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UPDATED: PHWA Wins on Bryz

October 31, 2011, 11:25 AM ET [ Comments]
Tim Panaccio
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Kevin Allen, president of the PHWA, called the Flyers to inform them they were in violation of the media policy, as per the CBA.

Within minutes, the Flyers relinquished. The goalies will continue to talk every day except the morning of game day skates - which has always been the policy.

The only difference now is that the goalies will have a time limit to speak.

Everything back to normal it would appear.

***






The Flyers just amended their policy: Ilya Bryzgalov will NOT talk the day before a game or the day of a game.

Last week, Flyers had 4 games. So, he would have been silent most of the week ...

**

From the very first day that goalie Ilya Bryzgalov arrived in Philly, he proved to be a guy who loved to chatter.

He was clearly the star of the Flyers dressing room. His humor lit the place up every morning.

He joked with teammates and media on a daily basis.

His "Scarface" lines of dialogue were the highlight of October.

Then something happened. The Brzy started to look very average in goal, even discounting some very fluky deflections.

That was followed with Friday's surprising announcement from goalie coach Jeff Reese that he felt Bryz was spending too much time talking to the media and going on Twitter and it was "distracting" him from concentrating on his job which is to stop the puck.

Brzy had some very funny things to say after Saturday's 5-1 win over Carolina and now it appears, that the last time we're gonna hear funny things from him until post-game situations.

The Flyers announced Monday that Bryz will no longer be available to the media except in post-game situations in which he plays.

The team claims this was Bryz's idea and not Reese or Peter Laviolette or Flyer management. The team also says it backs the decision.

I don't buy it for a second.

Bryzgalov is a natural, born chatter box, just like Garth Snow and Marty Biron were. This guys lives for the so-called "give and take" with the media. He was like that in Phoenix - to a lesser extent given less media - and he's been like that here.

I think it's a bad idea if the FLyers are trying to change Bryz's personality. Change the personality of your goalie and you might change everything about him which could affect his play in net.

This much is certain. The Flyers dressing room just got a lot duller.

And let's get this straight. This is NOT an issue between the goalie and the media. The media loves Bryzgalov's candor and sense of humor.

But it is very curious this new policy starts days after his coach says he's spending too much time talking to us doesn't it?

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