The Avery Effect

“I know what’s been asked of me, so whenever I get my next opportunity that’s certainly the thing I’m going to have to do. I’m gonna keep that to myself.”

Ever since John Tortorella became head coach, Sean Avery hasn’t been himself. At his best, Avery is an agitator, who can chip in scoring. He can make plays, with his mouth and with his stick. For all his antics, he actually is a really good player.

But, we saw that good player under Tom Renney. Renney didn’t have a leash on Avery. He let him go. That’s part of the problem with Renney. Some said he was too soft. Not on Avery.

So, when Torts was brought in, we all thought he would bring accountability. And he has, to some degree. He benched Avery after his antics in Game 4 of the Washington series (I was at that game. It wasn’t that bad. And the Rangers won, so who cares? But I digress). He’s benching him after his recent bad play.

But, Avery hasn’t been himself. He’s not being as physical. He’s not chatting up the other players. And he’s not scoring. Watch this video:

While I still disagree with what Avery did, it serves a greater point. He was agitating the other team, and then he scored. That was a classic Avery shift (side note: I love when Drury sort of punches Avery, telling him to stop screen Brodeur like that. People say he’s an awful captain, but that’s what a captain does). When Avery was on that 5-on-3, he was in the front of the net, making things happen. He doesn’t do that anymore. And part of it is because of Torts.

I think Torts has been an okay coach for the Rangers. But, his odd way of reprimanding Avery for playing his game, has cost the Rangers points. Why do you think the Rangers have such a bad home record? When Avery is at his best, the crowd is fired up. The crowd hasn’t been fired up lately.

We’ll see what this Avery benching does, to the team and to Sean. If it’s just one game, how will Avery respond? Will he come back as his self? Or will he try to impress Torts, and play a conservative game? So much for Safe is Death.

Avery Scratched

Sean Avery will be a healthy scratch tonight. Don’t know who is replacing him in the lineup Enver Lisin is taking Avery’s place. He is not “engaged” enough. Have no idea what that means.

So much for seeing him on the fourth line.

Avery to Fourth Line

Via the beat writers’ twitters (literally all of them), Sean Avery was moved to the fourth line during practice yesterday, skating with Jody Shelley, Brian Boyle, Enver Lisin, and Aaron Voros. Brandon Prust was moved up to a line with Erik Christensen and Chris Drury. This makes line change #13,427 on the year, thus our slogan “More consistent than John Tortorella’s lines”. These will presumably be the lines for tonight’s game against Atlanta.

When Avery was playing under Tom Renney, he was getting solid minutes, and was able to play his game. His game involves getting into a rhythm offensively while disrupting the opposing stars. Under Tortorella, his time has slowly diminished, thus eliminating the “Avery Factor”. Under the new regime, Avery is just another $2 million fourth liner.

Really don’t know what to make of that one.

Avery-isms

As part of my other venture with Stalking Steve Phillips, I penned an article with some good Sean Avery quotes. We Ranger fans love Avery and his antics, and these quotes are pretty solid. Check out the article here.

The Sean Avery Hat Trick

In tonight’s game thread, Jeremy predicted a Gordie Howe hat trick for Sean Avery against his former team. We got one better, as Avery created his own hat trick tonight (this phrase was coined by old BSB author Stas, so full credit goes to him). What exactly is a Sean Avery hat trick? Well, it’s a goal, an assist, and a 10 minute misconduct.

Let us take this moment to congratulate Avery on his own hat trick, it truly is amazing to have your own hat trick in hockey.

Update 9:55pm Quote of the night from Avery:

Stan Fischler: What was different about tonight?
Avery: I was getting paid by two teams.

It All Started With A Timeout

The Rangers came out flat tonight. Two goals in the first ten minutes by Columbus. So what does John Tortorella do? He calls a timeout. How do the Rangers respond? 7 straight goals.

It’s not often that a timeout will work this well. It will probably never work this well. But for this game, in this very important game, it worked. Rangers savior Marian Gaborik had two goals. Michael Del Zotto looked like Brian Leetch. Sean Avery had two. This team was grinding. Higgins played his best game as a Ranger. They were physical. They stood up for teammates. This was the Rangers team we saw early in the year. This was the team that got us all excited. Will they keep it up? I don’t know. If they do, we’ll know it all started with a timeout.

And kudos to all the folks commenting today, we had a BSB record with 108 comments! Great job guys. Keep it up.

Dane Byers Recalled

The Rangers have recalled Dane Byers this afternoon, but there was no word on P.A. Parenteau being sent to Hartford. As per Steve Zipay’s twitter, Marian Gaborik, Sean Avery, and Chris Higgins are all out tonight. Gaborik is out because of his injury, and it’s safe to assume Higgins is out because he forgot how to play hockey, but the Avery benching is a bit of a surprise. It’s clearly because of either an injury or a benching, but as of now, no word on what the reason is.

Avery In, Who’s Out?

With Sean Avery returning to the lineup for tomorrow’s game against Anaheim (one which I will be attending), the question surrounding his return isn’t about Avery himself, but about who will sit when he does return. Avery has been rotating on the fourth line with Brian Boyle, Aaron Voros, and Donald Brashear in practice, but that doesn’t mean he will be playing on the fourth line.

John Tortorella has shown reluctance to break up the top two lines, especially with the chemistry the line of Prospal-Dubinsky-Gaborik has been showing since the season started. Also, with the line of Lisin-Anisimov-Kotalik finally getting on the board the other night against the Caps, it is unlikely that Tortorella would want to mess with that just yet.

Avery slots in as a top-nine wing, where the Rangers actually have a lot of depth. It is possible that the Rangers scratch Enver Lisin, who has had trouble finding his game away from the puck. But Avery doesn’t have the skill or the speed with the puck that Lisin has. This is an interesting problem the Rangers have right now, but it’s a good problem to have. When was the last time the Rangers actually had to think about which player to scratch when a player returned from injury?

An interesting way they can solve this problem is by simply playing Avery on the fourth line. Not because he should be on the fourth line, but to ease him back from his injury. This allows the Rangers to have one more game to evaluate who should be the scratch from the lineup. Reading between the lines, it gives Enver Lisin one more game to prove to the coaching staff that he belongs in the lineup.

Avery Out Tomorrow

As per Andrew Gross, injured LW Sean Avery will not be playing tomorrow night in Washington. Avery sprained his MCL in practice during the preseason in a knee-to-knee collision with Ryan Callahan, and hasn’t had a full contact practice since. Today, he skated in a non-contact jersey, but did most of the skating drills. He is more than likely to make his debut Sunday afternoon against the Ducks.

The great news about that? I’ll be in the stands when Avery makes his debut. Awesome.

Scoring: A Problem?

Before I start, I’d like to properly introduce myself: My name is Jeremy Fuchs and I’m really excited to join the team here at BlueSeatBlogs. A life long Ranger fan, I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts on my beloved Blueshirts. You may have seen my other work on GiantsGab, or The Blog of Champions. Now that you know a little bit about me, let’s talk hockey.

Last year, all we heard about was scoring. Or the lack thereof. Scott Gomez didn’t (or couldn’t) fill the large shoes of Jaromir Jagr. Chris Drury was playing like a second or third line center, not a first. Markus Naslund, while solid, certainly didn’t set the world on fire. Nikolai Zherdev oozes talent, but can’t get it done on the ice.

As in typical Ranger fashion, they re-tooled in the offseason. They traded Scott Gomez to Montreal, getting Chris Higgins and promising blueliner Ryan McDonagh. Markus Naslund retired, Nik Antropov went to Atlanta, and Nik Zherdev went to the KHL. They signed Marion Gaborik to a mega deal. They signed Vinny Prospal and Ales Kotalik. On paper, this seems to make up and then some for the losses. Yet all I hear from fans is: Where’s the scoring? All I read about in season previews is: Where’s the scoring? Is it an issue? Or are we just too wary of Glen Sather to think he actually did a good job?

184. That’s how many goals the Rangers scored last year. In comparison, the Cup winning Penguins scored 255. Big difference. Well, how many goals can we project the Blueshirts to score this year?

Marion Gaborik: 32

If he’s healthy, he scores 40+ goals. However, I’m accounting for the fact that he might not stay healthy. I think 32 is a reasonable estimate.

Chris Drury: 24.

Hopefully, he’ll rekindle his magic with Kotalik.

Brandon Dubinsky: 16
Playing with Gabby should increase his outptut.

Sean Avery: 15

He scored 8 goals in 41 games. 15 in 81 sounds about right.

Chris Higgins: 24

Higgins was hurt last year, limiting his goal production to 12. I think he can double that if healthy, especially if he plays on a wing with Gaborik.

Ales Kotalik: 20

Scored 20 last year, too

Ryan Callahan: 28

28 might seem like a lot, but Callahan scored 22 goals last year, and was on fire at the end of the season, and in the playoffs. He’s a perfect fit for Tortorella’s system.

Vinny Prospal: 20

Scored 19 last year on a Tampa team in turmoil.

Artem Anisimov: 10

I don’t want to expect too much from the rookie, but he’s a goal scorer, and proved that in Hartford.

Donald Brashear:  2

Hey, it’s an improvement over Colton Orr

Brian Boyle: 5

That’s a nice number for a fourth line center.

Enver Lisin: 15

Lisin scored 13 in Phoenix. His speed is too tantalizing from him not to improve on that total, and he’ll flourish with Torts. He’ll score some on the Power Play as well.

Marc Staal: 8

I think he’s going to flourish in Tortorella’s system. He’ll be leading the rush a lot more.

Dan Girardi: 5

He’s got a very underrated shot.

Wade Redden: 5

I expect him to improve, and he was much better once Tortorella came on.

Michal Rosival: 8

If he just used that shot of his more, this total would be in double digits.

Matt Gilory: 5

He’s been very impressive in preseason duty.

Michael Del Zotto: 4

He’s a true power play QB. He’ll have a good number of assists as well.

So how many goals is that? 246. That’s a HUGE improvement over last year. I think the Gaborik addition, and the development of youngsters aids in the increase. And even if Gaborik gets hurt and only scores 10 goals, it’s  still 224 goals scored. Am I being a bit optimistic? Perhaps. But, it’s reasonable to think. This team is more well balanced. And judging from preseason games, they are a much better passing team. They attack, and they shoot the puck more.  If the Rangers get this goal amount, they will be a much better team. And with Lundqvist, it could lead to a deep playoff run.