"All I can tell you is, you saw it, I'm practicing and working to get ready," Briere said with a smile. "That's all I'm allowed to say at this point."
Briere, 34, was injured when he was hit cleanly by Pittsburgh's Joe Vitale on April 1. He missed the final three games of the regular season, saying he "didn't have the option" to get in a trial run before the playoffs began.
His return would give the Flyers an increased secondary scoring threat. He collected nine points in his final five games.
Wayne Simmonds was on a line with Matt Read and Eric Wellwood on Monday, though it wouldn't be surprising to see him reunited with Briere and Schenn for Game 1. Those three players may have been the Flyers' most potent line in the latter stages of March.
"Any time you get players on the ice, that's a positive thing," Laviolette said. "They've been skating for a while, so it was good to get them out there."
Briere is one of the NHL's best playoff performers. He is behind only Nicklas Lidstrom, Jaromir Jagr, Patrik Elias, Marian Hossa and Henrik Zetterberg among active career playoff points leaders with 96 points in 97 career postseason games.
No Flyer scored more points than Briere during the team's 2010 Stanley Cup final run, a notion that gives him a clean slate after a mostly disappointing regular season.
"There's nothing like playoff hockey," Briere said. "It's the best time of the year. You work hard all season to get in the playoffs, but this is another level. It's the time of year we're all waiting for."
Grossmann ready
Unlike Briere's case, it was hardly a surprise that defenseman Nick Grossmann was back at practice on Monday skating with his teammates. The Flyers said last week that Grossmann would only need about a week to return from a knee-to-knee hit on April 1 against the Penguins.
Grossmann, 27, began skating again over the weekend. There wasn't a chance he was going to miss Game 1. Wednesday will mark Grossmann's second career postseason appearance, after skating to the Western Conference finals with Dallas in 2008.
Underneath his equipment, Grossmann was wearing a bulky brace on his right knee. He previously had been skating with one on his left knee, but wanted more stability after the hit as a precaution.
"I've worn similar things before," Grossmann said. "I kept it on for safety concerns. You get used to it pretty quick. I've worn it before. It's probably tough if you hadn't worn it before, but I'm used to it. I don't mind."
Grossmann, who has added meat and toughness to the Flyers' crease since his Feb. 18 acquisition, will be an integral part of the series.
"It's always nice to get people back and healthy," Grossmann said. "I think these are an important couple [practice] days for us to line everything up so we are ready to roll for Wednesday night."
Odds & Ends
Of the 16 teams who qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs, none enters the first round with better odds to win the Cup than the Pittsburgh Penguins, according to Las Vegas. The Rangers, Canucks and Blues follow Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh was installed at odds somewhere between 7/2 to 4/1 to win it all, as listed on Bovada.lv and Scoresandodds.com. The Flyers are a 15/1 shot to win the Cup. Not surprisingly, the Penguins are also heavy betting favorites (-$190) to win their first-round series. Almost 98 percent of the money coming in at sports books in Las Vegas, though, was on the Flyers to win the series at +$150.
Slap shots
James Neal (40 goals) and 37-year-old Steve Sullivan (17) returned to practice for the Penguins. Defenseman Matt Niskanen did not practice and is not expected to be available for Game 1 . . . Veteran Flyers defenseman Pavel Kubina skated on a defensive pairing with forward Jody Shelley, leaving Marc-Andre Bourdon and Andreas Lilja together. Don't read too much into that; it's hard to believe Peter Laviolette would choose either of those two players over Kubina . . . Harry Zolnierczyk was sent back to Adirondack . . . As expected, Zac Rinaldo did not receive any supplementary discipline for his check from behind in Saturday's loss in Pittsburgh.
Contact Frank Seravalli at seravaf@phillynews.com or @DNFlyers on Twitter.
