Clearing The Air

Now that two years have passed, my view on the Chris Drury/Daniel Briere July 1 fiasco has changed greatly. At the time, I was all for Briere. It is still a controversial and hypocritical matter that sparks immediate tension if uttered around the city. Curse the NBC Game of the Week for causing me to think about this. Oh well, here goes.

For one, who would you rather have if you owned or coached a hockey club? Chris Druuuuury. He is the obvious answer. He’s Captain Clutch; he’s a leader. Briere is just a flashy player; he worked well with sniper Jason Pominville, and knows where to find the cookie stash.

His accent killed me, his little kids being mini-Dannys killed me, and his charity work with Camp Good Days is what reeled me in. But Drury is the better player, hands down.

The Sabres made that their clear intention. "We can’t sign both of them so we’re going to go after Chris." A good strategic move - it was practical and smart. That was blatant, and Briere understood this so his promise of taking a hometown discount was out the door. Drury rejected an offer and all eyes were turned to Briere.

Now, you can’t even try to tell me that if you were in Briere’s situation – a highly-skilled scoring forward, wanted by almost every team with the money, and the team you’ve called your family for years has decided you’re not number one – you wouldn’t look for other places to provide your services. Our world is too secular and very few people are genuine enough to take discounts and be true. Deny it all you want, but you’d shoulder the hurt from not being wanted and take a hike.

And the majority of Sabres fans now hate Briere with every atom of their existence after everything he and Drury did for the team together. But Drury is still a great player; he didn’t break their hearts at all. Everyone turned a blind eye on the truth. Drury said no first and even though he took a few extra hours to sign a deal, he said yes with his childhood favorite, the New York Rangers.

The source of their hate is partly due to the fact that Briere signed with the Philadelphia Flyers and a deal that would pay him $10 million his first season. That outraged Buffalonians. It was double the amount the Sabres offered him. They felt like they were stabbed in the back.

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