Bryzgalov costs Coyotes big time

by Brandt Corbin
    Well its official the Detroit Red Wings have swept the Phoenix Coyotes, advancing to the second round of the playoffs. There is one reason why this series only lasted four games, that reason is Ilya Bryzgalov who quite simply laid a big fat egg, despite being one of the best goalies during the regular season. The Russian goaltender was god awful all series long. He let in 17 goals in the four games, half which stunk worse than a house full of pigs. Quite honestly this was one of the worst performances in net in Stanley Cup history.
Phoenix must move on and look elsewhere
     Over the teams existence they have showed very little promise of every being a contender. The team cannot be happy with just getting in and not advancing on in the playoffs, this is why they have no loyal fan base. Good news for Phoenix is that Bryzgalov is an unrestricted free agent. Do they have any prospects coming in to take the reigns in net? No they do not, but veterans such as Tomas Vokoun, Jose Thedore, JS Giguere and Evengi Nabakov are all free agents as well. So the options are there to move on and they must do that, you cannot go with Byzgalov again and risk playoff failure one more year.
     The Yotes must all move on and not re-sign Ed Jovanovski, Eric Belanger and Radim Vrbata. They have enough young prospects that deserve the chance make a difference with the big team. Phoenix has to try something different compared to the 1-2-2 grinding defensive game, they have to take a risk.
Detroit's depth is scary good
     Red Wing star Henrik Zetterberg missed the entire series, yet they threw 4 lines at the Yotes, and every line produced and then some. How scary is their depth? How about 13 different goal scorers in four games, that has to be an NHL record for one series. No team, not the Canucks, Bruins, Caps or Flyers can contend with the four lines that Detroit has.
     Detroit will now have over one week if not ten days to rest the wounded. They can sit back, hope that the other teams beat the living hell out of each other. If Jimmy Howard, Wings goalie can perform above average they are the favorites in the west, no question about it.