind. Where his eyes really lit up, though, was talking about his kids. He was helping his son, Vladislav, with a paper for school and proudly bragged about how smart and what a good athlete his son is, and especially on how he gets even more enjoyment from watching his kids grow than he ever got from anything in his own hockey playing career.

In those moments, Ilya Bryzgalov was just being a regular dad. He talked about his kids, I talked about mine. It was a pretty neat experience.

3) Over on the Flyers official website, I authored an article looking at the 10 deepest drafts in Flyers' history. Later today, there will be one that discusses the work of scouts throughout the season in preparation for the draft. It's tough and often thankless work but vital to the long-term success of any organization.

4) Flyers Hall of Fame left winger hosted a video in conjunction with Wolf Commercial Real Estate and the Jewish Federation of South Jersey. The video, of course, is intended to promote WCRE but it also discusses the thought process being site selection for community service programs, which is something near and dear to Propp's heart. Like most Flyers Alumni, he is tireless in his involvement in a host of charity, community service non-profit and education endeavors. Brian, though,often goes above and beyond on their behalf.

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