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MM213
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Hi guys!
Sorry for disappearing. I wasn't deported to Russia, sent to Gulag or eaten by bears. Just too much going on and never enough time.
I do read this forum and wonder why the fuck no one misses me and if Wings won the Cup I would've been all over the place saying "I told you so"
To make up for my absence I'm giving you an exclusive translation of original interview with our good buddy Bryzgalov (from Soviet Sport by Pavel Lysenkov, not the castrated and badly translated version from Puke Daddy)
=========================================================
We were sitting outside café and Ilya was talking how he spends his summer. First the whole family flies to Hawaii. Then he goes to Moscow suburbs where he builds a house near New Riga highway. After that he goes back to his hometown, Tolyatti.
- Are you building your home yourself?
- You don't believe? Look! – Bryzgalov shows his palms – My all hands are in blisters! I don't use construction workers. They build really bad … For the 4th year I'm doing it myself. For now my family lives in a summer cottage near Zelenograd
- Build a house, plant a tree, raise a son – is it a meaning of life for you?
- Good plan. Already planted trees, built a summer house. Have a son and a daughter. What, raising a daughter is not as important? I don't think about the meaning of life. I just live.
- Do you think you weren't invited to World Championships because you openly criticized a national team coach, Slava Bykov?
- There was a lot going on in Russian national team for the last year and half. I can't even say why I wasn't invited to World Championship. Simply don't know. Ask people who made the decision.
- Did you refuse to go to Bratislava? Or Bykov didn't invite you?
- I said I wanted to play. But ended up not being there
- Is it because you let in 17 goals in playoffs against Red Wings?
- Detroit just went out and destroyed us. I may have let in 1-2 bad goals, but that's it. Once the puck bounced off my leg. Don't even remember the second one. Wings did everything to make my life difficult. I didn't see most of the goals. They simply tore me apart.
- Why didn't you give interviews at Worlds-2009? Were you angry at journalists?
- I wasn't angry at anyone. Could it be that I just didn't want to talk?
- And then? Now you are talking to them
- Then I changed my mind. Possible?
- One agent said: "Bryzgalov is an ideal client. If only you could sew his mouth shut"
- Who said it?
- It's not important. But that was related to the story with Winnipeg, when you said you won't play there: "City, where there is a terrible cold, no parks and amusements". Canadians didn't take that story well.
- At least I'll be somehow remembered in North America. But you, saying that, surprised me. Who said such a good words about me? Ideal client! Normally people talk really bad about me. Not even knowing me they say: Bryzgalov has a complex, simply bad temper.
- Really?
- I learn it from your people [journalists]. I'm reading and thinking: "I don't know this guy, yet he has my entire resume ready. Like he knows me all my life.
- Does it bother you?
- I don't care. As to my frankness – yes, I had problems with it in past
- The story with Mikhailov?
- Forget it. I was a 20 y.o. boy back then. Emotional, ambitious, not very smart. Boris Petrovich announced a roster he thought was the best for First Channel Cup. I thought I belonged there. But who cared what I was thinking? Coach made the decision, that's all.
- I remember how you replaced Lada goaltender Vincent Riendeau, when he let in 2 goals. Just dressed and jumped on the ice
- Yes, it was in playoffs when Lada played in Perm. The coach couldn't decide to make a goalie change, so I decided for him.
- Wanted to do the same in Vancouver?
- Very much. But imagine how it would look? The whole World is watching the Olympics. Hundreds of millions people are watching our game against Canada. And you want me to go to the net the other goalie refuses to leave? That would've been funny.
- Is it true that in the first intermission (when score was already 1:4) players started to say: "We should go with Bryzgalov"?
- Why didn't they put me in the goal then?
- Because Bykov said: "Let's play for Zhenka [Nabokov]"
- Not true. Bykov didn't even go to our locker room after the first period. Normally he would show up there during the intermission. But back then we were already in a hallway. There was only 1 minute left until the beginning of the second period when Bykov and Zakharkin came out of the coach's room.
- Probably they were shocked too
- Who wouldn't be shocked? Well, them. Players, fans –they can be in shock. But not someone who's leading the parade.
Did I say something I shouldn't have? But I'm already tired of empty interviews where people say: "We were fighting, but it was just a bad luck". In reality, it wasn't like that.
They won't invite me to a national team? OK. I'll feel bad because I want to play. But truth is more important.
- After Bratislava everyone realized that Bryzgalov should've been at championships. National team failed to win a medal, Bykov and Zakharkin were fired
- Professional sport doesn't forgive weaknesses. It's a jungle. You step on the ice – you better have the best players. Coach must understand – there is no one better than them. And players must know that. Then you wouldn't be thinking: what if player X was playing, we would've had a better result.
It creates a negative environment in the team. Maybe boys don't believe in some player. Yet someone insists he plays. How are you going to play when you know that this forward will never score or that goalie will never make a save? What do you expect from a team like that?
- I feel bad for Nabokov. His play at the championships undermined his career. Could you say he was set up? They let on the ice the goalie who wasn't ready.
- Why was he set up? Didn't he know where he was heading? He didn't want to play at the championship? Of course he wanted. What happened to Nabokov is his own fault. No one else's. I can say the same about any other person.
- Will you have a summer camp for kids this year?
- Yes. One in Tolyatti (on July 15-17), the other one in Moscow (July 29-31). KHL helps me with Moscow camp and Lada – with the one in Tolyatti. I haven't had a kids' camp in Russia in five years. But I told about this idea to my friend Petr Lidov from Megafon and they helped me.
- Are these camps for goaltenders only?
- Any players can come, play with puck. Spectators are welcome too. I'll be glad to see everybody.
- Why do you need this?
- I want to help people. Share my knowledge with kids. I know they need it.
- Did you watch juniors final Canada-Russia?
- First period and half. Canadians were leading 3:0. Then I had to leave to take care of business.
- What happened to young talents? Where did they disappeared? There is no one to call up to the national team even though our juniors are World champions.
- Corruption. Also nobody needs them
- What do you mean?
- Our hockey managers don't need juniors.
- Let's be specific. Are you surprised by the story in Cherepovets?
- Where they took a cut from young players' salaries? Explain what happened there
- Severostal created a players fund [to distribute percentage og younger players' salaries between veterans]
- Based on what?
- Team decided that
- Who?
- Team management
- Is it legal?
- Black cash
- So what's the question? You just answered yourself
- How do you fight it?
- What can you do if it's not a hockey problem, but a Russian problem? Everybody takes bribes. People only think how to stuff their pockets. "Don't care if there is a flood after I'm gone" [Russian proverb]. Nobody cares about future. People taking bribes think they care about their families, kids. But in reality, money just travel from one pocket to another. It's terrible.
- You ever tried to bribe anybody?
- Never
- Even Russian policemen? [notorious bribe-takers]
- They tried to extort money from me. I just say: "Give me the ticket". Then pay it legally
Sorry for disappearing. I wasn't deported to Russia, sent to Gulag or eaten by bears. Just too much going on and never enough time.
I do read this forum and wonder why the fuck no one misses me and if Wings won the Cup I would've been all over the place saying "I told you so"
To make up for my absence I'm giving you an exclusive translation of original interview with our good buddy Bryzgalov (from Soviet Sport by Pavel Lysenkov, not the castrated and badly translated version from Puke Daddy)
=========================================================
We were sitting outside café and Ilya was talking how he spends his summer. First the whole family flies to Hawaii. Then he goes to Moscow suburbs where he builds a house near New Riga highway. After that he goes back to his hometown, Tolyatti.
- Are you building your home yourself?
- You don't believe? Look! – Bryzgalov shows his palms – My all hands are in blisters! I don't use construction workers. They build really bad … For the 4th year I'm doing it myself. For now my family lives in a summer cottage near Zelenograd
- Build a house, plant a tree, raise a son – is it a meaning of life for you?
- Good plan. Already planted trees, built a summer house. Have a son and a daughter. What, raising a daughter is not as important? I don't think about the meaning of life. I just live.
- Do you think you weren't invited to World Championships because you openly criticized a national team coach, Slava Bykov?
- There was a lot going on in Russian national team for the last year and half. I can't even say why I wasn't invited to World Championship. Simply don't know. Ask people who made the decision.
- Did you refuse to go to Bratislava? Or Bykov didn't invite you?
- I said I wanted to play. But ended up not being there
- Is it because you let in 17 goals in playoffs against Red Wings?
- Detroit just went out and destroyed us. I may have let in 1-2 bad goals, but that's it. Once the puck bounced off my leg. Don't even remember the second one. Wings did everything to make my life difficult. I didn't see most of the goals. They simply tore me apart.
- Why didn't you give interviews at Worlds-2009? Were you angry at journalists?
- I wasn't angry at anyone. Could it be that I just didn't want to talk?
- And then? Now you are talking to them
- Then I changed my mind. Possible?
- One agent said: "Bryzgalov is an ideal client. If only you could sew his mouth shut"
- Who said it?
- It's not important. But that was related to the story with Winnipeg, when you said you won't play there: "City, where there is a terrible cold, no parks and amusements". Canadians didn't take that story well.
- At least I'll be somehow remembered in North America. But you, saying that, surprised me. Who said such a good words about me? Ideal client! Normally people talk really bad about me. Not even knowing me they say: Bryzgalov has a complex, simply bad temper.
- Really?
- I learn it from your people [journalists]. I'm reading and thinking: "I don't know this guy, yet he has my entire resume ready. Like he knows me all my life.
- Does it bother you?
- I don't care. As to my frankness – yes, I had problems with it in past
- The story with Mikhailov?
- Forget it. I was a 20 y.o. boy back then. Emotional, ambitious, not very smart. Boris Petrovich announced a roster he thought was the best for First Channel Cup. I thought I belonged there. But who cared what I was thinking? Coach made the decision, that's all.
- I remember how you replaced Lada goaltender Vincent Riendeau, when he let in 2 goals. Just dressed and jumped on the ice
- Yes, it was in playoffs when Lada played in Perm. The coach couldn't decide to make a goalie change, so I decided for him.
- Wanted to do the same in Vancouver?
- Very much. But imagine how it would look? The whole World is watching the Olympics. Hundreds of millions people are watching our game against Canada. And you want me to go to the net the other goalie refuses to leave? That would've been funny.
- Is it true that in the first intermission (when score was already 1:4) players started to say: "We should go with Bryzgalov"?
- Why didn't they put me in the goal then?
- Because Bykov said: "Let's play for Zhenka [Nabokov]"
- Not true. Bykov didn't even go to our locker room after the first period. Normally he would show up there during the intermission. But back then we were already in a hallway. There was only 1 minute left until the beginning of the second period when Bykov and Zakharkin came out of the coach's room.
- Probably they were shocked too
- Who wouldn't be shocked? Well, them. Players, fans –they can be in shock. But not someone who's leading the parade.
Did I say something I shouldn't have? But I'm already tired of empty interviews where people say: "We were fighting, but it was just a bad luck". In reality, it wasn't like that.
They won't invite me to a national team? OK. I'll feel bad because I want to play. But truth is more important.
- After Bratislava everyone realized that Bryzgalov should've been at championships. National team failed to win a medal, Bykov and Zakharkin were fired
- Professional sport doesn't forgive weaknesses. It's a jungle. You step on the ice – you better have the best players. Coach must understand – there is no one better than them. And players must know that. Then you wouldn't be thinking: what if player X was playing, we would've had a better result.
It creates a negative environment in the team. Maybe boys don't believe in some player. Yet someone insists he plays. How are you going to play when you know that this forward will never score or that goalie will never make a save? What do you expect from a team like that?
- I feel bad for Nabokov. His play at the championships undermined his career. Could you say he was set up? They let on the ice the goalie who wasn't ready.
- Why was he set up? Didn't he know where he was heading? He didn't want to play at the championship? Of course he wanted. What happened to Nabokov is his own fault. No one else's. I can say the same about any other person.
- Will you have a summer camp for kids this year?
- Yes. One in Tolyatti (on July 15-17), the other one in Moscow (July 29-31). KHL helps me with Moscow camp and Lada – with the one in Tolyatti. I haven't had a kids' camp in Russia in five years. But I told about this idea to my friend Petr Lidov from Megafon and they helped me.
- Are these camps for goaltenders only?
- Any players can come, play with puck. Spectators are welcome too. I'll be glad to see everybody.
- Why do you need this?
- I want to help people. Share my knowledge with kids. I know they need it.
- Did you watch juniors final Canada-Russia?
- First period and half. Canadians were leading 3:0. Then I had to leave to take care of business.
- What happened to young talents? Where did they disappeared? There is no one to call up to the national team even though our juniors are World champions.
- Corruption. Also nobody needs them
- What do you mean?
- Our hockey managers don't need juniors.
- Let's be specific. Are you surprised by the story in Cherepovets?
- Where they took a cut from young players' salaries? Explain what happened there
- Severostal created a players fund [to distribute percentage og younger players' salaries between veterans]
- Based on what?
- Team decided that
- Who?
- Team management
- Is it legal?
- Black cash
- So what's the question? You just answered yourself
- How do you fight it?
- What can you do if it's not a hockey problem, but a Russian problem? Everybody takes bribes. People only think how to stuff their pockets. "Don't care if there is a flood after I'm gone" [Russian proverb]. Nobody cares about future. People taking bribes think they care about their families, kids. But in reality, money just travel from one pocket to another. It's terrible.
- You ever tried to bribe anybody?
- Never
- Even Russian policemen? [notorious bribe-takers]
- They tried to extort money from me. I just say: "Give me the ticket". Then pay it legally
