Jagr would seem more productive with Giroux if Giroux would start shooting...fact.
Briere's issues are much less on the defensive side than on the scoring front. Goals are scored far more, for example...with G's lines on the ice than they are with Briere's.
Giroux doesnt need Jagr to produce. That's my point.
If we could find chemistry between Briere and Jagr, the team would be infinitely better off. Giroux would keep scoring but we'd also get some from Briere as well.
I dont see Giroux's numbers dropping if he lost Hartnell and Jagr. He only really needs Hartnell on the PP.
I'm fine with trying anything in practice, but I would be nervous this line would get caught deep often -- and Briere doesn't backcheck effectively. Still, proof is always in the pudding.
Both Voracek and Simmonds frequently bust their ***** to get back on defense. But I agree, see what happens in practice...if there is anything to build on.
As long as he does well in the playoffs, I don't mind him not playing great most of the season. Obviously you'd prefer consistency, and playing well during the season probably helps to translate over into the playoffs, but if he does what he's done the last few seasons I'll forgive him a weak regular season.
He wasn't invisible by any means and on my count, he was directly involved/responsible for 18 of the Flyers points in the standings. There's a good chance we wouldn't have been watching a playoff game tonight if it wasn't for him. Briere haters need to lay off.
Last year, when Claude was living with Danny, this conversation took place:
DB - Oh Claude, could you come here for a second?
CG - What is it, father?
DB - Well son, I really don't care much for the regular season. So do me a favor and pick up the slack when it doesn't matter as much, and pappa will come in and take over when it gets to the playoffs.
CG - Sounds great, dad!
I would be perfectly happy if DB sat out the entire regular season, collecting his paycheck, as long as he shows up in the playoffs. People, that's what he's paid for, and he earns his damn check.
In all seriousness, the nearly as big reason for Briere always lighting it up in the playoffs as him battling harder, is that he's always been the #2.
In the playoffs all the teams try to 100 % to play their best shutdown 5 against the other's top line/s. Staal vs. Giroux. Talbot's and Read's line against Malkin and Crosby. And Briere sneaking around playing their ridiculous 4th line. Because when they got Malkin line out against Briere line in the 1st period, it looked bad...
But I'm exaggarating a little. I didn't mean that he plays most of his time against 4th lines. He has played the most against 2nd lines, like against Chicago. I just meant that he's always rid of the oppositions shutdown line, and as good as always rid of their 1st line as well.
He might've scored a lot in playoffs, but to be fair he's on for a lot of goals against even come playoff time. Against 2nd and 4th lines mostly.
The reason he's scored so crazy numbers (he would've scored good numbers either way) is that whilst the opponent has focused on the Drury-line, the Richards-line x3, and the Giroux line, Briere can sneak around not being put on shutdown notice. And that is worth a lot. In the regular season when neither us nor the opponents are as strictly playing shutdown line and 1st/best shutdown D-pairing vs. 1st line, Briere has to face shutdown lines a lot and 1st lines a lot. And then he just can't put up that sort of production.
Seriously, if Giroux got to play the shifts against the lines and D-pairs that Briere got to play against last year. Or this year. Or if Mike got to play against the same lines and D in our finals run.
Briere is pure clutch, but he benefits a lot from not being regular 1st-line material and gets matched up as such.
Briere is pure clutch, but he benefits a lot from not being regular 1st-line material and gets matched up as such.
he was 'clutch' in game 1, but neither should have been a goal.
i'll happily take them, but #1 was offside & #2 was an awful goal just thrown to the net through a Sid screen / between Fluery's glove & body.
credit for dumping it on net & the finish on goal #1, but we got lucky on both
Briere's shooting percentage is less than 1% higher in the post-season compared to the regular season for his career (excludes last night only). However, he does get more than 2 extra minutes per game (that could be because long overtimes, but those points still count). There's no doubt he raises his level of play in the playoffs, but one reason might be because he coasts during the regular season.
What do you think of Briere's sick secondary scoring taking his teams to conference finals or beyond 4 of the first 5 years after the lockout, as the teams top scorer, on teams that except Buffalo had absolutely nothing to do that deep in the playoffs?
He hasn't lucked up the playoffs, he's lit up them. I just felt the need to point up that he's had a lot easier opposition than Drury and Richard's first lines. But that's not that important either... I just felt like i wanted to highlight a reason he has produced so highly in the playoffs that most never come to think of.
