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So far this season John Tortorella has pushed a lot of the
right buttons this season and is certainly up there for coach of the year with
the job he has done with this New York Rangers club. One button he refuses to seem to consistently
push however is the one player on the Rangers team that can push the other team’s
buttons; Sean Avery. While the Rangers
were getting Avery’d by Subban there was Avery playing his three minutes per
period as if the world would crumble if he got more time. With each shift that Avery had even when the
team was asleep at the wheel he made an impact and yet he still ended the night
with a measly 9:46 of ice time. Only Kris Newbury less ice than Avery last night and he was far from the second worst forward the Rangers had in the game for that to be warranted. Subban said before yesterday's game when asked if he was an agitator, "I'm not Sean Avery." Whether he is or he is not the Rangers need more of Sean Avery.
I understand that with every shift you send Avery on the ice
there is the risk he could explode and hurt the team with a bad penalty, but
there were plenty of those going around last night and Avery was one of the few
who were helping when he was out there. To
continually short change Avery for fear of what he might do or to rein him in
to prevent those things is counterproductive to the larger picture of what
Avery can bring to this club. If Avery
goes out and does something wrong, then by all means punish him to the fullest
extent that you can, but Avery has done nothing to hurt this team this season.
The reality is that Avery has been a great soldier for the
team in not making noise with his consistent demotions, especially the one this
week when he was demoted by the trade for Wojtek Wolski. Avery had just played three excellent games
with Gaborik and Anisimov and yet without a second thought he was immediately
back on the fourth line toiling away with Drury. The skill of Wolski and Gaborik together is
an intriguing proposition, but what we have seen this season is that Gaborik is
at his best when he has grit to play with him because he does not want to play
the hard game. A line of Wolski, Stepan,
Gaborik has plenty of skill, but does not mesh with this team’s identity and
breaks the rhythm of the way the other lines at least attempt to play.
There will obviously be new lines today because of the
performance last night and they might be the same as the ones we saw in the
third period last night where the Rangers attempted their comeback. If so that would see Avery with Boyle and
Prust and he can certainly fit right in with those two in the role that
Fedotenko has played this season. What I
would rather see is Drury removed from the kids and let Avery play with
the skill of Stepan and Zuccarello so they have some toughness and protection
on their line
I have never been one of Avery’s biggest supporters because
of the antics that he seems to get caught up in more than the hockey side, but
for the majority of the year he has been a focused hockey player and has shown
his hockey skill and intelligence when given the opportunities to do so. There is bound to be that moment where he loses focus, but until that happens let him play and stop treating him as if he is guilty until proven innocent. Avery has produced as he is 10th
on the team in points (16) despite being 14th on the team among
forwards in average ice time. It is time
that Tortorella puts aside whatever his deal is with Avery and just sends him
out there go play as he knows how because like it or not Torts saw firsthand
last night what happens when a team gets Avery’d.
