Avery Takes a Swipe at Valley

Well, the Rangers lost an uninspired 2-1 decision, and we'll have more on that tomorrow. But for now, there is the Sean Avery cameo appearance at the Garden to clean up after. Those of you who saw the game saw a few minor Avery moments, where he yapped at Henrik Lundqvist and was rebuked by Brandon Dubinsky, was hit often by the likes of Paul Mara and Dan Girardi, and embarrassed himself a couple of times falling down and missing a check. Otherwise, he was of little effect in this game.

Afterwards, he stuck to his line of not talking to the media -- he said he had to take his teammates out to dinner while they still liked him. And it sure seemed like they still liked him as he made his way through the visitors' locker room. Lundqvist said he couldn't repeat what it was that Avery was saying to him, at least not for family papers. Tom Renney wanted to say that Avery was a non-factor, but as usual he took the diplomatic route and said that Avery's team won, so he accomplished what he set out to do. (Renney was less diplomatic about his own team -- more on that tomorrow.)

Then, Avery did what he said he wouldn't do -- he spoke to the media. But he only spoke to Stan Fischler for MSG.com (at a time he was supposed to be taking his teammates out to dinner). He was mostly diplomatic, saying all the usual stuff he says about New York, the city, the organization, and the fans. But when asked how he felt about comments made about him recently by Dubinsky and Steve Valiquette, he took a playful shot at the latter, smiling and calling him a minor leaguer who shouldn't say anything about anybody. Dubinsky, on the other hand, he said was a good player who was going to be great and left it at that.

Avery on being booed by Garden fans: "It's the Garden. That's why this is the greatest arena on earth. There was a mixture of cheers and boos. I was actually enjoying the boos as much as the cheers. That's what great about this place."

Avery to the media: "You guys are all great, I love you all, but I have to go and take my teammates out to dinner while they still like me. Thanks for coming."

Avery on Valiquette: "Valiquette really is a minor-leaguer and he’s gotta get noticed, so what better way than to talk about me?"

Avery on Dubinsky: "Dubi's a great player. He works hard and he's going to be a good player for a long time."

Avery on what Valiquette and Dubinsky might have said about him: "That's just the way it goes. I've certainly said a lot of things about other guys. It's good to get a little taste of my own medicine."

Lundqvist on what Avery said to him during warm-ups: "It's not going to be in the paper."

Avery on jawing with Lundqvist: "That's just me being me and getting myself in the game."

Avery on being an NHL villain: "I'm very good at it. You should always stick to what you're good at."

Stars' captain Brenden Morrow on Avery: "I hated him. I'm not going to lie. You never want to make assumptions before you actually meet someone. I was probably guilty of that right away. I let that pass. He's nothing but on board with us and a great teammate so far."

Renney on whether Avery had an impact on the game: "In fairness to him, I don't want to say no. He's a good hockey player and everybody in our organization knows that. You know what, he played hockey. He came here on a business trip and he played hockey today. Their team won the hockey game so I think that translates to a successful contribution."

Comments

[jagrmiester]

gotta admit i love Aves!

[BrooklynHockeyGuy]

Avery was the story before the game but after the game it'll be the Rangers lack of effort that'll make headlines tomorrow.

[jagrmiester]

i promise no Shanny comments from me.

[CraigZ]

Boring game...Z

[Jive]

Awful effort by the Rangers, and I like Dubi sticking up for Hank but....anyone else finding it hard to dislike Avery? Love his effort and passion.

[jagrmiester]

ok screw this non shanahan stuff. I say we sign shanny cause atleast he scores cause i cant watch any of these garbage rissmillers and pruchas.

[jagrmiester]

i love Aves. I miss him alot for some reason. Him, Jags, Shanny made the games soooo much fun for some reason.

[baals]

looks like im going to DWW this game. maybe ill watch Rangers in 60 just to catch the avery moments. does anyone know what dubinsky said about avery recently?i never heard anything about that.

[Ant]

F Avery.How can u say u gotta love him when he try to attack YOUR franchise goalie

[And This One Will Last A Lifetime]

In an interview earlier this year Dubinsky made an allusion to divisive personalities in the clubhouse last year. He didn't name names but it was widely assumed that Avery was the one he was talking about.

I suppose a little bit of pressure was taken off Naslund with his goal tonight but him and Drury look about as lost as a line can be. Drury in particular looks out of place many times in both zones and hurries up his shots when he has reasonable scoring chances. I suppose he's never been the type to dangle through the D and deke the goalie out of his pads, but he's trying to power the puck through the net and wasting a decent amount of opportunities (the same could be said for the entire team tonight).

Why was Rissmiller awarded a spot on that line tonight? At the very least I think Sjostrom has earned a promotion off the 4th line ahead of the rotating cast of part time healthy scratches.

I know teams don't go out and score 4 goals a game anymore, that hasn't been the case in 15 years. Even the teams that are built to consistently put up 3+ have better scoring talent than us. I realize going into tonight's game we were tied for most GF in the league but that was irrespective of the number of games played. Still, I somehow fear that our offense will run hot and cold on a nightly basis. I'm not trying to sound overly alarmist, but the number one question going into the season was going to be where were the goals going to come from? We were hoping that a couple of young players could hit their breakout seasons with Dawes/Dubi/Cally all netting around 20 each, Naslund maybe 25, Drury 25 and the wildcard being Zherdev who has the tools to hit 30+. Maybe it starts to click later on, but I'm not going to be too surprised if we finish bottom third in the league in scoring this year.

[Godwin]

Hey jagrmiester, you are SO annoying. Stop already with your Shanny rants. The guy is like 40! How quickly have you forgotten that he did nothing last season. Stop your whining. Rangers are 6-2-1 this season, relax. And stop dissing on prucha... he works his tail off the one game gets to play before having to sit for the next 4 games. Shanahan used to just stand there towards the end of the regular season and the playoffs. And let's not forget the shootout when EVERY goalie ended up knowing he was going high blocker side and he didn't score anymore shootout goals after the first half of the season.

I'm sorry to rant at you so please don't take it personally. But it's just so annoying reading all these interesting comments than having to keep on reading about last year, Shanahan, bla bla bla. It's over - time for a new team, new year, new season.

[Jess]

Give Avery some serious credit here because his mind games worked on the Rangers well enough to cost the Rangers 2 points.

The Rangers were so concerned about Avery that they took themselves out of their own game to make sure they got shots in on Avery.

Dubinsky as much as I like the kid forgot that he is supposed to be a scorer not a middleweight hitter and took 2 minors. Memo to the kid you can't score from the penalty box.

Sorry but this outcome was easy to spot because the Rangers were so worried about Avery that they forgot they were playing the Stars not just Sean Avery.

To lose to the Stars the way they have been playing is a joke.

Give Avery the credit for that

[Colorado Mark]

I don't know, Jess, I'm not sure the Rangers seemed focused on Avery. Dubi didn't so anything stupid with Avery, and his first penalty was negated when he took someone with him. The second penalty wasn't that bad. The times Avery got hit were good, appropriate hits that didn't look like anything extra.Orr should have gotten a penalty, but he didn't/ I think they lost because they didn't work hard enough or adapt to the clogging of the ice by the surprisingly boring Stars. With the guys they have, they shouldn't be this boring. I think the fact that they were averaging over 5 GA per game meant that they stuck to a game plan with a passion. I give Avery credit for not being afraid to go against the crowd in a city he supposedly loves. But I don't think he did anything special.

[Tom]

I don't know about you, but I was alarmed, to use someone else's word, at the Ranger's apparent lack of size and toughness. Hopefully it was due to the grueling schedule finally catching up to them, but the number of times the Rangers were muscled off the puck by the bigger Stars was tough to watch. Modano's rookie wingers were big and fast. Especially compared to the size of Gomez' wingers.

[TonyM]

Tom spot on about the lack of size and toughness on these Rangers. It has been a constant theme under Sather and Renney. Zero toughness on D and generally smurfs on the front lines.

[jagrmiester]

godwin,

Of course i will stop with the Shanny, but you do realize prucha is done with this team. He was good with us. key word WAS. Renney dont like him. He was never the same since he got his knee injury. Personally I like him, but it is time for him to leave.

Meanwhile, very happy we have a good record. Not so happy on the passion part, but i am gonna let that slide.

[ntb]

There seems to be a book being written on how to stop the Rangers: clog up the neutral zone (see Buffalo, Toronto, Dallas). The Rangers are at their best when they attack with speed, but seem lost when teams trap them. If you look at the Tampa Bay, NJ, Chicago, and Detroit games -- all those teams tried to skate with the Ranger. Only Detroit, with there abundance of talent was able to beat them. I foresee more boring games in the future.

[Anthony M]

Outside of his yapping during warmups, I don't think Avery's presence played much of a factor in the game. The telling sign is that the Rangers are going to struggle when they do not forecheck - which they need to do to prevent those teams that are content to clog the neutral zone with the trap.

[OJC]

I'm not going to repeat what everyone else has already said, but i will say...THANK GOD for Tivo. It made games like last night more tolerable to watch.

[Paul R _ _ _ _ _ D]

this game just sucked for a couple minutes I thought I was watching the devils, our blueshirts need to bounce back big time intime for the blue jackets!

[And This One Will Last A Lifetime]

From just about after the Stars tied the game they played a much more NZT style game, but my frustration with last night's match was the number of shots that were well off target.

It's always a toss up when there's a frenzy near the net but the Rangers also had a number of unobstructed and unimpeded shots come nowhere close to going on goal. Turco made a few decent saves but it was hardly like the other night with the Leafs where Toskala was continually put to the test.

Sometimes those pucks find their way in, sometimes not. We're 1-1-1 against the West this year. Given how poor we did against the other conference last year and the less East-biased schedule this year we need to play better against less frequently seen opponents.

[zengolfguy]

But on to really important stuff. Did anyone see the interview with Henk's sister? Wow, she is just smoking hot!

[OJC]

I'll re-iterate zengolfguy....yeah she was. It's actually unfair to have that many good looking people in a family.

[paulinflorida]

Below is a post by 'ntb' from earlier today...great summary of the formula to beat the Rangers so far this year. The Rangers are having a problem 'dumping and chasing' to beat the nuetral zone trap....you can add 'missing the net' when they do get an opportunity as another reason for the lack of goals.

There seems to be a book being written on how to stop the Rangers: clog up the neutral zone (see Buffalo, Toronto, Dallas). The Rangers are at their best when they attack with speed, but seem lost when teams trap them. If you look at the Tampa Bay, NJ, Chicago, and Detroit games -- all those teams tried to skate with the Ranger. Only Detroit, with there abundance of talent was able to beat them. I foresee more boring games in the future.

[jagrmiester]

Henrik is Hot himself, so good looks must be in the family.

[elsie]

Didiomete fought the same guy 5 times in 11 months
http://www.hockeyfights.com/fights/46137

[kc]

Shanny is the same age as Modano. Modano had the game winning goal. Age isn't everything.

[rangerbill94]

We played a pretty good game. Speed was on our side, we had a few very good chances. The Madano goal was a gift from Hank. Heck, he redirected the puck right to Modano, even Shanny could have scored on that one! But that doesn't make Shanny @ 40 a Modana @ 40! Shanny has lost everything and his experience can't make up for what's no longer there. Retire and go into the NHL headquarters and fix the problems there. Shanny for commissioner!

[GoRangers!!!]

I think the Rangers are just tired. They already played 9 games and most teams only played 5, + Rangers travel to Europe. Now they have 3 days off so hopefully they regroup and get back to work on Friday!

[i]

Rissmiller has been placed on waivers....

[Jess]

Did anyone consider that Dubi might have also been talking about other players like Malik with his storming out of the arena, refusing to shake Renney's hand or Hollweg with his brain dead runs that cost the Rangers a playoff game?

[ibialik]

Rissmiller on waivers.

[GoRangers!!]

Finally some good news!!!

[BobbyC]

Agreed this game was not so much fun to watch. Detroit game was awesome to watch.

I think the rangers tried to keep the same strategy as the Detroit game while it apparently wasn't working. I think they needed to dump the puck in more and forecheck hard... they were getting eaten up by the trap. They still did have some chances that I thought they should have buried but they like missing the net and/or shooting right at the goalie... and even when gomez got by a couple people in the trap there were still 3 people left to get through... They did dump the puck in a bit but their pursuit wasn't good..

and yes Hank's sister is hot...

[David Rabinowitz]

Hey Dubi,

That Avery-Fischler video on our site is pretty good, but I got another one for ya that you might not have seen.

Take a look at Video 2 in this vlog. John Giannone talks about a run-in he had with Avery last year.

I bet this might've had something to do with their confrontation last night.

Thanks,
David