Sean Avery

Putting my Devils fan anti-Ranger bias aside, I'm not going to bash Sean Avery. I have observed some of the things he has done in his career and have been disgusted with him at times. He came into the league in 2001 when he played 36 games with the Detroit Red Wings. He notched four points split evenly between goals and assists.

He really made a name for himself when he was a member of the Los Angeles Kings. His antics and on-ice actions quickly scored Avery the most hated player award among the other players in the league.

His best season points-wise occurred in 2006/07 when he played 55 games with the Kings and 29 with the New York Rangers. He finished out the year with 18 goals and 30 assists. Avery introduced himself to the Devils-Rangers rivalry in that season as he became public enemy #1 in New Jersey with the stunts he pulled with Martin Brodeur. February 20th 2007 saw the Devils beat the Rangers 2-1. Avery rammed Brodeur and knocked his helmet off. Having had enough, Marty got up and shoved Avery. Avery shoved back and a brawl ensued.

The most popular of his antics came in the playoffs the following year. The Devils and Rangers faced eachother in the first round. In game three, the Rangers were on the power play. Avery stood facing Brodeur and waved his stick in the goaltender's face. The NHL was forced to make a provision to their rulebook because of this sequence.

The Dallas Stars signed Avery to a good deal this past offseason. I was surprised that such a classy organization would take a chance with a risky player such as Avery. I also was under the impression that the Rangers were going to do everything to keep him since he was instrumental to their recent success. Not long into his first year with the Stars, it all went south.

Avery dated actress Elisha Cuthbert, she was seen at many Ranger games. After that relationship ended, it was revealed that she had entered into a relationship with Calgary Flame's defenseman Dion Phaneuf. As Dallas visited Calgary, Sean invited the cameras over to make a comment including the phrase "sloppy seconds." The NHL would jump all over this. I believe they were so harsh to Avery because of two reasons. The first reason is that it was basically the last straw for him. He had been involved in so many circus act type situations and they had simply had enough with him. The second reason is that Elisha Cuthbert is a very popular actress who could speak on the NHL's behalf giving them better publicity. The NHL wouldn't want to drive away a fan like that.

Avery was basically kicked off of the Stars. The Manitoba Moose of the AHL refused to take him and his career was now in limbo. That is when all of the Avery to NYR rumors started. The Hartford Wolf Pack, Rangers AHL affiliate, decided to take him on. The Dallas Stars have no AHL team to assign Avery to so he was still Stars property. The Rangers picked up Avery close to this year's trade deadline as Dallas put him on waivers with the Rangers promising to sign him. New coach John Tortorella was not too thrilled with the acquisition. GM Glenn Sather is an Avery supporter and undoubtedly told Torts that his new job comes with the responsibility of molding Avery into a responsible hockey player.

Avery has had a career full of antics and embarassments, but I wish him the best of luck. Fellow Devils fans will flame me for this, but Avery has never had the intention of physically harming another player. He likes to get under the skin of his opponents and cause them to step out of character and he does a very good job at this.

Avery has played a few games with the Rangers since being signed and he has caused an immediate impact. The Hurricanes shut out the Rangers tonight but the Blueshirts had been on a winning streak before this. Even tonight, Avery took two bad penalties in the second period and responded by throwing the body around and creating room for his linemates and finishing up by playing a smart game.

It is going to take a lot for this player to fix his attitude issues, but it can be done. The right coach is in New York now to help this.

It surely will be interesting when the Devils visit the Garden in late March.

------------------------------------------------

In other news, the Montreal Canadiens GM Bob Gainey has fired coach Guy Carbineau and has stepped behind the bench himself for the remainder of the campaign.

This is another case of a good coach getting the can because of off ice issues not related to him. There have been comments that he is too nice and not hard enough on the players. These players are paid professional atheletes and should not have to be looked after like high school kids. Some members of the Canadiens were involved in some off ice situations that brought a lot of bad publicity to the team and it surely translated to on ice play.

They have a team full of talented players that can compete for a division title if they had things in order. Unfortunately, a GM can't simply fire players so the coach always gets the can.

I felt the same way when the Rangers fired Tom Renney. Renney is a great coach that was dealing with high priced unmotivated players. GM Glen Sather is the one that needs to go. He has had a history of signing overhyped and overpriced players that handicap the Rangers financially. The Scott Gomez, Chris Drury, and Wade Redden signings have not yet paid off. This deadline, the Rangers traded Dawes, Prucha and Kalinin for Derek Morris. Morris is a defenseman who began his career in his prime and has had a downfall since. Sather traded home grown Rangers, Dawes and Prucha, for another 'big name' player. Nik Antropov wasn't a terrible aquisition because Sather didn't have to give up any roster players for him. Sather gave Renney defective tools. It's like smashing a television with a sledgehammer then saying "fix this or you're fired."

I hate to compare the Devils to the Rangers like everyone else does, but look at the home grown players on the Devils' roster. Elias, Gionta, Parise, Zajac, Rolston, Madden, Pandolfo, Rupp, Clarkson, Martin, Greene, White, Brodeur, and others. Although Oduya was a Capitals draft pick, he was signed to New Jersey before entering the NHL and can be considered a Devils lifer so far. Compare the success of the Devils and the Rangers and these points are no coincidence.

I hope Renney and Carbo get good jobs because they deserve it. It's hard to argue with the Renney firing now since Tortorella is a terrific coach, however. But, time will tell to see if this pays off.









Andrew Timoni
atimoni@vzw.blackberry.net