Daniel Briere

Despite his lack of size Daniel Briere emerged as an exciting and clutch scorer, especially in the Stanley Cup playoffs. He was a hockey poolies' dream - as close to a guarantee as you can get in terms of playoff scoring production.

In 124 NHL post season contests Briere had an impressive 116 points including 53 goals. His consistency ranks him among the best of his peers.

"I knew when the game was on the line, I wanted to be the guy who was going to make the play. I wanted to have the puck, I wanted to find a way to make it happen."

Briere was a first-round pick (24th overall) of the Phoenix Coyotes back in 1996, after a spectacular career with the Drummondville Voltigeurs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. In 198 QMJHL games he scored an amazing 170 goals and 416 points, including 163 in his final season.

Yet his size - just five-foot-nine and 185lbs - was about the only numbers many focused on. Briere used that to motivate him.

"NHL executives or experts, ex-players ... had made some comments and had seen me play and most of the people all said that I was too small, too fragile to play in the NHL," Briere said. "I had a lot of those cut-ups in my room. I had a little box that I kept by my bed that any time things would get tough a little bit that I would open and read and keep up. That was kind of my motivation at the time to prove them wrong."

Yet he would struggle to make the NHL. It took him six seasons to emerge as a bonafide NHLer with the Coyotes, registering 32 goals and 60 points in the 2001-02 season.

"There was a lot of tough times, tough moments -- clearing waivers when nobody picked me up," Briere said. "That's another thing that I'm very proud of, that I fought and I never quit, and I kept working hard to achieve my dream."

He would regress the following season which led to his departure to Buffalo. With the Sabres he became one of the NHL's top scorers, remarkably using his nifty and shifty skating and puck handling skills to over come his diminutive size.

Briere soared in Buffalo, leading the team in scoring during his first full campaign, then established a career-high in points by notching 95 in 2006-07. Those Sabres teams made memorable deep runs into the playoffs, with Briere and Chris Drury capturing the fans' hearts.

Both players would be enticed by huge contract offers and leave in the summer of 2007 - Drury to the New York Rangers and Briere to the Philadelphia Flyers. The Sabres floundered soon after.

Briere went on to considerable success in Philadelphia, particularly in the playoffs where he cemented his reputation as a big game performer. He helped the Flyers to the conference final his first year and to the Stanley Cup final in 2010. Though they lost to Chicago, Briere led the team in scoring with 30 points in 23 games. He was gold in hockey pools.

Injuries finally started slowing down the undersized right winger by 2012. He achieved a dream of playing with the Montreal Canadiens in the 2013-14 season, even if he was rarely used by coach Michel Therrien.

“I feel fortunate that I had the chance to play here, to wear that uniform for a season. It’s something I’ll keep with me for a long time.

“Having a chance to play in front of the fans here was amazing. The (three-round) playoff run that we had, playing Boston, winning in seven games, an Original Six series, that was really cool. I have a lot of good memories. All I want to say is thank you to the fans and the Montreal organization for giving me the chance.”

Briere joined the Colorado Avalanche for his final NHL campaign in 2014-15.

Briere, a single father, finished his career with 307 goals and 696 points in 973 regular-season games. But being away from his kids, who live in Philadelphia, was too much of a price to pay.

"You come to a point where you have to think about your life, their life and who you're affecting with your decisions," Briere said. "As hockey players, you do something your whole life, and the decisions you have to make get tougher and tougher."

Daniel Briere: Mr. Clutch

"Call Mr. Clutch, that's his name. That name again, is Mr. Clutch."

Ah, Bob Cole. Hockey Night In Canada's elder statesman is so unmistakably bad that he is a beloved legend in his own right. Often he does not get the names right, but he did in the case of Daniel Briere, because he really is Mr. Clutch.

In 106 career playoff games Briere now has 50 goals and 107 points. That places him 69th all time among the 8,000 players or so who have played in NHL history.

His status in the "new" NHL is even more impressive. He is the highest scoring post-season player since the lockout of 2005. He leads in goals (tied with Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg), even strength goals, and games played. Only Sidney Crosby has more assists (57 compared to 56). Briere has 13 playoff game winning goals - teammate Jaromir Jagr is the only active player with more with 16.

There is only thing missing from Briere's playoff resume - the Stanley Cup.

Suspension Reinvention

When I heard Daniel Briere only got a 3 game suspension for his attempted decapitation of New York Islanders forward Franz Nielson, I was shocked.

So was Daniel Briere. I almost lost it when I heard Briere expressing his complete surprise and displeasure with the suspension:

"More shocked. I think surprised is not strong enough. Honestly, I'm shocked. I honestly didn't think I would get more than, after everything else, all of the suspensions that have been handed out the last couple of years and this year, honestly, I didn't think I was going to get a game. Then I thought, ok yes I am a repeat offender, they'll probably give me a game because of it. I'm shocked that it was more than a game."

I was shocked it was not more. As far as I am concerned, the only difference between the Briere incident and the Marty McSorley-Donald Brasher incident a few years back was the victim was not seriously injured. The intent was very much the same. If you want to take scary attacks like that out of the game you have to punish by intent, not effect. And there has to be a set standard of punishment.

Now I concede Briere's biggest punishment is the loss salary. He is out nearly 1/4 of a million bucks! I don't care if he makes well over $7 million a year, that is a significant chunk of change. There is a school of thought out there that the NHL would have suspended Briere - a repeat offender - more harshly in terms of time off the ice had his forfeited salary not been so high.

Which leads me to an idea. It's time to change the suspension formula. Cap lost salary at, say, a percentage of the player's income per incident, but allow him to continue a suspension beyond that point. If Briere had to sit out 6 or more games, a sentence I feel would be more adequate, he is hurting his team significantly.

This would better allow the NHL to punish for intent rather than outcome. Perhaps even more importantly this would allow the NHL to set actual standards for various transgressions. If you attack a player with your stick, you automatically sit out 10 games, regardless of how badly the victim is injured. If you blindside a guy, it is 5 games, or whatever.

There has to be some standards finally set on these issues, and they have to start punishing based on intent rather than injury.

The Small Man Has Always Been Able To Play

Daniel Briere is the NHL's reigning leading little man.

In a game where size is supposed to matter, physics might suggest a man the size of Briere, just 5'10" and 175lbs, shouldn't able to participate. But through immense talent, great speed, a dash of luck, and undeniable desire, Briere doesn't just participate, he dominates. He's overcome many obstacles in his career, but you could argue that he may be the best player in the National Hockey League right now not named Sidney Crosby.

Briere follows in the footsteps of other hockey midgets who defied tall odds to achieve great things in the rough and tumble world of the NHL. Martin St. Louis, Brian Gionta, Saku Koivu, Steve Sullivan, Martin Strake, Dan Boyle, Brian Rafalski are among the other veterans in Briere's skates.

The trail always had a few pint-sized blazers in the past, namely Theoren Fleury, Pat Verbeek, Igor Larionov, Ziggy Palffy, Cliff Ronning, Mats Naslund, Paul Kariya, Doug Gilmour, Donald Audette, even Tie Domi.

Even some of the all time greats were smurfs: Marcel Dionne, Ted Lindsay, Henri Richard, Camille Henry, King Clancy, Max Bentley, Dave Keon, Shrimp Worters Pat Stapleton, to name just a few. And hey, Steve Yzerman and Wayne Gretzky are hardly big men by NHL standards, yet their size was never a detraction.

While the new NHL is more inviting for the small, speedy skilled player, bottom line is these players all succeeded because they were willing to play the big man's game. They never backed down, never shied from the heavy traffic and dangerous corners, and even initiated physical play. Yes, they need to be skilled and they definitely need speed, perhaps more so than their larger competitors, but they also had to be willing to pay the physical price. It's the same story today as it was 10 years, 30 years ago and 50 years ago.

The myth about small hockey players not being able to play in the NHL has been busted time and time again. Daniel Briere is just the latest in a long line of fantastic players.