Goalie Controversy Again...

If you've been reading the Flyers posts on this blog, you know how I feel about Ilya Bryzgalov. If you haven't, here is a brief recap, in fact, it is only 3 words long.

Waste. Of. Money.

Another day, another loss, and this one with 4 goals allowed. To Nashville. Granted, Bryzgalov allowed 3 goals, 1 goal was an empty netter. But come on. That's not what's important. What is important? Well I'll answer that question.

Clutch. Clutch is what the Flyers need, but its what they don't have. On offense, yes, clutch is there. The list of names would make any NHL team see red with envy. Giroux, Briere, Couturier, Simmonds, Hartnell. They can score, and they can score a lot. The problem lately has been the goalie.

Because no matter how much they score, Bryzgalov seems to let in one more goal. And that means losses. And you don't pay a man 51 million dollars to lose games. Not on any team. And especially not on a team with expectations as high as a Philly team. When the Flyers announced the deal, I was initially happy, because the Flyers has finally gone out and gotten a goalie worth paying for, a goalie who could be clutch when it mattered, and win us the big game.

Boy was I wrong.

Let's look at what Bryzgalov has done the last couple of weeks. And tell me if I miss anything, I'm trying to be thorough.

1. Lose a big lead in the 3rd period.
Check. Losing a 4-2 lead against the Senators in the 3rd period, and losing it big, 6-4, is an epic meltdown in terms of goalie performance.

2. Make an announcement you shouldn't
Check again. Bryzgalov announced to the world that he wouldn't be starting the Winter Classic, and he did it before the Flyers or Peter Laviolette did. This is not only unprofessional, but it also undermines the coaches authority. I'm sure Laviolette did not let this little stunt go unnoticed.

3. Not perform when needed.
Duh. Of course this happened. It happened when the Flyers played the Senators. And again when they played the Predators. So it keeps happening. Its a pattern. A bad pattern.

So yes, Bryz has performed terribly and acted petulantly. And what else can we expect? This is all we have seen all season. So I'm asking, no BEGGING!!! Put in BOBROVSKY!