When the Philadelphia Flyers were featured on HBO's 24/7 leading up to the winter classic we learned that goalie Ilya Bryzgalov is fascinated by the universe.

 

Based on that, it shouldn't be much of a surprise that when he was asked on Wednesday what he would like to do with his life had he not been a hockey player, he responded by saying that he would like to be an astronaut.

And then the discussion turned to the loss of monkeys in space during early attempts at space flight. Actually, let's just turn it over to John Gonzalez of CSN Philadelphia for the play-by-play of the discussion:

“No, seriously,” he added.

At which point Bryzgalov began a long dissertation about the American space program versus the Soviet/Russian space program and which was superior. He noted that the first two animals in space were Russian dogs, which led to a strange exchange between Bryzgalov and a reporter about who had lost more monkeys in space -- the Americans or the Soviets/Russians. Bryzgalov conceded that too many monkeys had lost their lives in that vocation.  

“The problem with monkeys,” Bryzgalov quipped, “they push the wrong buttons.”
 
This is just the latest example of how Bryzgalov is the most unpredictable -- and entertaining -- interview in the league. Earlier in the postseason he talked about how the only thing he fears is bears in the forest, which led to Penguins fans wearing bear costumes to Games 1, 2 and 5 of their opening round series.

Honestly, there is not a more interesting player in the NHL.

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