The Flyers bought out Ilya Bryzgalov's humungous big contract today, after two years of a rocky relationship with Philadelphia fans and media. It took about 20 minutes for Randy Miller, of the South Jersey Courier-Post, to start the smear campaign.
i just called Bryz. He answered phone and said, "Congratulations to you guys," then hung up on me
— Randy Miller (@RandyJMiller) June 25, 2013
I phoned Bryz a second time to ask about #flyers buying him out. He said he doesn't want to talk and hung up on me again.
— Randy Miller (@RandyJMiller) June 25, 2013
By the way ... I heard Bryz had 4 blowouts last season with Lavy. And I heard players couldn't stand him.
— Randy Miller (@RandyJMiller) June 25, 2013
Bryz personally asked me several times if and when I thought the Flyers would fire Lavy
— Randy Miller (@RandyJMiller) June 25, 2013
And #Flyers fans, you might as well know this: Bryz ripped fans to me, ripped his coach and ripped other members of media
— Randy Miller (@RandyJMiller) June 25, 2013
And ... I personally witnessed two Flyers people arguing about Bryz in a bar this year. One was destroying him, calling him a cancer
— Randy Miller (@RandyJMiller) June 25, 2013
For the record, Bryz LOVES his old Phoenix coach DaveTippett. Part of reason he had issues with us is he wanted us to rip Lavy
— Randy Miller (@RandyJMiller) June 25, 2013
I can add that I had several long talks with Bryz when he was mad at one media person and upset about being booed.
— Randy Miller (@RandyJMiller) June 25, 2013
Hey, here's a bunch of stuff I know, and I'll share it now because Bryzgalov hung up on me and I'm mad!
It's all surely true, just as surely as this petty tantrum ought to be a warning sign to every NHL player out there: talk to Randy Miller off the record, and he'll trash you on your way out of town.
The Flyers and the Philadelphia media deserve each other.