Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

A Bad Night For Ilya Bryzgalov

01/30/2015 at 8:06am EST

from Eric Stephens of the OC Register,

The Ducks (32-11-6) concluded their season series with the Sharks by never finding an answer against them, losing four of the five meetings. There may now be a need for a better answer in addition to Andersen in their goal crease.

Bryzgalov stopped 19 of 25 shots, with just 11 coming in the 16-shot avalanche against him. Boudreau said he opted to go with him after deliberating over two days, choosing someone who had a career 2.35 goals-against average in 28 prior games against the Sharks.

“We looked at the records of the goalies against San Jose,” Boudreau said. “We’ve got a lot of games (upcoming). We played Bryz against a tough team instead of just sort of guiding him through. So that’s what we thought. Obviously it didn’t work.”

The numbers are grisly. Bryzgalov’s five appearances and four starts have resulted in a 1-3-0 record, with a 4.68 goals-against and .832 save percentage. Those don’t often keep a goaltender employed, but the Ducks have about $1.9 million of real money invested in him as well as a $2.88-million salary cap hit.

more on the game, a San Jose 6-3 win over Anaheim...

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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