Yesterday, the Flyers, curiously, announced that Steve Mason would be starting against the Islanders. This was surprising for two reasons: 1) the Flyers rarely announce a starter before their morning skate and 2) it wasn’t Ilya Bryzgalov.

A well-placed source tells me that the likely reason why Mason got the start in a huge game (they’re all big now, aren’t they?) was because Bryz fell asleep during a team meeting on Monday. Not nodded off– out.

While I was working on this post, Tony Bruno and Harry Mayes first reported the same thing on 97.5 The Fanatic.

Bryz being benched for falling asleep would explain some of these quotes, as told to Randy Miller of the Courier Post:

“To be honest, I don’t care [if I’m a Flyer next year]. Really, I don’t care. I have no control on this, so why should I care?”

“You gotta understand every year I get older and older. I’m not getting younger and younger. Believe me or not, some veterans tell me, ‘How could you be tired?’ I said wait until you get 30. You can feel everything. Your body changes.”

“You’ve gotta understand we’re just employees here and we have front office and coaches who make the decisions with the lineups and what kind of team they created. You’ve got to accept it or what are you going to say?”

You’re going to say: Amnessssty.

UPDATE: The Flyers, of course, denied the report: