The relationship between a goaltender and his goalie coach is one of the most unique ones in professional sports. As the most specialized of the assistant coach roles on a team, goaltending coaches provide the most individualized attention to the players they work with during the season. The job is partially one of diagnosing and correcting mechanical flaws and partially one of understanding the psyche of the individuals.In best-case scenarios, goaltending coaches develop personal bonds with their pupils while also coaxing the most out of the players on the ice. In Flyers' history, the most dramatic example was the paternalistic bond that grew between coach Bernie Parent and the late Pelle Lindbergh. Parent himself developed from a good NHL goalie into a great one with considerable assistance from the legendary Jacques Plante, first as teammates in Toronto. Later in Parent's career, Plante was brought to Philly as the Flyers' first goaltending instructor (although the job was not a full-time role in those days).As with all human relationships, there is no guarantee that a particular goalie will click with a specific goaltending coaching. Just because a coach has had past success with other players does not make future success automatic.For whatever reason, now-former Flyers goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov apparently had a hard time getting on the same page with Philadelphia's goaltending instructor, Jeff Reese, during their two seasons together. It's an exercise in futility to play the blame game.What I will say is that Reese is very good at his job. He does not deserve to be made a scapegoat for Bryzgalov's issues during his time with the Flyers. The team would still have played suspect defense, and the public pressure and scrutiny would still have been unlike anything Bryzgalov experienced in either Anaheim or Phoenix. The goalie himself would still have the same volatile nature, and would still have been prone to mental distractions -- including ones of his own making.Sean Burke, who during his own playing days had two brief and underwhelming stints as a Flyers goaltender while enjoying success elsewhere, had a solid relationship with Bryzgalov as his goaltending coach Phoenix. However, there needs to be context applied. The Coyotes play a defense-first system under head coach Dave Tippett. Phoenix is much lower-pressure hockey atmosphere than Philly.I just think that Bryzgalov is going to be Bryzgalov, for better and for worse, regardless of who his goaltending coach is. There has been an implication that Reese tried to tinker too much with Bryzgalov's playing style. Reese is, by all accounts, a hands-on type of goalie coach, but pupils such as Ray Emery and even Sergei Bobrovsky did not seem to mind.It's not like Bryzgalov was lights out in the playoffs for the Coyotes nor did he endear himself to Coyotes teammates (at least if Derek Morris and Adrian Aucoin were shooting straight in public comments after the goalie's departure) any more than he subsequently did in Philly. The goalie allegedly has a long-time locker room reputation for openly blaming teammates, especially his defensemen, when opposing teams scored goals against him. Then again, Bryz has also been known to literally embrace a teammate who bailed him out after one of his own mistakes, as Bryzgalov memorably did this past season when he threw his arms around Nicklas Grossmann in a bearhug after the big Swede blocked a shot with Bryzgalov caught far out of the net.To whatever degree that Bryzgalov alienated teammates in Philly and (reportedly) disliked playing for Peter Laviolette, Reese or any goalie coach was powerless to change those relationships. If Bryzgalov truly felt Reese was tinkering too much with his style, it was as much his responsibility as the coach's to communicate that and find a more productive way to work together.When Bobrovsky got to Columbus this past season, his game underwent further refinements in conjunction with goalie coach Ian Clark. Specifically, Clark and Bobrovsky adjusted the goalie's crouch, made a slight change in his positioning during opposing line rushes and a major overhaul in terms of his positioning relative to the goal posts. I would call those significant changes in the goalie's style, and they obviously worked well as Bobrovsky won the Vezina Trophy.At the same time, Clark was not able to stop the regression/stagnation in Columbus of former Calder Trophy winner Steve Mason after Clark was hired by the Blue Jackets in 2011. While it's far too early to declare that Mason turned a corner in Philly based on a small sampling of late-season games last year, the netminder said at the end of the year that he's loved working with Reese in their short time together. It's been at least alleged that there was a communication gap between Mason and his Columbus goaltending coaches, supposedly including the goalie wearing the wrong-sized pads and never having it pointed out to him.In other words, nothing is cut-and-dry in hockey, and things have a way of changing in a hurry. Right now, it's just as premature to conclude that Clark is a better coach for Bobrovsky (with an implicit blame on Reese) than it is to say Reese has "turned around" Mason (and blame the coaching he received in Columbus).By the way, during their time together in Philly, Reese always enthusiastically praised Bobrovsky's work ethic and willingness to receive instruction. Bob's ambition and internal drive for success have always been there, and he may have found his way in Philly just fine if the organization -- and I'm not talking about Reese -- had handled him better.Reese was not responsible for the way that Peter Laviolette handled the goaltending rotation in the 2011 playoffs. It was not Reese who made the decision to demote Bobrovsky from starter to third-string (i.e., healthy scratch) goaltender for next four games after one bad Game Two period against Buffalo -- when the rookie had allowed only a single third-period goal in a 1-0 loss in Game One. Reese was not responsible for Ed Snider demanding that the team bring in a proven veteran in 2011-12 to end the goalie carousel "once and for all," nor was he the one who felt compelled to respond by trading for Bryzgalov and signing him to a monstrous contract.Reese only had two seasons with Bobrovsky, and to suggest that he didn't improve at all as an NHL goalie from the day of his arrival at 2010-11 training camp (when most observers felt he'd need a year of acclimation in the AHL) to the day he was traded to Columbus is to shortchange both the goalie and the goaltending coach. The truth of the matter is that Bobrovsky's fate in Philly was sealed when Bryzgalov was brought in and the team probably should have traded him a year earlier than they did.Before Reese got to Philly, his predecessor, Rejean Lemelin, was also the frequent target for fan criticism about the shortcomings of Flyers' goalies. I understand why: Just as pitching coaches get held responsible for the team's earned run average and batting coaches often get fired if the team has a tough year at the plate, the perception of the skills of a goaltending coach rise and fall on the fates of the goalies with whom they work.That just goes with the turf of the business, even if it's unfair to expect miracles. If a coach cannot accept the fact that his fate is going to be tied to things that are both beyond and within their control, they are in the wrong line of work.For the past two weeks, Bryzgalov has been in Sweden working out with Färjestad goaltending coach Erik Granqvist. Bryzgalov received -- and heeded -- advice to specifically seek out Granqvist, who has developed a hard-earned reputation as one of the hockey world's best goaltending instructors.The two men have hit it off on the ice, and Bryzgalov has reportedly told Granqvist that he would like to continue to work together in the future. Then again, it's not like Bryzgalov has been playing in game action yet to demonstrate that he's bounced back to the form that made him a Vezina Trophy finalist in 2009-10.I have nothing but the utmost respect for Granqvist. In fact, I have posted a couple times on Twitter over the last two years that I think NHL teams would be smart to pursue him as their goaltending coach -- or at least as a developmental coach/ consultant if he wishes to remain based in Sweden but travel to North America periodically. According to a recent article in Aftonbladet, that may actually come to fruition in the relatively near future. Granqvist has one season left on his contract with Färjestad and reportedly has drawn interest from unnamed NHL teams both currently and over the last few years.That would be a very well-deserved honor, because Granqvist by all accounts is a top-notch goaltending coach who is equally capable of working with both developing and established goalies. He studies North American hockey just as extensively as the European game (although he exclusively spent his own playing career in Europe, primarily as Jarmo Myllys' backup with Luleå HF). His knowledge isn't just limited to goaltending, although that's the area where he stands out the most. In fact, Grankvist might even make for a good head coach somewhere at the pro level, if he were to want to go in that direction.I have zero doubt that Bryzgalov placed himself in good hands by choosing to work one-on-one with Granqvist. However, that doesn't guarantee success as he tries to get his career back on track in the NHL or KHL next season. If he fails, it won't be because he turned to the wrong person in the offseason.Bryzgalov's decision to seek out Granqvist and travel to Sweden to work out with him simply speaks to the reputation that Granqvist has built within the hockey world. If the honor of being the NHL's first European goalie coach doesn't eventually go to Granqvist, another highly qualified candidate is former Atlanta Thrashers goalie Pasi Nurminen, now the goalie coach and part owner of the SM-liiga's Lahti Pelicans.The ultra-intense Nurminen has a very different personal style than Granqvist but also has an equally solid reputation for being very astute and tireless in working with goalies to spot and correct issues in their games. I don't know if he'd be a good coaching fit with all goalies' personalities, but he's good at pushing his charges to work harder than they ever have in the past (even if they are already self-motivated types).I don't know if the Flyers organization would have gotten any more out of former Nurminen protege Niko Hovinen -- a total bust this past season -- but it couldn't have hurt to seek advice from Nurminen on what worked with him in Finland. Nurminen is the only goalie coach who has ever seemed to bring out the best in Hovinen at the pro level in Europe or North America.It couldn't hurt to have at least made the outreach, because Hovinen's stint in the North American minors this season was an unmitigated disaster that could not have turned any worse had the organization tried a last-ditch Plan B. Truthfully, Hovinen's only significant pro hockey success even in Finland came during his time with Nurminen in Lahti. He had previously been a major flop at the SM-liiga level for Jokerit Helsinki, to the point that he briefly considered quitting hockey. In Lahti, he responded to Nurminen's tough-love approach of pushing him as hard as possible, pulling no punches in his critiques and issuing praise only when it was earned. For the time they were together, it worked.I mean absolutely no disrespect to Jeff Reese or someone such as Neil Little when I say that, going forward, I wish the Flyers would consider reaching out to Granqvist or Nurminen in some sort of consultation role for goalies in the system -- both North American ones and future European-trained ones.I know you don't want too many cooks in the organizational kitchen, nor do you want a consultant to undermine the work of a full-time coach. I'm also aware that goaltending is a solitary position, and receiving conflicting advice can mess some goalies up more than getting no advice at all. However, sometimes it does help to have other resources available to offer their insights and advice. At other times, with a goalie like Bryzgalov, the player is simply going to march to the beat of his own drummer.Ultimately, all goalie coaches are trying to accomplish the same objective: Get the guys who play one of the sporting world's most difficult positions to be both physically and mentally ready to handle whatever adversity comes their way.*************Speaking of Pasi Nurminen, the goaltending coach's intensity and hard-driving coaching style was famously self-parodied in a series of Pelicans ticket advertisements in 2011. All of the ads showed Nurminen gleefully torturing Lahti players and accepting no excuses for failure even under comedic levels of duress.The ads were so over-the-top that they went viral on YouTube and were viewed even by many non-hockey fans as well as hockey fans who don't follow the Finnish league at all.This commercial starred Nurminen and Hovinen doing a "Nurminen version" of a rapid fire shooting drill, and then irritably critiquing his protege for allowing one puck to (barely) cross the goal line before demonstrating the proper technique:This ad, which was the most popular one in the series, had Nurminen taking over the responsibility of teaching Pelicans position players how to withstand open ice contact:*************Former Flyers forward Ian Laperriere, now the organization's Director of Player Development, will be participating in the Ironman Mont-Tremblant: North American Championship on August 18. 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