Briere and Pominville: Once teammates, now rivals

Former linemates and still good friends, Jason Pominville and Danny Briere shook hands after the Flyers-Sabres regular-season game eight days ago and told one another they probably wouldn't be speaking for a while because they'd be busy with the playoffs.

"Then we ended up playing each other, so the next time we speak it'll probably be at the handshake," Pominville said Friday after the Sabres worked out in preparation for Saturday's Game 2 of a first-round series against the Flyers.

Pominville was alluding to the traditional handshake that follows every NHL playoff series. Hockey's culture pretty much forbids fraternizing during the playoffs, so neither Pominville nor Briere sought each other out Thursday even though both teams practiced at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. So the next time Pominville and Briere speak, one will be smiling and offering condolences and the other will be grim and bitterly disappointed.

Of course, it's too early in the series to determine which one of the two buddies will move on to the second round, but Pominville's chance to do so increased with Buffalo's 1-0 win in Thursday's series opener at the Wells Fargo Center.

Briere, who at 33 is five years older, helped ease Pominville's transition to the NHL when the Sabres called up the right winger from the American Hockey League early in the 2005-06 season. The following season, Briere helped Pominville score 34 goals with his clever passing skills. But their days as linemates ended when Briere signed a free-agent contract with the Flyers before the 2007-08 season.

Now, Pominville and Briere, who frequently have had dinner together, are trying to eat each other's lunch.

"The first couple of times we played against each other, you know, you're used to seeing him in a Sabres uniform and all of a sudden he's on a different team," Pominville said. "So it was kind of weird. But now we've adjusted and he's doing his thing with the Flyers and we've moved on from our side."

The only times Pominville and Briere were on the ice at the same time Thursday were during the five Flyers power plays. Pominville, who had 22 goals and 30 assists in 73 regular-season games, spent 4 minutes, 15 seconds on Buffalo's penalty-killing unit, which successfully snuffed out the Flyers' advantage.

Pominville and the Sabres know that the Flyers will play with a heightened sense of desperation in Game 2, and the winger said they will be prepared for it.

"They came out really hard last night," he said Friday. "They were physical right off the bat. They're in their building and they'll try to make a statement, which is fine and which we expected. They'll probably come out even harder tomorrow knowing that they're down 1-0 and they want to get back into this and get a win. If we were in that situation, we'd be doing the same thing."