Flyers

Bob Continues to Assert Himself as the Alpha Male

By Kyle Scott

Published: Jan 13th, 2012 · 9:09 AM EST

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Or, in Soviet Russia, the альфа-самца!

I Google translated that, I don't speak Russian… Anyway, here's a blind taste test for you: 

A) 17, 10-3, 2.42, 92.1

B) 34, 18-10, 2.42, 91.6

C) 29, 16-9, 3.07, 89.1

Only one of those is making $51 million.

What you're looking at are the games played, W-L, GAA, and SV % of A) Sergei Bobrovsky, B) 2010-2011 Brian Boucher, and C) Ilya Bryzgalov. Are we still going to blame the defense?

The Flyers beat the Islanders and their mis-matched, directionless, out-of-touch black and blue and orange and grey and puke jerseys last night, 3-2. Here’s a fun stat courtesy of the Flyers PR department:

The penalty shot save by Sergei Bobrovsky was the first of his career.  He had been 0-for-3 on penalty shots.  Bobrovsky has now been in the net for the last four Flyers penalty shots against.  It was the first saved penalty shot by any Flyers goaltender since 1/30/09 @TBL, when Martin St. Louis stopped by Antero Niittymaki – opponents had scored on five consecutive penalty shots since then.  Prior to that five-shot streak for shooters, Flyers goaltenders had stopped 14 of 15 penalty shots from 1998 – 2008.

[The press notes originally said it was the first stop since 2008, but Flyers all-star intern Alexandra passed along the correction]

 

While Bob is breaking unfortunate barriers, Bryz is sitting on the bench, getting ripped by our friend John Miller of Philly Sports Daily: 

As every incoming athlete is cautioned, you need to be mentally tough to play professional sports in Philadelphia. There’s going to be a lot said about you and you need to not worry about trying to be Mr. Popularity.

It certainly isn’t vicious here; it’s just that it’s oppressive. The media isn’t nearly as tough as people think – I’m pretty sure CSN stands for “Cheerleader Sports Network” – and you fans, believe it or not, are generally positive. Really, it’s just that we pay a lot more attention than they do in other places, not they we have unfair expectations.

 

The former CSN producer is right in everything he wrote there. More here.

Also on the bench, Jaromir Jagr was, um, yankin’ his spacha, or doing something otherwise uncomfortable to a viewing audience via reader (@guffock) and Buzz On Broad:

Lovely. 

This is the letter Peter Laviolette wrote Islanders fans when he took over head coaching duties there in 2001.

Finally, Max Talbot received a healthy elbow from Steve Staios. Here’s video of the hit, and what appears to be a glazed over Talbot speaking with reporters after the game. 

 

Video via Flyers beat writer Randy Miller

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