Vote Daniel Briere for All-Star

In keeping with the friendly wager made with Kevin from BFLOBLOG, I am now obliged to write a gushing post about Daniel Brière.

Daniel Brière was the bastard child of a truckstop hooker. His mother abandoned him in an alleyway and he was raised by wolves.

Oh, wait. That's not true.

Daniel Brière was born October 6, 1977 in Gatineau, Quebec. This date and place will one day be the stuff holidays are made of. He loved baseball and spent a lot of time watching his beloved Montréal Expos. He probably watched on television as his future Sabres co-captain Chris Drury pitched a complete game victory and was the MVP in the championship game of the 1989 Little League World Series as Trumbull, Connecticut interrupted what would have been a six year run by Taiwan. Of course, Danny also loved hockey.

As an 18 year-old kid playing for the Drummondville Voltigeurs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Brière notched an astonishing 163 points (67/96) in 67 games played.
Unfortunately for Brière, NHL scouts told him that there was no way a guy of his size could make it in the NHL. He was just 5'8" and weighed only 150 pounds.

At that young age, Brière decided that he wasn't going to let anyone tell him "No". Instead of giving up, or switching to baseball or tennis or soccer, he worked even harder and gained attention despite his tiny size.

In the 1996 NHL Entry Draft, which has since been determined to be the weakest in history, Brière slipped all the way to the 24th pick, where he was selected by Phoenix. In hindsight, those 23 GMs who selected other players with their first round pick look like fools. Only a handful of players in that class ever made it to the NHL, and obviously, none of them can hold a candle to Brière.

He spent one more season in Drummondville, where he notched 130 points (52/78) in 59 games. Then one season with the Springfield Falcons of the AHL, where he had 92 (36/56) points in 68 games. He won the Dudley "Red" Garrett Memorial Award for being the top rookie in the AHL that year. After the Falcons were eliminated from Calder Cup playoffs, he joined the big team for the remainder of the 1997-98 season. He only appeared in five games, and only registered one point, but he scored a goal in his second NHL appearance.

As part of his off season training, Brière used to employ the help of Hugo Girard, who was a World's Strongest Man contestant from the same home town as Daniel. He knew that at 5'10" he was always going to be one of the smallest players in the League. He was determined, though, to be one of the strongest.

It took a few years of bouncing back and forth between the AHL and NHL, but Brière finally settled in to the NHL in the 2001-02 season, when he played 78 games for the Yotes, notching 60 points (32/28). The goals and points totals were tops on the team that season.

At the trade deadline in 2003, Darcy Regier orchestrated one of the best trades in history. He sent Chris Gratton and a 4th round 2004 draft selection to the 'Yotes in exchange for Brière and a 3rd round selection in 04. Both the player and the pick are better deals for Buffalo.

Including tonight's game, Brière has appeared in 181 regular season games for the Sabres and has recorded 179 points (74/105).

If not for a cheap shot from Darius Kaspiaritis last season, Brière would have been among the league leaders in points, goals, and assists. In just 48 games, he had 58 points (25/33). Compounded over a full healthy season, that's like scoring 43 goals and 56 assists. Those would have been good enough to put him in the top ten in goals and points.

In the playoffs, while the hockey gods unjustly saw fit to decimate the Sabres lineup with injuries, Brière was a stud. In 18 games, he tallied 19 points (8/11). That's in the top nine in every category. Had it been the Sabres, and not the Canes, in the Stanley Cup Finals, Brière surely would have kept his point-a-night pace up and would have clearly been the best player in the playoffs. He might have been anyway. Certainly it would be his name, and not that of Cam Ward, on the Conn Smythe.

Daniel Brière will never be the biggest guy on the ice. Through very hard work and determination, he has made himself into one of the quickest, one of the strongest, and one of the most talented players in the League. With that kind of talent, unfortunately, comes the haters. People dislike Brière, saying things like "he's a little bitch" or "he's cocky" or things of this nature. All they're really saying is "I'd be proud to have that guy on my team".

Last summer, the 29-year-old was one of 11 Sabres players who filed for salary arbitration. His case was heard first. In fact, his was the first arbitration hearing for the entire League. After a loooong hearing, the arbiter came back with a ruling that stunned a lot of people -- $5M. He went from making $1.93 to making more than 2 1/2 times that. It's worth every penny.

For his off season training, paralleled only by Rod Brind'Amour, his hard work, his speed, his strength, his skill, his leadership on and off the ice, Daniel Brière is a player that every fan should love.

Vote Brière for All-Star. Vote often.

Off the ice, Brière has a wife Sylvie(who is, apparently, queen of the pick-up games) and three sons Caelan, Carson, and Cameron. All are under the age of 9 and they're all making an effort to follow in their father's footsteps. During the second intermission of the Canes-Sabres game, the Canes TV aired a piece about Brière, and it's obvious that he's a really good dad to those boys.

Vote for Brière, vote often.