It’s too late for Ilya Bryzgalov to save Edmonton Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers have reportedly reached an agreement with goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov. Edmonton moved defenseman Ladislav Smid to clear cap space for the netminder to come on board, and the goalie will be charged with providing stability to a 4-11-2 team that currently sits in 28th in the NHL, and is 12 points out of the last Wild Card spot.

The “Bryzgalov as savior” storyline should sound familiar. The Philadelphia Flyers billed the  netminder as the answer to all their goaltending woes after dumping Jeff Carter and Mike Richards to ink him to a ludicrous and now-bought-out contract two years ago. While Smid doesn’t quite amount to Carter/Richards, it’s still an eerily similar line of thinking that is bringing him to Edmonton.

If the Oilers wanted to make a move like this they should have done it by the second or third week. At this point Bryzgalov is going to have to get back into NHL shape and get acclimated to a new city. And if he thought that Philadelphia was a fish bowl, wait until he gets a load of Edmonton.

We’re talking about a city that managed to chase Chris Pronger out of town after all.

While it was clear that the Oilers needed to upgrade over Devan Dubnyk, the fact that they went to the Bryzgalov card now that the season seems all but lost is interesting. Interesting to say the least.

They remove Smid from a defensive core that was lousy as it was and insert a goalie that hasn’t carried a team to anything worthwhile since playing for the Phoenix Coyotes. It’s no accident that Bryzgalov hasn’t been effective since leaving the peace and quiet of the desert.

And now the fate of the season rests on his ability to come in, be mentally strong and dig the Oilers out of a massive hole? Good luck with that.

He’ll crash land in Edmonton now, where he’ll be expected to push the team to victories. Immediately. Any kind of grace period was absorbed as management dragged their feet in addressing their clear problem in net. You never want to make a knee-jerk reaction, but is it better to make a move out of desperation?

We’ll know the answer to that question soon, and for better or for worse, Bryzgalov in Edmonton should be wickedly entertaining.