Okay, absolutely everything that everyone says about Sean Avery is wrong, and it's pissing me off. Today, we look at the 3 types of wrong thing people say about Sean Avery, and then we take a quick moment to clarify what is actually true about him.
Asinine Idea 1: Sean Avery has no real offensive ability! They only keep him around to be a pest!
I'm starting with the easy ones. Avery scores. That's easy. In his first season with us, he scored 20 points in 29 games. In his whole first run with us, he scored 53 points in 86 games. Since his return this time around, he's scored 5 points in 6 games. Sure, he's not a 50-goal scorer, but he sure seems to be a 50-point scorer. That's hardly insignificant. I'm not gonna play that whole "record with him and without him" card everyone plays - that's stupid. But it's also stupid to claim that Avery does not have a very positive impact on the team. This particular Asinine Idea also sometimes takes the form of the condescending "he'll be good if he sticks to playing hockey." This comment comes from someone with a very short memory: the thing Avery is best at is continuing to play his game while getting other people off of theirs. "Sticking to his game" isn't the "New Sean Avery," it's everything that made the original Sean Avery so great.
Asinine Idea 2: Sean Avery is a dirty goon who doesn't belong in the league!
Okay, someone watch a hockey game, sometime, ever, before writing about hockey. Chris Simon was a dirty goon who didn't belong in the league. Jarkko Ruutu is a dirty goon who doesn't belong in the league. Avery is annoying as hell, and he got suspended for saying the phrase "sloppy seconds" to a reporter. When you leap at a guy 3 feet from the boards to try to knock is face into the glass, when you try to collide with a dude's knee, when you check a guy a few seconds after the whistle when he's not looking and his body is relaxed, when you skate around behind someone engaged with someone else to hit him in the back and then skate away before he can turn and face you - that's when you're a dirty player. When you hit people gutlessly and with intent to injure. That's not Sean.
Asinine Idea 3: Sean Avery (will/has already) save(d) our season!
Yes, even Ranger fans can be wrong sometimes (just not as often as, say, Islander fans). You will hear this claim most often in conjunction with the statistics I refused to use to refute Asinine Idea 1 (since picking up Avery for the first time, we're 55-25-16 with him in the lineup, 40-34-11 without him). Our season is not necessarily saved, and if it is, it was not all the work of one man. This, ironically, employs a little of what I'll call the "Brodeur Principle," whereby statistics are irresponsibly used to pin the success of an entire team on a single person, making that person look better than he is, even if he is very good at his job.
Reality: Sean Avery is a very good hockey player who reminds me a lot of Esa Tikkanen. He brings energy when the team needs it, is always in someone's face or crease, and keeps his stick on the ice to score goals. This particular Rangers team was flat and small, and we brought on size and energy, in the collective form of Nik Antropov, Sean Avery, and John Tortorella. I am very happy to have Avery as a part of this squad, because he helps fill that need. So far, it's working. He is very good at getting in people's faces and then making plays when they're busy being pissed off. The end.
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