Avery Mania Sweeps NY

If you saw the media crowd around Sean Avery's locker Monday night on the visiting side of MSG, you'd think he was Sidney Crosby or even a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Avery made his much-publicized return to the Garden Monday night and continues his NY tour in Newark and Long Island this week. It was in New York where Avery became most notable in his role as a pest, agitator.

The Rangers record with him in the lineup was 50-20-16 and 9-13-2 without him. It was a number that often got mentioned in the game notes, which is something I'd think Avery's agent would have had to use in contract extension talks.

It's a nice story, agitator scores some goals, says some funny things and the Rangers win. It was the case in 2007 when I asked him for a simple description of his two goals and he quipped: "I just didn't want the fans to keep yelling shoot".

If you're a Ranger fan, keeping him would be nice, but at the same time their record disparity kind of indicted others on the roster. You'd expect a losing record when Jaromir Jagr, Chris Drury, Scott Gomez, Brendan Shanahan are out of the lineup.

Sure his addition helped in 2007 but when he was hurt, the Rangers' struggles were not due to his absence. It was due to figuring out how to get Drury and Gomez acclimated.

Are the Rangers better without him? It's nice that he can score and agitate but plenty of teams have won with just playing hockey and using their talented players and his antics can get tiresome.

I'd think there was a segment of Ranger management that felt the same way, which would explain them offering four years, 12 million as opposed to the 15.5 million he got from Dallas.

While Avery's tenure here was interesting, the Rangers never made it past the second round. A makeover was needed and Avery leaving is not necessarily a bad thing, although we'll see how the Rangers do.

Their record is good and maybe the fatigue of playing seven games in 11 days has gotten to them in the last four games where they've scored just six times. (not counting the shootout vs. Toronto).

In their first five games, they didn't necessarily put together a full 60 minutes. They got the goals when needed.

Now that they haven't had the goals when needed, the lack of a full 60 minutes is exposed as it was Monday when they couldn't adjust against the Dallas Stars, who defended things the way hockey fans are accustomed to seeing.

As for Avery, his next stop is the Prudential Center with his two "friends" David Clarkson and Martin Brodeur, whom he "affectionately" referred to as a "minor league bonehead" and "fatso".

UPDATE - Besides the antics on the ice, Avery has his share off the ice, including this one with one of the MSG broadcasters.

Media confrontations happen from time to time but doesn't it seem like Avery intended to stir something up there?