Yeah, Briere is falling out of favor fast, which is funny, because he has our two GWG's. I actually don't even think he's really been that bad.
I don't either really but I think him and Tanguay had about the same start. Difference is, Tanguay really started skating much better by game #5 or so and Briere hasn't. Maybe he can't anymore but he's still serviceable. Briere will probably move around all year from 3rd line + 2nd PP minutes to 4th line to healthy scratch until the playoffs (if we get there
)...
Cliche has been good on the PK this year. McLeod is the one whose terrible 24/7. Unfortunately, he won't be the one sitting.
I saw no more than 2-3 games where Cliche was skating his ass off like he wanted to stay in the lineup. He played one really good game and maybe 2 good games and 7 below average games, in my view.
In that whole time, he made maybe 2 or 3 noticeable plays that were positive and probably 10 poor plays (failed to clear / passed to opposing team / failed to pick up his man). In my opinion, he's just not an NHL caliber player...he's a fringe NHLer. If he skated every single game like he did in that one game he played, he's be a fixture on the 4th line but I don't think this is something he can/will keep up.