The one save Ilya Bryzgalov didn’t really have to make hurt the Flyers the most.
As the starting goaltender was leaving the net in warm-ups Monday night, Flyers forward Jakub Voracek took a shot that hit his unsuspecting goalie on the inside of his right foot.
Bryzgalov had X-rays between the end of warm-ups and the start of the game with his skate on and showed no worse for wear. He played the game, making 10 saves on 14 shots, but a postgame MRI revealed a chip fracture in his foot that the Flyers say his body will absorb.
“Ilya wasn’t going to play on Thursday anyway,” GM Paul Holmgren said yesterday in a conference call. “So we’re going to just leave him back and continue to get his treatment. We don’t think this is a serious injury. We’re hoping that he’ll be back on the ice practicing with the idea that he can play on the weekend.”
Bryzgalov already played one game with the fracture and, according to Holmgren, “there’s no real risk here at all.” It’s just about pain management and how comfortable Bryzgalov is playing through it.
Apparently, he felt comfortable on Monday night and there was no thought of keeping him out of the lineup.
“Ilya wanted to play,” Holmgren said. “To be honest with you, I knew what was going on, I watched the game, and I didn’t see any issues. The goals they scored were good goals.”
The Flyers were hoping to get Bryzgalov some rest, but this isn’t what they had in mind. In the month of March, Bryzgalov was 10-2-1 with four shutouts. Sergei Bobrovsky will get the start tomorrow in Toronto and Phantoms backup Jason Bacashihua will sit on the bench.
