Danny Briere: An Appreciation

Thanks to NJ.com

by Bob Herpen
Phanatic Hockey Editor 

Look hard enough into your mind's eye, and you'll notice that the arc of a Flyers fan celebrating a timely goal in the regular season or playoffs matches that of those sullied, special shavings of ice ripped from their resting place and thrown through the air after a Danny Briere goal celebration.

It happened less often that we had hoped in the last two seasons, and brought out a wave of keyboard general managers that wished him either traded or bought out.

Are you happy now?

Still, that dipping hand-sweep in the wake of a friendly red light will be imprinted in hearts and minds like Ron Hextall's rhythmic swinging at his posts, Brian Propp's Guffaw and Scott Hartnell's playful hand-to-ear gesture to a Hulk-dressed Penguins fan.

He's going to be really hard to dislike. It might get confusing. It already is for at least one ex-teammate.

"We landed [Friday] and driving on the highway to downtown there's a big billboard of Danny B," Hartnell said hours before the contest. "We weren't even in the city two minutes and we were already seeing his face all over the place."

Think of what it's like to be a Montreal Canadiens fan.

Those Francophones who sought to give Briere the business with lusty boos and whistles every time he set foot inside the Bell Centre in Orange and Black (17 times in all, with Philly going 8-9 including playoffs) are going to have to get accustomed to his face.

Even though the jeers largely subsided after the Flyers whipped the upstart Canadiens in a five-game Eastern Conference Finals in May of 2010, the grudge was still present: the Gatineau native and, more importantly, native French speaker spurned his "hometown" club for a lucrative eight-year, $52 million contract with Philadelphia in July of 2007 and no Habs fans worth his or her salt could forget that snub. Until now. Strange how the tides turn once the Bleu, Blanc et Rouge is pulled over one's head.

Back on the homefront, forget about the bizarre 23-game goal drought through the Winter of 2012, or the fact that he scored just one goal in his last 21 appearances during last year's disaster of a lockout-shortened campaign. He's one of us. You know it. Briere lived and played here long enough to experience the bittersweet life of a Delaware Valley sports fan, except he was the one inside the TV all the way.

Remember this, from June 20, the day Paul Holmgren made it official: "I just want to say thank you to all the fans and my teammates for the wonderful last six years here. Also, I want to thank the Flyers organization for treating me so well during my stay here. I will always be grateful to everyone around the team for my time spent as a Flyer.”

Six years. Long enough to arrive here married with three kids, but ending up divorced and taking on a fourth kid in Claude Giroux. Setting a new franchise record for points in a playoff season with 30 in a futile attempt at winning the franchise's third Stanley Cup in a Finals which ended in the worst fashion imaginable.

Even the simple task of driving his kids up to relatives in Quebec turned into a meditation on the fragility of life and presence of blind luck, when Briere's SUV avoided worse damage in a collision with a truck on Interstate 81 in New York as the tired 32-year-old began to falter at the wheel.

But we'll always have the good times. Like the first time he "blew the roof off" the South Broad Street venue. Or when he stuck it to Les Habitants in La Belle Province before the Olympic break four years ago. And the beauty in the Beast of a Game 6. How about the time he capped a trifecta with the overtime winner? And then scored the OT winner on his birthday. The only magic found in a disaster of a Devils series, the one he got away with in Pittsburgh, and his final salvo on a pseudo-holiday.

Though he missed the Flyers' last torch-passing ceremony by 11 years, you have to admit, this was pretty damn cool to see.

Like Rob DiMaio and Marty Murray before him, the undersized but lionhearted Briere cemented his place in franchise lore as a guy who made the most of what he was given, which was all you can ever ask a player no matter if he's on the club year-to-year or arrived with the fanfare of a heralded free agent. And yes, it only meant something to people in our line of work, but he was a true professional in the locker room as well.  I still have no clue why some colleagues and ex-Flyers thought I looked like him.I wonder if he thinks it's a compliment.

It's a lock Briere will get the video board treatment when the Canadiens first play in Philly on December 12, as it was for Simon Gagne, Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, and as it should be. Another in the steady diaspora deserving of rousing applause, and then respect when he inevitably scores against the Orange and Black either home or away.

"I can't wait for the first period to be over," Briere said after practice Friday to TSN's Arpon Basu. "I think after the first it will be a little easier to move on and the first step will be taken."

Bonne nuit et bonne chance.