Voorhees - - To say that the Flyers new goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov is personable is an understatement. His English is pretty good and the reason he’s such a good teammate is the fact that he’s very personable.

I had a chance to see him practice with the Coyotes last season at the “Class of 1923” rink on the U-Penn campus late last season. I was the only member of the local media there and I had a chance to see him keeping other players loose and enjoying his surroundings.

The Russian goaltender looks extremely fit and it looks like he added 5 pounds of muscle. Although he joked about giving up smoking here:

http://youtu.be/_covvefE7Ns

Here is some bonus footage.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/ugBhVUDqH90

He answered a lot of questions so enjoy the meat of the press conference here:

http://youtu.be/jwshR1EONf4

Note - - It’s a bit early in the season to dissect some of the player injuries to see who will make it to camp and who might be out a bit longer. On the whole GM Paul Holmgren was very upbeat about Chris Pronger and the others but I think it’s too early to much too much stock in that since a lot can happen between now and then.