Hey Philly, Bryz Isn't the Problem

            Guys! Guys! Flyers are going to buy out Bryzgalov’s contract! We’re saved! Just like when we traded Richards, Carter, and Bobrovsky…Oh wait. Richards and Carter went on to win the Stanley Cup with the Kings and Bobrovsky won Vezina with the Jackets. But that’s okay, right? I mean, look at the media guy Randy J. Miller commenting on how unprofessional Bryzgalov was in his completely misplaced Twitter rant, saying things that were supposed to have been off the record. Also read his stuff, it’s always saying how much Bryz sucks. I mean sure, it doesn’t say why he sucks and why the Flyers defense is completely non-existent and doesn’t say anything about what we need to improve on, but yeah, Bryz sucks.
            Welcome to the Philadelphia Flyers, home of every hockey player that suddenly gets better when they leave. Or do they? Actually they don’t. They play exactly the way they did before, but now with a team that actually works for them and with a media that isn’t ripping them apart for breathing wrong. Not that the media’s to blame completely for the team not producing, but they certainly will make a player’s life hell if they aren’t Wayne Gretzky reincarnate. In fact, if you really want someone to blame – and I’m talking to you too, Randy J. Miller – look as far as your GM and owner. Hell, did the Flyers hire Milbury? Might as well have with their “let’s sign this guy to a ridiculously long and expensive contract, and if he doesn’t get us the Cup within 2-5 years let’s trade him” policy. Damn. I mean, really, just wow. Without consistency in your roster, you aren’t going to find any consistency in your team’s productivity. But yeah, let’s blame the goalie, or the captain, or that guy selling the hot dogs, because that’s our problem.
            Here’s the truth Philly: Your goalie isn’t the problem. Your offense isn’t the problem. Your defense is the problem. Yes, you can re-read that. Your defense is the problem. The Flyers D looks like the Leafs in the last five minutes of Game 7 against the Bruins, just in every game, every shift, and with every player. And no, fighting doesn’t count as defense. Your guys fight a lot, but when you’re too busy trying to start something behind the play while you let the other team’s offense skip right through to your goalie who’s mind is a battlefield after being slaughtered by your media day after day…they’re probably going to score…a lot. And so the cycle repeats and repeats, and instead of realizing that maybe your defense should actually get to their spot on the blue line or on the goalie’s blind side, you decide to blame someone else and trade them. Actually Mr. Miller, if you’re still upset about Bryz hanging up on you, maybe you can ask one of the D-men to take you out to dinner because they’re obviously not busy with anything.
            The defense problem is actually easy to address, if you know, you address it. Stop getting rid of your goalies, stop getting rid of your captains, and focus on fixing your D. They actually aren’t bad players, but for whatever reason they’re just not clicking. Maybe focus on coaching them differently, or add some new players to mix in with your best while trading the less desirable, just something until the problem’s fixed. Get your GM and owner to focus on that, and maybe, if you’re patient, the hockey gods will give you the D you’ve been dreaming of. (Yes, you can laugh at that last sentence.)
            Philly, stop blaming everyone if you don’t get the Cup within three years with your new team, because then you’ll end up looking like the Oilers…and that might be more embarrassing than your media (still looking at you Randy). Be patient, address the real problems, and stop thinking a trade or buyout every year is going to save you, because it’s not. The players you got rid of have gone on to win great things, while you’re still sitting there wondering how many more players can you ruin before you start to look like the Rangers. It’s not working for them, it’s not working for you, and so maybe it’s about time to change that…And for hockey god’s sake, get that shit media out of the locker room.

The NBC Bias

            Hey guys, who’s ready for the game tonight? I hope you brought your earplugs, because if you thought the last three Penguins vs. Bruins games were bad this one is almost guaranteed to be the worst. With the Penguins near elimination and the Bruins ready to pull out their brooms, poor old Doc Emrick and his possibly more hated on-ice partner, Pierre McGuire, are going to be breaking out the tissues while they preach how wrong it is the Penguins are losing and they still have a chance even though they’re now down 3-0 in the series. And I almost feel sorry for them, what with their home team doing so badly in the Eastern Conference Finals…oh wait…that’s not their home team now, is it? I think someone forgot they work for NBC and are supposed to be as objective as possible. This NBC bias, as I like to call it, has gotten completely out of hand this series and has my finger hovering over the “mute” button, which is unacceptable if the NHL wants to expand their audience.

            Now, I might not have a problem with this unreal bias if, like I said, they were the home team announcers. With home announcers, you expect bias, and while sometimes it might be out of hand – practically praising one or two players, calling completely ridiculous things on the away team, and defending their players no matter how cheap that shot might have been – again, it’s expected. A home announcer doesn’t mean they’re the best, because they have their flaws too, but with them you expect a biased opinion. They home announcer is going to stick by their team no matter what, and are most likely going to have two completely different tones when announcing a goal depending on which team scored.

            What’s wrong with NBC doing this? They’re NBC – they are a national broadcaster and should not have a home bias. With an NBC announcer, you should be able to tell if there was a goal even if you are in another room and not fully tuned in. How many Boston goals were clear in Game 2? If you weren’t fully tuned in because you were playing Tiddlywinks because it wasn’t much of a close hockey game after it was 4-1, you probably didn’t catch that the slaughter got even worse after the 5^th and 6^th Boston goals. Honestly, even I was sitting there, paying full attention to the Bruins bloodbath mauling, and I couldn’t tell if they were goals or not, because frankly you can’t see the goal-light, there’s no horn, and Emrick in no way made it clear that that was indeed a goal. I had to wait another 10 seconds, which is basically an eternity in hockey, until the scoreboard changed and I knew that it was indeed a good goal…well not good for the Penguins, but you know what I mean. And while it was virtually unknown that the Bruins scored a 5^th and a 6^th goal, everyone within two mile radius of the TV knew exactly when the Penguins scored their one and only goal with Emrick’s biased cheering.

            I know I’m ranting and raving like Don Cherry, but I think even with him we might know who scored and when…it might be accompanied by a ten minute dialog about something completely irrelevant, but you’d probably still know who scored. With Doc Emrick, you might know the first goal, maybe the second by one team, but if it’s not his pick, then you won’t really know who scored and when unless you look at the scoreboard. And while everyone’s going to be biased to some extent naturally, it’s NBC’s job to keep this as objective as possible, which just isn’t happening right now. Perhaps the saddest thing though, is that the passion in Emrick’s voice would be incredible if he maintained an objective point of view, or if he was a home announcer, but he’s not doing either. Emrick might be the prime example here, but he’s not the only one; multiple NBC announcers and even short video skits tend to lean more towards one team winning or scoring over the other – maybe a full two minutes mentioning the streak of one team, while not even thirty seconds mentioning maybe a single player from the opposing team. This NBC bias has gotten to ridiculous levels and needs to stop before it eventually pisses off virtually every hockey fan and prevents an expanded audience. If an announcer cannot stay objective, then they shouldn’t be the voice of national commentary.

Unjust Hate

            Well with the computer finally fired up again (I know you guys missed me) and with the Bruins/Penguins Game 2 last night, I thought it finally time to get back on the writing train and bring up the topic of unjust goaltender hatred. Yes, goalie hate, who would do such a thing? Those lovable, quirky tendies couldn’t possibly do anything wrong…until they do and the media eats them alive. And why am I bringing this up you may ask? Because when a goalie actually does something wrong, it’s usually minimal compared to every single save they make while carrying their struggling, screw-up of a team on those hugely padded shoulders of theirs. And yet, while a goalie’s mistakes may be minor, and they’re the last line of defense, they’re the first to be fired upon (heh, pun) by the media and ignorant fans. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a recap of earlier this season, even a season before, and what’s occurring now to prove my point on the unjust hatred.

            Let’s take a look at now, with the shitstorm that was the Bruins/Penguins game last night – and pardon my French, but Fleury was back in net. Now we all know the Fleury-Vokoun-Fleury again issue that is the 2013 playoffs, but just how much of that is real fault of the goaltender and how much is the team? The media has a great way of blowing things out of proportion and screwing with our views of the team, with the great example being how Vokoun was the savior of the top team in the East while Fleury would have been better being reincarnated as a cat to swat away the puck better than he had the first few games. And while everyone was ragging on Fleury, because come on it’s Fleury, the media’s lack of faith in Vokoun didn’t make much sense either – hell, at that rate, let’s just put Cooke in net since, well, no one likes him anyways. Yet, in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Boston Bruins, both goaltenders let in three pucks, and after the fiasco similar to the Luongo-Schneider issue, the truth came to light that, while neither goalie was perfect, maybe it’s not entirely their fault…after all, their team only managed one goal, their only so far this series. With the top team in the East only managing one goal in two games, maybe it’s the team and not the goalie/goalies, but did anyone think of that? Well they finally realized that last night…somewhere around the 4^th and 5^th Bruins goal when that kid behind the bench fell asleep. With the team playing at a lackluster effort all night, it’s no doubt the score was 6-1, with nearly every goal laid at the team’s feet for turning over pucks, being undisciplined, and just overall bad…but hey, let’s blame the goalie for not having a quick enough glove hand or a five-hole the size of the Grand Canyon…

            And Vokoun-Fleury aren’t the only examples. I mentioned their similarity to Luongo-Schneider, another set of goalies that the media and fans have held unjust hatred towards. Being in net for a team that was swept and knocked out early in the first round of the playoffs for the second year in a row is like having a target painted on that mask of yours. “It’s a goaltending issue. It’s a goaltending issue.” Sure it is buddy. How many goals did you manage to get again? A whopping what, 15 or so in your last two series combined? Hell, that’s just two Eastern Conference games…or one Pens/Flyers game. If you’re not scoring, you’re not winning. And put all the blame you want on the goalies “fighting for that number one spot” and “not focusing on the game,” you all know that maybe your team has had a lackluster effort and maybe you should start scoring before you start chirping the goaltender that carried you to the Stanley Cup Finals just two years ago. I mean hell, Luongo is only second in shutouts compared to the legendary Martin Brodeur, so how bad can he really be? Again, the media is just being a playground bully.

            And there’s another example! Media bullying! Anyone remember Ilya Bryzgalov being the poor foreign kid being picked on for being an unprofessional and totally suckish goaltender? Yeah…that’s Philly Media for you. Ilya Bryzgalov, again another prime example of the undeserved hatred that falls on goaltenders when the team in front of them falls apart. Though the hatred that fell on Bryz was on a completely different level than Vokoun-Fleury/Luongo-Schneider, as it was basically direct bullying from the media themselves, and while fans eventually backed up their goalie like all real fans should, it was a bit too late and the damage had been done. It’s similar to Rick DiPietro playing for a team and city that practically hated him thanks to media pressure and downright bullying.

            Vokoun-Fleury, Luongo-Schneider, and Bryzgalov are just some of the worst, most-noted cases of undeserved goaltender hate. Other unfortunate goalies to fall under this slander would be Rick DiPietro, Ryan Miller, James Reimer and Tuuka Rask at certain points (but let’s admit, the banana peel was pretty hilarious), Niklas Backstrom, and even rookie goaltenders such as Matt Hackett, Jacob Markstrom (though not as much, the Panthers sucked in general and nobody denied that), and the list goes on. Does anyone remember why we hate them? “Well they let in a few goals.” Yeah, and when you’re the last line of defense, that’s going to happen from time to time. As odd as they may be, goaltenders are still human, and they screw up. If the 20-30+ guys in front of them can’t hold their weight and do what they get paid millions of dollars to do, there are going to be blowouts, and you can’t solely lay the blame at the guy in pillows. A team, fans included, is supposed to stand behind their goaltender no matter what; yes, they might have blowout nights, and yes, they might hit ruts, but if they’re still in that net then they’re pouring their heart out to try to stop 100+ mph pucks to keep their team going. If a goalie really sucked and really didn’t care, then they wouldn’t be there in the first place. So can we all just stop attacking goalies for letting a puck in and maybe, for once, for just a minute, say “Oh that was so-and-so’s fault, not the goalie”? Let’s stop the media hate and stop the fan hate with it, and hell, let’s make National Hug A Goalie Day because we owe them so much for all the slack they’ve had to deal with…and well, who doesn’t want to hug a goalie?