Avery makes new enemies

Sean Avery gets ready to clock Ladislav Smid after waving him off, leading to a melee during the Rangers' 8-2 win over the Oilers Sunday.

They don't call him the Grate One for nothing. During yesterday's home blowout win over former bench boss Tom Renney's Oilers, Sean Avery was at it again. With the Rangers up three, the left wing caught Edmonton forward Colin Fraser with a clean shoulder hit into the boards. Simply put, there was nothing wrong with the takeout from the side that wasn't vicious. Had it been, perhaps Fraser would've responded.

Instead, Edmonton teammate Ladislav Smid went after Avery, challenging him immediately. There's nothing wrong with wanting to fight even if there was no reason for the Ranger pest to drop the gloves. Little could be gained from taking on the bigger Smid with Avery's team leading 5-2 halfway through the third. From that standpoint, it made sense when he waved off the towering 6-3, 226 pound defenseman. Had he just skated away, nothing probably happens. However, that's just not who he is. It came as no surprise that the 30 year-old antagonist acted like he wouldn't go before quickly throwing the gloves down and catching Smid with a right, taking him down- setting the wheels in motion for the fireworks that followed.

Nobody is defending Avery here. His initial play was fine but he broke The Code by tricking Smid into thinking nothing would happen. It was another classless move by a player who's very slick at hiding behind the rules. His games have turned favorite target David Clarkson into a raging maniac whenever the Devils and Rangers meet. The frustrating aspect for this loyal blue seat supporter is that Sean's capable of fighting but rarely ever obliges. It's always on his terms which drives opponents batty. He's not out to make friends nor should any opponent during a match.

Hockey is a physical game filled with battles all over the ice. As Avery's proven, it's also an emotional one. Give him credit for being an effective player who gets underneath foes' skin. By now, the book should be out on the Ranger bad boy. Ignore him. If only it were that simple as yesterday proved. There was no way the Oilers could stand there and not retaliate. So, it wasn't shocking that both Ryan Whitney and Theo Peckham went after Avery, who was escorted back to the locker room. The fun/chaos was just beginning on Kids' Day at The Garden. What should've been all about Marian Gaborik's 11th career hat trick along with linemates Alex Frolov and Erik Christensen, who dominated in the 8-2 thrashing became all about Avery, who predictably didn't speak to reporters.

“It’s a sucker punch, and I hope they look at it,” Whitney pointedly remarked. “Smid asked him to fight. (Avery) was saying wait. Then Laddie turned around and all of a sudden he gets suckered. I don’t know what the league can do with that, but it’s pretty obvious.”

“I thought it was pretty gutless,” Steve MacIntyre added after battling rival Derek Boogaard twice in the same period of a game that featured 124 penalty minutes, including 67 during the melee. “It just shows you what kind of guy he is. He’ll get his. Somebody who is bigger and tougher … he’ll get what’s coming.”

One day, it could happen. But while Avery was guilty of wrongdoing, it didn't explain Renney losing his bench. As many as three extra Oilers were out when it escalated, getting a rise out of an energized MSG. Former Alberta rivals Zach Stortini and Brandon Prust went at it at center ice while Brian Boyle made certain an enraged Peckham didn't get to Avery. Broadway's version of pandemonium included a wild sequence that saw Fraser trying to engage Brandon Dubinsky, who was seated on the Ranger bench with John Tortorella wisely pulling him back.

“I didn’t want anybody on our bench being involved on it,” the cooler than normal coach remarked while refusing to comment further. "It’s embarrassing out here,” assessed Whitney of a lost day that tarnished their coach's MSG return. “At least we’re sticking up for one another. I guess that’s the only thing you can take out of it.”

Funny but that's probably a good adjective to describe No.16, who can be an effective player. Early on without Gaborik, he produced while teamed with rookie Derek Stepan and Ruslan Fedotenko. In fact, seven of his nine points (1-8-9) came during the club's first eight games. Since, he's registered only two assists including one that helped set up Artem Anisimov's insurance marker in the second before the Rangers blitzed a disorganized Oiler club en route to seven unanswered goals. No wonder his role has decreased. What happens when Chris Drury and Vinny Prospal get back? That depends on Avery, who will always remain an enigma. Sometimes, he really stands out while others, you barely notice him.

Unfortunately for Edmonton, that wasn't the case Sunday. You can bet they'll have the next game against the Rangers circled on their calendar. Too bad it won't come later this season. You'll have to wait until Avery's final year of his contract in '11-12. If he's not careful, it could be his last in the NHL. Nobody would miss his circus act.

Gaborik hat trick steamrolls Renney Oilers

Marian Gaborik dekes Nikolai Khabibulin on a breakaway for his second goal. His 11th career hat trick led the Rangers past the Oilers 8-2 for their second straight win.

Marian Gaborik's back. If the previous game didn't produce any results, the Big Ticket made sure everyone got their money's worth, posting a hat trick in leading the Rangers past former coach Tom Renney's Oilers 8-2 on Kids' Day at MSG. His first three goals in Game No.5 gave him his second hat trick as a Ranger and 11th career.

“You want to go out there, work hard and be on top of your game. It is definitely good to go out there, score and get one under your belt,” Gabby said after his line with Alex Frolov and Erik Christensen dominated- combining for five goals, six assists with each forward finishing plus-five (+15).

Gaborik and his linemates went to work early with the trio working the puck behind the net until No.10 came out and jammed it past Nikolai Khabibulin at 1:35. While leading in shots 7-4, the Blueshirts killed off a pair of Oiler power plays, holding the 1-0 lead into the locker room. Before they could catch their breath, it was the rebuilding Oilers who grabbed the momentum, scoring twice in a 28-second span. Ryan Jones banged home a Jordan Eberle rebound past Martin Biron 2:45 into the second. On the next shift, Shawn Horcoff's wrister from beyond the right faceoff circle fooled Biron, suddenly steering Edmonton ahead 2-1.

“I felt like I was in the right place at the right time (on Horcoff’s goal), but I got handcuffed on the shot,” the veteran backup noted after settling down to make 19 saves in his second consecutive start and first ever win over Edmonton. “But, to me, the most important thing is how you respond to that. And fortunately I did not have to respond too much, the guys responded for me which gave me the chance to just settle in.”

That they did. Less than four minutes later, Christensen sprung Gaborik on a breakaway. The crafty Slovak beat Khabibulin with a forehand deke before banging into the left post. Teammates and fans breathed a sigh of relief as he was fine. With the game knotted, Brian Boyle again came through. Off an Edmonton turnover forced by Brandon Prust, he slid the puck to Ruslan Fedotenko who came in with Boyle two-on-one. Fedotenko dished across for Boyle who buried his career best eighth only 25 seconds later to give the Rangers the lead for good. Half of Boyle's output have come over the past five games.

Alex Frolov celebrates his first goal of two finally ending a 10-game drought.

It would only get worse for Renney's new club. Less than six minutes later, Artem Anisimov stayed hot when a Derek Stepan centering feed was redirected by his right skate, increasing to 4-2. Sean Avery and Stepan kept the play alive following a sloppy Edmonton turnover with D-Step outmaneuvering an Oiler before setting up Anisimov's sixth. After a nine-game drought, the improving sophomore has three goals over the last two. His Russian comrade Frolov also finally got into the act in the waning seconds, making it a three-goal lead. The former King's struggles have been well documented. He entered having not scored since my brother's birthday (Oct.23 @ Bos). This time, a strong forecheck forced Edmonton into a mistake. Gaborik worked the puck to Christensen, who then perfectly set up Frolov for his first goal in 11 games. His third came with less than five ticks left.

“It’s a great feeling to score, it takes some pressure off,” a pleased Frolov expressed after celebrating like a kid in a candy store. “It was a really good game for our line (Frolov, Christensen, and Gaborik) and now we have to build off this. It was a great two points for the team.”

Following a pair of heavyweight bouts between Derek Boogaard and Steve MacIntyre, it turned ugly when Edmonton took exception to a clean Avery hit on Colin Fraser against the boards. During the momentous shift, his clean check wasn't met with open arms. Instead, Ladislav Smid immediately challenged him. But with a three-goal lead, Avery didn't seem eager to oblige. When Smid dropped the gloves with his visor still on, Avery surprised the defenseman with a quick right taking him down. As MSG went to break, chaos ensued with at least three Oilers getting off the bench to start a brawl. At one point, with a linesman escorting our resident bad boy out, Theo Peckham snapped and tried to chase him before being cut off, only escalating matters. Even Ryan Whitney wanted Avery. Zach Stortini took on Prust for 90 seconds along and Boyle and Peckham squared off. The ugliest aspect was when Fraser tugged at Brandon Dubinsky, who John Tortorella made sure to keep on the bench. Somehow, he got a misconduct. Remarkably, it sounds like the league won't hand out any suspensions. We'll see.

“It’s a sucker punch, and I hope they look at it,” an irate Whitney said. “Smid asked him to fight. (Avery) was saying wait. Then Laddie turned around and all of a sudden he gets suckered. I don’t know what the league can do with that, but it’s pretty obvious.”

"I thought it was pretty gutless,” added MacIntyre of the melee that saw five misconducts, four ejections along with nearly half the 124 penalty minutes (67 PIM) coming during the fracas.. “It just shows you what kind of guy he is. He’ll get his. Somebody who is bigger and tougher … he’ll get what’s coming.”

The Rangers are greeted by lucky kids as they take the Garden ice on Kids' Day. They sent them home happy with an 8-2 win.

When the dust finally settled, Renney's former club responded by scoring three more goals- making it seven unanswered on a football Sunday. Another dreadful Edmonton giveaway led to Frolov scoring his second unassisted when he went high blocker on Khabibulin at 12:14. Forty-five seconds later, Stepan took advantage of another turnover quickly feeding an open Fedotenko for his third, increasing to 7-2. Matt Gilroy also notched an assist for his first point this season. The former Hobey Baker winner also was in on Anisimov's marker. He hasn't looked bad even getting a couple of shifts at forward.

By now, the question was would Gaborik or even Frolov get the hat trick? It didn't take long to answer when Frolov head-manned a flying Gabby who went to his bread and butter, firing low over the blocker as he had against Henrik Lundqvist for his fifth goal in St. Paul a couple of years ago.

"It wasn’t easy,” pointed out Biron of a wild game that saw him make one huge save denying Andrew Cogliano shorthanded in the second with it just a one-goal contest.

“We had a four-game homestand and lost the first two. This could have easily gone south really quickly, but we were able to salvage it with two big wins at the end. Now it’s for us to take that momentum and apply it to our road game which has been really good.”                                                                                                                                 

Deadline heating up

One day later with the roster freeze lifted, teams are already quick to make moves. Especially with the chaotic 3 PM Wednesday deadline. There's already been a couple of noteworthy deals.

1.The Pens  acquired D Jordan Leopold from the Panthers for a 2011 2nd Rd pick, bolstering their blueline.

2.The Predators picked up D Denis Grebeshkov from the Oilers for a 2010 2nd rounder. Most expect Nashville to unload future UFA Dan Hamhuis.As for Edmonton, they're in discussions with the Rangers revolving around Sheldon Souray and Wade "Tinman" Redden. The 32 year-old Souray is still hurt and has two years left at $4.5 million per. Tho I'm no fan of his, if Slats can unload one cap headache, fine. But what else would be involved?

Also see the Isles and Jackets swung a "blockbuster" swapping Greg Moore for former Ranger draft pick Dylan Reese.

Other moves of interest included Calgary inexplicably re-signing Matt Stajan for four years at $3.5 per. Yikes. He's a nice player but come on. Likewise, Dallas re-signed Avery clone Steve Ott for four years, $11.8 M. Uh. Almost three million for him? Woh.

A couple of days ago, Glen Sather predictably claimed vet backup Alex Auld from Dallas. So much for Chad Johnson getting to stay up. Typical. In other Battle news, the troubled career of Rick DiPietro is once again in limbo with the career Islander out indefinitely due to knee swelling...Just hot off the press...David Freeman steps down as Nashville Predators chairman. Why exactly remains a question.

And finally, today February 28, 2011 has already been declared National Hate Sidney Crosby Day. Over 27,000 34,000 are already confirmed. We might be the only non-Canadian/Pen fan not to.

Another bad loss by underachieving Blueshirts

Let's face it folks. This team just can't get it done against a Western Conference opponent. Heck. They couldn't even beat a bad Oilers team which once again failed to win in regulation even though the Rangers tried their best to hand them the game.

Only a last second tying goal by Mr. Clutch, Chris Drury off a brilliant stop of a hard Jaromir Jagr pass with Henrik Lundqvist pulled for an extra attacker allowed the Blueshirts to come away with a brownie point at Rexall Place.

Before the game, leading goalscorer Brendan Shanahan talked about the lack of discipline his team had in their recent shutout loss in Vancouver. Then Shanny took a dumb slashing minor which led to the Oilers' first power play goal by Jarret Stoll.

The ill advised penalties continued in the third period when Ryan Hollweg foolishly boarded Shawn Horcoff from behind being assessed a match penalty and automatic game misconduct and probable suspension, especially given the energizer's reputation.

While it's true No.44 tried to let up, he still nailed Horcoff from behind and the Oiler center was in a prone position. So, you can certainly understand why he was ejected from the game.

It was totally unnecessary and came at an inopportune time for his team who very well could've won the contest in regulation if not for some splendid netminding from Mathieu Garon (29 saves).

That the major was followed by a Martin Straka hold only 15 seconds later summed up another mystifying night for this underachieving team.

Of course, the Oilers made them pay the price as Ales Hemsky setup Horcoff on the doorstep for his 17th with 8:31 left.

Sadly, the Rangers weren't done taking silly penalties. Jagr got into the act with a lazy trip with 3:48 remaining which easily could've meant no point. And on a night when other teams such as the Flyers, Bruins and Pens all won, the Rangers needed that point.

That's what it's come down to for this club. Against a team which sucked ass on home ice ranking dead last on the man-advantage. But here were the Rangers staring up at the scoreboard despite outshooting another opponent (31-25).

The saving grace was that Joni Pitkanen took a penalty with 62 seconds left giving the Rangers a power play. With Lundqvist pulled, they worked the puck around forever before Jagr found Drury, who got them a point by stopping the puck with his shin before depositing his 11th with seven seconds left.

After another needless undisciplined penalty- this time a Blair Betts goalie interference in overtime, Lundqvist made a couple of big stops and then Stoll went to the box for interference off a faceoff.

Anyone who's followed the Oilers slightly knows that they've been money in the shootout all season. So the Rangers really needed to go for the kill on their late PP. Instead, they passed the puck around during a dreadful 4-on-3 even with Straka failing to keep a puck in at the point for an offside. Un-freaking-believable!

This team flat out sucks right now! When are they finally going to show some urgency and wake the hell up already?!?!?!?!?!

Especially on a day where the first place Devils somehow didn't win or even get a point because Tim Thomas (19 third period stops, 42 overall) flat out stoned them, this was a chance to pickup two on their Hudson rivals.

But instead, they chanced it to the skills competition where Tom Renney couldn't even use his best shooter in Shanahan because he suffered a left knee injury when he collided with big power forward Dustin Penner late in the third.

Even the goalie let the team down in this one. Was anyone surprised given how pedestrian Lundqvist has looked the past month that he would let rookie Sam Gagner's wrister sneak through his pads?

That's how they lost. Of course Jagr was denied by Garon who somehow was turned into Patrick Roy by this Broadway gang which can't shoot straight.

I'm sick of Marcel "One Goal" Hossa. Ryan Callahan was a healthy scratch. He really needs to be sent down on a conditioning assignment to regain lost confidence.

When is our genius of a coach going to recall Nigel Dawes??? He of course factored into both Wolf Pack goals in a 3-2 home defeat to Lowell.

What else does the kid who put up as many points as Zach Parise in the 2003 WJC have to prove to get a fair shake? This team has zero secondary scoring right now.

Is it going to take a foolish trade where Dawes morphs into a Brian Gionta clone cause I can totally see that happening?!?!?!?!?!?!

Speaking of Gionta, he is the definition of a dirty player. All those sneaky hacks are starting to catch up as he's being nailed for it a lot more this season. And did anyone see that crazy finish at TD Bank Garden where No.14 and Boston captain Zdeno Chara were at each other's throats as the buzzer sounded? Slashes and all sorts of illegal stickwork were being done.

And why you ask? Because of the stupid instigator. Does anyone really think Gionta would be able to get away with all the stuff he does in front of opposing nets? And Chara's stick coming dangerously close to the Mighty Mite's neck was ridiculous. How dirty does it have to get?

If anyone wants a good read, try to pickup THN's Top 60 Game Changing Moments. No.52 is appropriately entitled, "Goon Hockey Is Done" and has plenty on the lack of accountability where players sticks continue to come higher. There's little respect today as compared to the game before the big change came into place starting in the 1992-93 season.

If you want to learn about the history of the game, pick up this special issue as it's very well written. I've gotten through the first 10 thus far.


Also, if you haven't picked up THN's Top 60 Post Expansion Era, please do.

Souray to Edmonton

According to TSN, he's agreed on a contract.

Rangers Home Opener

October 4th versus the Panthers.

It'll be LA-ANA in London on 9/29 - 9/30, then regular opening night on 10/3, which will feature Leafs-Sens and likely an American doubleheader for Versus, and everybody's in action 10/4.

Devils will likely open in the south, because their 2nd game will be 10/6 at Florida.

Philadelphia opens up in the northwest at Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.

Kevin Lowe Can't Win

Made an offer sheet to Thomas Vanek for 7 Years, $50 Mill, but Darcy Regier and the Sabres immediately matched it.

July 4th News

Sabres re-signed Teppo Numminen for 1 year, $2.6M.

Oilers signed Matt Greene for 2 years.

Fedotenko signs with the Isles for 1 year, $2.9M

And a Biggie: Slava Kozlov signs a multi-year deal with the Thrash.

Various Signings Tonight

Minnesota re-signed Wez Walz for 1 year.

Vancouver signed Curtis Sanford - 1 Year, $600K

Raffi Torres re-signed in Edmonton. 3 Years, $6.75M total.

Kings signed Brad Stuart - 1 Year, $3.5 Mill. Kings continue to build.

Brad Ference is signed with the Red Wings.

Speaking of the Kings, Jason LaBarbera signed a 2-year extension with them. Finally, they can keep him at the NHL level.

Columbus, Edmonton make Moves

Columbus has signed Washington's Jiri Novotny.

Edmonton signed LA's Matheiu Garon.