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Eakins wants Bryzgalov to watch his body language

Ilya Bryzgalov

Ilya Bryzgalov has a long history of giving unusual quotes, to the point where it rubbed Flyers GM Paul Holmgren the wrong way long before he was bought out. That issue hasn’t come up since he moved to Edmonton, but lately his reactions to conceded goals is drawing some unwanted attention.

The first incident occurred during Saturday’s game when his former Flyers scored the game-tying goal late in the third period and tossed his stick in frustration:

He started again on Tuesday and this time surrendered the game-tying goal to Phoenix’s Mikkel Boedker with just 1:10 minutes left in the third period. That led to him throwing his arms up in frustration and glared at one of his defensemen:

“If you’re doing it at one of your teammates, that’s not a very good thing to do, because sooner or later you’re going to make a mistake and I’m fairly certain you’re not going to want your teammates doing that to you,” Eakins told the Edmonton Sun, although he added that he doesn’t want to assume that Bryzgalov was attempting to call anyone out.

Eakins talked to Bryzgalov after he tossed his stick in the Flyers’ game and told him that he’s good with a goaltender venting frustration like that a couple times a season, but he still needs to “watch (his) body language on the ice.”

Of course, we’re only talking about this because the Oilers allowed late, game-tying goals in back-to-back contests. If that didn’t happen, we wouldn’t be able to develop a pattern based on how Bryzgalov reacts in those situations.

Edmonton is last in the Western Conference with a 13-24-5 record.

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