ANAHEIM, Calif. – So what does “good balsam on your soul” mean?
That’s what I had to look up after interviewing Ilya Bryzgalov last week in Anaheim. Bryzgalov is a quote machine and incredibly smart, so some of the terms he uses go over your head.
After some investigating, I determined it just essentially means balm. So much for that Vanderbilt education – sorry, mom and dad.
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Anyway, Bryzgalov, one of the top personalities in hockey history, was at Honda Center last Friday to drop the first puck between the Ducks and Maple Leafs. Bryzgalov was part of the Anaheim Ducks’ 2007 Stanley Cup team, before becoming a star with the Arizona Coyotes and then a viral media sensation with the Philadelphia Flyers. He also made stops with the Edmonton Oilers and Minnesota Wild.
With so many responsibilities that night at Honda Center and with almost everyone wanted to say hello, Bryzgalov had to be trailed all over the arena to complete our conversation in three parts, getting his views on bears, how his career in media was launched – he most recently has done work with The Players’ Tribune – and what it’s like being Russian living in the United States in today’s political climate.
Explain your obsession with bears, please.
I didn’t start that. Again … it goes to the people, it goes to the media. … In Philly we were facing off against the Penguins and media came to me and said, ‘Oh my God, guys. You’re playing against Sidney Crosby, (Evgeni) Malkin and (Kris) Letang. This is such a great team. Are you afraid to play?’ What am I going to say? It’s a dumb question. Am I going to say, ‘Yes, we’re so afraid, we’re not going to play. We give up and just let it roll.’ That’s why I say, ‘I’m only afraid of the bears in the forest.’ I just say that and next thing I see in Pittsburgh there was like half a stadium sitting in costumes in the bears and that’s how everything started rolling and I guess people liked the quote. And people doing some tattoos on the body.
(Editor’s note: Bryzgalov at one point was wearing a Ducks hat that was combined with the California state flag logo, which has a bear on it. Also, at one point, Bryzgalov showed media assembled to speak with him a video of bears on ice.)
So you’re here in Anaheim right now. Is this where people started to take notice of you and your personality?
I have no idea, to be honest! I think it’s small steps, you know. Since I came here, even my time in the minor league and after in Phoenix, you have to look all through the years. Because I learned lots of things here. I did something in Arizona and Philadelphia. It’s like, you’re building the house brick by brick. Small ones. That’s who I became. You say something and you did something and you had a great game or something or a great accomplishment. It’s everything.
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Was it HBO’s “24/7: Flyers/Rangers – Road to the NHL Winter Classic” when you sort of became a media Supernova?
That brought me so much trouble, you wouldn’t believe it.
So it was more negative?
For myself, the feedback was … from the out-in, it was good. But it brought me so much attention that even the coach, Peter Laviolette once called me in a meeting and said like ‘You steal the show.’ I was like ‘Hey, I didn’t mean it.’ I just shared my thoughts about, I’m interested in the universe and other things and people like that and it’s out of my hands. If it’s the producer of HBO telling the crew to shoot me more, it’s out of my hands. And I tried to explain. But maybe he wants more attention. But what can I do if the people want to see me on TV? You know what I mean? And it was bad.
Did that experience actually help you do some work with The Players’ Tribune?
No, I don’t think so. One of my friends, Frank Buonomo (with The Players’ Tribune), he said like ‘Hey Bryz, you want to have some fun and ask some good questions at the All-Star Game?’ So I said, ‘Yeah, why not, let’s try. Let’s see how it goes.’ (Frank and I) worked together in Minnesota. And we come to L.A. for the All-Star Game not connected to hockey, and Players’ Tribune had good replies and lots of views. And so we said, ‘We can continue to do that, you want to do that for the Stanley Cup final for Nashville against Pittsburgh?’ Yeah, let’s try to do that. Just one small step. If they don’t want to continue to do that it’s fine with me. It’s not like my job and I’m stressed out about. I’m just going out there and having fun. I’ve prepared some questions before. I’m watching, for example, the rosters who I know out there and what kind of personality of the players they have, what I ask, what I’m not going to ask.
And you did work with Sportsnet also?
Yeah, I did a little bit for Sportsnet last year but stopped doing that. I’m fine with that. I guess it’s not what they think and they don’t like it. It’s fine.
Ilya Bryzgalov (!!) breaks down the Martin Hanzal trade.
Watch HC Trade Deadline on Sportsnet & SN NOW: https://t.co/XBX82RUZBV#NHLTrade pic.twitter.com/vftIEgwabz
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 1, 2017
So you played with Paul Bissonnette in Arizona. What was it like playing with him and your personality and his personality?
There was no problems …
No, no not problems, but it must have been fun there with you and him, two of the bigger personalities in the game?
It was great times in Arizona. Yeah. We played well. You know when you’re winning it’s always a great atmosphere in the locker room. He’s a good person. He has a good sense of humor, too.
It was good times. There was nothing special like, ‘Oh my god we did something crazy out there.’
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It was locker room and he might be doing something funny in one part and I might have some funny conversation and jokes with another. We had other guys, like Keith Yandle is really funny. We had lots of guys with a good sense of humor out there.
Editor’s note: We reached out to Bissonnette to talk about playing with Bryzgalov. Below was his answer.
“He was a starter. Like a lot of times he wasn’t talking and he was in game mode. Sometimes he would be a clown when he was backing up. So we didn’t see it (the personality) as much as everyone sees it every time he’s on television. We would see it when he was not playing in games and on days where he would have the option to not skate. So it wasn’t as condensed it was spread out.
“We had an unbelievable locker room. That’s why we were so successful. We had so many strong but good personalities. Like (Shane Doan). We had Adrian Aucoin, who was fucking hilarious. We had (Derek) Morris, who was opinionated and funny and grumpy, and (Keith) Yandle. If you don’t have a good locker room I have a hard time believing that you’re going to have any type of success in the long run. Rarely, rarely do you see that.”
You’re living in southern New Jersey coaching your son. What’s that like?
It’s a pure pleasure. Pure pleasure. You spend a majority of time with your son and coaching and try to teach him something and give him something best. In the end when you see some positive results, it’s like a good balsam on your soul.
So there are a lot of Flyers in the area?
My neighbor was Danny Briere but he moved to Philadelphia downtown. There were some former players like Brian Boucher, Nick Schultz, there were a couple of players who were around.
What position is your son?
He’s a goalie.
So are you like a crazy hockey parent now?
No, no, no. I’m just coaching and giving technique and trying to teach him and trying to be a good parent and a good father. Not only on the ice or off the ice.
Switching gears a bit, what’s it like being Russian in the United States right now considering our political climate?
You know, I never heard anything and nobody mentioned to me in the face, like ‘You’re Russian here in the United States.’ I never heard or never met people who can even possibly say things like that to me.
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Gotcha, because you’ve chosen to spend your life here and obviously things have changed a bit the last few years.
No, no, no, no. It’s all for the politicians. They play their own games. People are different. Politics are different. They have no business to us, we have no business to them. They only need us when they need the vote.
After they’re chosen they say, ‘OK guys, see you in two or four or six years.’
Note: This interview was lightly edited for clarity.
(Top photo of Ilya Bryzgalov: Eric Stephens)
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