BIRON: Team bonding was key during 2006 series against Ottawa

Game 1 of the Ottawa series in 2006 had to be the craziest game I'd been a part of. It was back and forth all game but nobody was ever in control.

The puck was bouncing all over the place and everybody seemed to have a nervous energy to their game. You won't see too many 6-6 playoff games, but it was for sure entertaining.

Even when Ottawa scored to make it 6-5 with just over a minute left in the game, we had the feeling something crazy could still happen. Now I don't remember much about Chris Drury's OT goal because Tim Connolly was in the locker room hallway still tying up his skates that needed to get sharpened during the intermission.

Lindy Ruff kept asking me, "Where is TC?" So I was trying to make him hurry up a bit. As I turned back towards the bench, our full team was jumping up and down. We ended up celebrating right by the bench and Timmy and I celebrated like we had seen the whole thing happen!!!

Now I could go into the game-by-game details on what it was like to be in that second-round matchup. I won't do that.

Everybody knows how it played out. Connolly suffered a concussion on a hit from Peter Schaefer in Game 2, we won three games in overtime and Jason Pominville scored what could be the best shorthanded series-clinching goal ever!

We'll revisit all four wins each weeknight at 8 p.m. on "Sabres Classics" starting Monday on MSG.

What I really want to talk about is our setup at the Brookstreet Hotel in Kanata, Ontario during the playoffs. We had the whole top floor to ourselves. Only the players.

There was a lounge at the end of the hallway and there, we had food, drinks (mostly Gatorade and water!). Chuck, our massage therapist, would set up his table to do treatments. There were a few TVs to watch other playoff games, a PlayStation where we would battle playing "Tiger Woods PGA Tour," and most importantly for me, a couple of tables where we could play cards.

We played a lot of cards.

Our foursome was Daniel Briere, J-P Dumont, Jay McKee and me. They were always way better at cards than me, but I hung in there.

There wasn't a lot to do in Kanata at the time and having the guys hang out at the hotel together is a big reason why this team was special.

It took 14 years, but we finally got that card game back together for "Beyond Blue and Gold: Scary Good," which you can watch right here: