Over his last five appearances, during the Flyers' last seven games, Bobrovsky has stopped 127 of 138 shots faced (.920 save percentage). His record is a satisfactory 3-2-0 in that span. He pitched one shutout, cleaning up last Wednesday on Long Island after Bryzgalov allowed three first-period goals, but "Bob" also had a brutal outing in Winnipeg on Nov. 19 in which he gave up five goals.
Bryzgalov was not very good against the Islanders on Wednesday. He allowed the three goals on just nine shots in the first 20 minutes before being yanked.
The shortsighted reaction would be to pair his start on Long Island with his previous outing, a 4-2 loss at home to the Hurricanes on Nov. 21, and say that Bryzgalov has been in a rut. It would be wrong, however, to pin that defeat to the Hurricanes on Bryzgalov, on a night when the Flyers forced two rookies, Marc-Andre Bourdon and Kevin Marshall, to make their NHL debuts while playing a combined 30 minutes in place of Chris Pronger and Braydon Coburn. Laviolette admitted as much.
So, why have a $51 million goaltender sitting on the bench for eight straight periods with a 6-day break in the schedule looming? The Flyers played Friday and Saturday and are off until this Friday night in Anaheim.
"Just based on the way 'Bob' played, I think he deserved to go back in there," Laviolette told reporters on Saturday. "He didn't get a lot of work [Friday]. There weren't a lot of chances at him. He was fresh and he came in and . . . really gave us an opportunity to win a game."
As far as we know, Bryzgalov is healthy. When asked yesterday by the Daily News, general manager Paul Holmgren did not respond about Bryzgalov's health in a request for injury updates.
