Los Angeles – Ilya Bryzgalov, the lovable former Wild goalie and quote machine, was a correspondent for Players' Tribune during Saturday's media day during All-Star Weekend.
He was a riot, as usual, walking up to reporters who used to cover him, saying, "Miss me?"
Told the Wild may be in the market for a backup goalie to expose in the expansion draft, Bryzgalov, who went 7-1-3 for the Wild in 2014 with a 2.12 goals-against average and played nine playoff games, cracked, "I'd need a little time. I'm ready to go for the next year."
In one of his funniest assignments, Bryzgalov interviewed his former Wild teammate, All-Star Ryan Suter. The two used to hysterically talk politics in Minnesota, so of course, Bryz- galov on camera asked Suter his favorite President.
"George W. Bush," was the answer.
Bryzgalov then went on a tangent about how good Will Ferrell's parody of George W. was, saying, "Just, it's hilarious. I couldn't stop watching. He tried to get reelected a third time."
Bryzgalov ended the interview by asking Suter the same math question he asked every player, one he claimed all the Russians got correct and all the North Americans didn't.
"I'm not good at math. My son, who's 6, he's better at math than me," Suter said.
The equation? "Two plus two multiplied by two."
"Two plus two is four, multiplied by two is eight," answered Suter.
When told it's actually six because the order of operations in math is you multiply before adding, Suter said, "I wasn't there that day [of school]."
Bryzgalov has been impressed with the Wild this season, saying All-Star Devan Dubnyk has "elevated his game to another level. I know how great an organization it is. just a great team. Great players, great people. It's a great atmosphere. It's tough to not have success in this organization."
Coach has some tricks
Bruce Boudreau some strategy for Sunday's 3-on-3 All-Star Game tournament that will pit the Central Division vs. the Pacific in the first semifinal.
First, obviously, Chicago's trio of Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith will be a set, the Wild coach said. Second, Suter will play with the two worst defensive forwards, which he promised he's just kidding about. Third, with a $1 million winner-take-all prize for the 11 players on the winning division, Boudreau joked he won't play anybody who won't pledge the coach a piece of the pie. Fourth, if it's crunch time and the Central plays the Metropolitan in the Final, Boudreau plans to call for his former Washington superstar Alex Ovechkin's stick to be measured for an illegal curve.
Told of that strategy Saturday, Ovechkin said, "Settle down, Bruce."
Burns or Cousin Eddie?
Former Wild defenseman Brent Burns, sporting his signature beard and man bun Saturday, said he used his prorated portion of the $1 million bonus last year for the Pacific Division winning in Nashville to buy an RV.
"I tried to keep it away from the old lady," Burns said. "I had her fooled. She thought it was $1,000. Somebody else told her it was more."
Last week, Burns scored his 20th goal in 48 games to become the fastest defenseman to hit that mark since Washington's Kevin Hatcher in 1992-93.
Etc.
• With Columbus coach John Tortorella not coaching in the All-Star Game because his deployed son's dog is gravely ill, Wayne Gretzky will coach the Metropolitan Division on Sunday.
• Cuba Gooding Jr. scored the winning goal in Saturday's Celebrity Shootout, one that included Justin Bieber. Gretzky joked "There's a lot of great players that weren't great skaters who could score goals, and he just got a big goal."
• While there was no official vote on whether NHL players will participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea at Saturday's Board of Governors meeting, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly continued to indicate the league won't be going.
• Former Wild coach Jacques Lemaire is well aware how well the Western Conference-leading Wild is playing. He told assistant coach Scott Stevens, his former Devils player, "You're doing well. Somebody's coaching good there."
