Flyers freefalling, but Bryzgalov feeling great

PHILADELPHIA — For one night only, an old friend brought some entertainment when his former teammates couldn’t.

Ilya Bryzgalov was in the fifth row to watch the Flyers lose 5-2 to the Washington Capitals.

The former goalie, who had his nine-year, $51 million contract bought out after two seasons, saw the herd of reporters walking back from a postgame chat with rookie coach Dave Hakstol after the Flyers’ eighth loss in nine games.

“You can’t blame me, guys,” Bryzgalov said, with his humorous charm. “They buy me out. You wanted me gone.”

Bryzgalov was in the building for the first time since the Flyers bought him out (he’ll make $1.64 million to watch them on television) and to watch Alex Ovechkin go after a milestone. Ovechkin was chasing career goal No. 484 to become the highest-scoring Russian in NHL history. He is tied with newly-minted Hall of Famer Sergei Fedorov.

Bryzgalov sat with his 9-year-old son Vladi and Ovechkin’s fiancée when the Capitals captain fired a puck behind Steve Mason, who didn’t have a shot at stopping any of the legal goals on the night.

Hakstol challenged the play, and won, so history is on hold, but for Bryzgalov, life is “a dream” while his old team is struggling.

“Guys, you gotta understand,” Bryzgalov explained. “It’s hockey. It’s a long season. There’s a lot of difficulties. They got on a bad streak right now. It could be change. Small, some kind of adjustments. I always knew the city was so passionate. I know players want to do well, but you need to be patient a little bit and give to the coach time and give the team time. There are a few adjustments with new players. Give them time to get better.”

Through 16 games, the Flyers are 5-8-3. The only team worse in their division is the Columbus Blue Jackets, who lost each of their first eight games, and even they are only five points back. The Flyers’ offense, at one time thought to be a strength, is second worst in the NHL.

They have had enough talk about improving and work days and effort. They aren’t getting results and frustration is building, even though the coach says, “I don’t buy frustration.”

“If you’re not worried in this game, you’re not doing your job,” said Ryan White, whose line scored the first goal of the game when Scott Laughton potted his third goal of the season early in the first. “You should always be a little bit worried about your job and the possibility of getting moved. Obviously that doesn’t help. We need to be better in here and it doesn’t matter if (general manager Ron Hextall) brings someone in here or whatever. One guy’s not gonna change anything.”

Thursday morning, Hextall said he believed the Flyers were still a playoff team. They played like one for a fraction of the night against a team that is supposed to be contenders to raise the Stanley Cup next June.

“That’s the big picture,” captain Claude Giroux said. “I think right now we have to be worried about the smaller picture and being better because if we keep playing like that, we’re not going to make the playoffs and I really believe we’re a playoff team, but we need to be sharper and play more as a team. We need to get our confidence higher.”

When he’s not coaching his son, Bryzgalov catches as many Flyers games as he can on TV. He still lives in Haddonfield and plans to stay. He joked that the Flyers should bring him back and put him on the blueline where he can play with countryman Evgeny Medvedev.

“I can’t root against my former teams,” said Bryzgalov, who also played in Edmonton, Anaheim and Minnesota after the Flyers bought him out. “I have friends who play on every team. I just can’t root against my friends. It doesn’t matter if it’s going to be Anaheim or Philadelphia. I always want them to do well.”

Despite his well wishes, the Flyers aren’t doing well. At this point, they’d use any help they can get shy of bringing back a goalie that was bought out using one of two compliance buyouts. At least he’d be another voice. He wasn’t allowed to be that in his last year with the Flyers.

“If I see something, I can’t help saying something to the coach or maybe to somebody else to maybe help the team with the effort,” said Bryzgalov, who admitted the team asked him not to speak out in that last season. “If maybe it will help us start playing better, I will say that. Because I don’t have perfect English or maybe I’m not politically correct, I can’t address the issues right and there’s a misunderstanding.”

There’s no misunderstanding how poorly the Flyers have been playing recently. They say that they see some improvements within the game, but the results remain the same and it’s beyond the point of looking past that.

“I’m concerned,” Hakstol said. “I’m concerned. That’s it. Bottom line, but we’re going to go back to work tomorrow and work as hard as we can to make sure we push things in the right direction.”

Dave Isaac; (856) 486-2479; disaac@gannettnj.com .

CAPITALS 5, FLYERS 2

Up next: at Hurricanes

When: 7 p.m., Saturday

TV/Radio: CSN/93.3