Briere has credentials to ride off with MVP

Bruins captain Zdeno Chara (right) celebrates with Dany Heatley after scoring the first of his two goals. (JIM MCISAAC/GETTY IMAGES)

DALLAS -- The week didn't start well for Daniel Briere.

The Buffalo Sabres forward ran into travel problems en route to the All-Star festivities, missing the media availability session Monday.

Then when he arrived at American Airlines Center, Briere didn't have the right credentials, prompting security to keep him from entering the rink.

So you could imagine that winning MVP honors -- and the Dodge Nitro truck that came with it -- in last night's All-Star Game was extra sweet.

"I never thought I'd leave with the car," said Briere (five points, one shy of the All-Star record), who joked that he had to share his new ride with his teammates upon his return to upstate New York.

Briere was voted as a starter for last night's game, but he was overshadowed by his young linemates, Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin.

In fact, Briere didn't even last long on the line. Coach Lindy Ruff replaced Briere with Brendan Shanahan, putting Briere with Dany Heatley and Marian Hossa.

"It was exciting being in the starting lineup with those two guys, the future faces of the NHL," Briere said. "Even if they referred to me as the other guy on the line, I didn't care."

One of Briere's four assists was on Zdeno Chara's first goal, a clever dish to the defenseman in the slot.

"He deserves it," Chara said of Briere. "We're all happy for him."

Despite the NHL's flagging attendance figures -- so far, they trail last year's record gates by 0.5 percent -- commissioner Gary Bettman is encouraged to see the numbers rising every month.

"January, to date, is the highest-attended January we've ever had, including last year when we set the attendance record," Bettman said Tuesday. "So in terms of people attending games, they're speaking."

Bruins executive vice president Charlie Jacobs is banking on a similar trend in Boston.

The Bruins have had only four capacity crowds of 17,565 in 25 games at TD Banknorth Garden. In 2005-06, the first post-lockout year, there were 11 sellouts through 25 home games.

That's why Jacobs, who jetted out of Dallas Tuesday after attending the NHL Board of Governors meeting, was disappointed in the last home match, a 3-0 loss to the Ottawa Senators before a full house Saturday.

"It's really a crapshoot," Jacobs said of the Bruins' up-and-down performances. "The last game, being a sold-out Saturday, the Bruins have to have some starch to their game."

The Bruins are averaging 14,382 this season, well off the pace they set last year. Through 25 home games last season, they averaged 16,648.

This season, the smallest crowd has been 10,965 Dec. 16, when the Bruins lost, 6-3, to the Florida Panthers. A week later, the Montreal Canadiens came to Boston. The Bruins played before a packed and jacked-up house that the players, following a 4-2 victory, called the loudest they've heard all season.

"Thursday nights remain soft," said Jacobs. "But we can still run promotions like College Night. Saturdays have been pretty good. We've got a good Monday night [against the New York Rangers] coming up. We've got pretty good ones coming up. I think two of the next four are already sold out. That's always the case as baseball and football die down."

For the first time, the All-Star Game aired on Versus, the NHL's national cable partner in the United States. According to network figures, Versus is available in more than 70 million homes. But the NHL has yet to make a dent in the ratings on Versus, although Bettman believes there has been progress. "This is not going to be a decision that's easily judged in the short term," he said. "This will be a decision where we're going to look back in three years or four years and decide whether or not it was the right decision. I still maintain that for this game, long-term, it was the right decision." . . . Joe Sakic had four helpers, making him the all-time leader in All-Star assists (16) . . . Six players last night wore different numbers than they do for their employers: Heatley, Eric Staal, Patrick Marleau, Andy McDonald, Ryan Smith, and Joe Thornton. East goalies Ryan Miller and Martin Brodeur, both of whom wear No. 30, did not change their numbers . . . Nine of the 42 All-Stars played college hockey, with Wisconsin being the only school with multiple representatives (Heatley and Brian Rafalski).