Tough day for Flyers fans. Amnestying Danny Briere’s contract is something that everybody saw coming, and frankly it had to be done. Yet he gave the franchise so many memorable moments during his six seasons in Orange & Black – 192 of his trademark fist pumps in regular season and playoffs combined to be exact – and he wanted to stay here so much, there’s no getting around how sad it is to see him go.
At least in one sense, Briere isn’t going anywhere. The two-time All Star spoke to the media about the impending buyout at the Flyers Skate Zone in Vorhees, NJ on Thursday, and while he intends to play in the NHL for another two or three years at minimum, Philadelphia will always remain his home.
You’ve been so entrenched in this community – will you continue to keep a home here?
Yes. Like I said, this is my home. Wherever I’m going to end up, the kids are staying here and I’m coming back here. This is my home – this is what we consider home now.
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Briere also praised the organization for their handling of the otherwise difficult news, and reminisced about his favorite memories as a Flyer.
When were you informed?
Last week. That’s why I have so much respect for the Flyers organization – Mr. Holmgren, Mr. Luukko, Mr. Snider and everybody that works in the Flyers organization. They were respectful the whole time. It wasn’t an easy thing for them either, meeting with me and having to break the news. But they did it with a lot of class. I’ll always be grateful for that and also my time here as a Flyer.
Is there something that stands out as the best moment in your Flyers career?
There’s a lot of good times. The first five years here were amazing. Obviously last year, not making the playoffs was a tough year – the lockout, the short season. That was the tough one. But before that, the previous five, there were a lot of good memories. The one that I think stands out the most was the [2010] playoff run – making the playoffs on the last regular season game, on a shootout, and going on that run all the way to Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals. That’s definitely probably the best little stretch of my time here.
>> Full transcript [Flyers.com]
