The Secret To Sean Avery's Success With The New York Rangers This Time

Many are amazed by the change in Sean Avery, but not me.

I've been following his hockey career for more than 10-years and I've seen him make a series of big changes.

He is like a horse that wants to change into a giraffe, a dinosaur that evolves into a bird, or a Neanderthal that becomes a sensitive new age man.

It's like dropping off your bike at the garage and going back a few days later to pick up a jet, as Deepak Chopra would say.

Avery was once called an idiot, a jerk and a tool; more recently he has been called Deepak Chopra on skates.

Chopra says these evolutions are possible, because of our imaginable cells. If we hope, desire, and want to manifest change, we can and do.

Avery made the leap from playing house league hockey to rep, playing minor hockey.

From bantam to Junior A—from undrafted junior to rookie with the Stanley Cup winning Red Wings—from leading the league in penalties with the L.A. Kings to being the spine of the Rangers, playing out his heart and spleen, and gaining a type of immortality with The Avery Rule.

Now, he has gone from nowhere to now here, as The Love Guru would say.

Suspended by the NHL, scapegoated by the Dallas Stars, sent to Anger Management by the NHLPA, it looked like he was out of hockey or would wind up playing in Siberia, in the KHL, like Ray Emery or in the Asian League with the China Sharks, like Claude Lemieux, hoping to make a comeback with the NHL.

Instead, he made the kind of comeback that makes him the Rocky of hockey and turned the Rangers into a Cinderella team.

Avery emerged from Anger Management with a Gap ad, a Hollywood movie deal, an opportunity to play his way back into game shape in the AHL and an invitation to rejoin the New York Rangers in the NHL.

His AHL team went on a six game winning streak, the Rangers won three in a row and four out of six, when he returned and Avery got promoted from the third line to the first.

He responded by scoring more than a goal a game for three games as the Rangers climbed back into the playoff picture.

New York is now 53-22-16 with Avery in the lineup.

He scored two goals at home, with a Gordie Howe hat trick, and an unofficial dime, to be named the first star of the game in his sixth game. He has five points in six games.

That's the kind of comeback that puts you in seventh heaven.

It leaves sports fans breathless, wondering what's next?