'One columnist said Briere "missed his date with history" and refused to become a "hero to a people." "The pride of playing for your gang, for folks who speak the same language as you didn't sway the balance," sports columnist Stephane Laporte wrote in his blog for the daily La Presse. "Are there any more great Quebec players who have the desire to stoke passions, rather than just live a quiet little existence in a suburb of Philadelphia?"'