It seems like Ilya Bryzgalov has been a big story consistently since the Philadelphia Flyers inked him to a nine-year/$51 million contract. The headlines linked to him haven’t always been positive and the jury is still out on whether Philadelphia was right to put so much faith in him.
Certainly, he has his detractors, but it doesn’t sound like Martin Brodeur is one of them.
“That’s a team that’s a big market team that will pay the money to win,” Brodeur said, referring to Philadelphia. “Regardless of how they did it, there was always that little missing piece that for everybody was goaltending because there was so much movement. I think they solidified themselves doing what they did with Bryzgalov. A lot of people have different opinions about him, but I think in the long run they’ll be fine with him.”
Bryzgalov had a 0.29 GAA and .987 save percentage in four games against the Devils in the regular season. That said, the playoffs are a different beast and Bryzgalov’s hot-and-cold nature overall this season makes him something of an X-factor going into the second round.