Sean Avery Returns To Broadway As The Rocky Of Hockey With The New York Rangers

Sean Avery made headlines around the world when it was finally announced the New York Rangers reclaimed him off re-entry waivers, 24 hours after the Dallas Stars gave most of the other teams in the NHL a chance to take him.

Some say the New York Rangers should not have reclaimed Sean Avery from re-entry waivers—but only because they never should have let him go.

For the Rangers' opponents, Avery's return plays more like Chucky's Back than Micky Rourke in The Wrestler, or Al Gore, Bill Clinton as The Comeback Kid, never mind NFL quarterbacks Joe Montana and Peyton Manning.

Avery's return to the NHL made headlines around the world today as he is a celebrity who has crossed over from the world of hockey into the worlds of high fashion and Hollywood movies.

"Hockey hunk Sean Avery is finally making his return to the ice after punishment for "inappropriate comments" regarding ex-girlfriend Elisha Cuthbert," Perez Hilton gushed on PerezHilton.com, the celebrity blog site covering news and rumors of Hollywood stars.

Avery was suspended for six games and ordered to receive anger-management counseling by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman following on-camera remarks he on Dec. 2. Many fans said the punishment did not fit the crime, especially when compared to lighter sentences for other players who delivered concussion-causing hits or elbow smashes to the head in an apparent attempt to injure.

Avery played only 23 games in a Stars' uniform with 10 points and 77 penalty minutes. Reportedly, he never meshed with his new teammates. "In a sport that venerates mullets and missing teeth, he is simultaneously one of the NHL's dirtiest goons and a modern metrosexual boasting good looks, a fashion fetish, homosexual friends and orchestrated ambiguity," Richard Whitt wrote in the Dallas Observer. "While his macho peers spent last summer fishin' and golfin', he interned at Vogue."

After being kicked off the Dallas Stars, Avery graduated from anger management and found himself playing in the AHL for the Hartford Wolf Pack. He will now rejoin the Rangers in New York for Wednesday's practice and make his debut with the Broadway Blueshirts on Thursday. It will be his first time playing for the NHL since November.

"Sean Avery returns to Rangers; cover your ears (and eyes)" was the headline in the L.A. Times. "Former Rangers starter Sean Avery has returned to the Blue Shirts" said NY1.

New York and Dallas will split the remainder of Avery's contract, so Rangers GM Glen Sather just got a star for half price.

Today's sports headlines reflected the fact Avery is a hockey villain people love to hate. NHL players voted him "most hated player" at the same time People magazine included him in their list of "Sexiest Men Alive", along with Matt Damon, Patrick Dempsey, Johnny Depp,Will Smith, and Brad Pitt.

Rangers Ready To Embrace Avery, read the headline in the New York Daily News. Avery takes his act back to Broadway" was the AFP headline.

He recently joined the list of celebrities who do Gap ads.

He was in Vogue last summer as a celebrity intern and became guest editor of Men's Vogue, which has since folded. A column he wrote like a journal on his experience at Vogue has inspired a movie, now in the works, by New Line Cinema.

"Step away from the fashion closet: Sean Avery is returning to New York and rejoining the Rangers" ran the headline in Citylife. "Sean Avery is back for a Broadway revival", wrote Dan Rosen on NHL.com.

He was out of vogue with the NHL when TV stations ran a clip of Avery trash talking before a game against the Calgary Flames.

"Rangers Acquire Avery for Second Agitating Run", the New York Times headline read. "The Grate One Returns" was the headline in Gothamist.

"His last chance to resurrect his NHL career" was the headline from PR-Inside.com.

"Anyone care to guess how soon he will alienate his teammates and coaches again, as he did while a member of the Kings and at every other stop in his career?" wrote Helene Elliot in the L.A. Times.  Because you know it's going to happen again. And again. And it will hurt the Rangers far more than it well help in their last 18 games this season. The implosion should be fun to watch."

The Rangers now have a fiery new forward to go with their fiery new coach after successfully claiming Sean Avery," Lynn Zinser wrote in the New York Times. "They hope Avery, along with Coach John Tortorella’s hiring last week, provides another jolt to the Rangers’ uncertain playoff hopes with 18 games left in the season."

"Martin Brodeur, beware. The Rangers claimed irritating forward Sean Avery, Brodeur's nemesis," was the way they put it on NJ.com.

Avery spent the previous one and a half NHL seasons with the Rangers, and gave them an instant boost when he first arrived in a trade from Los Angeles in February 2007. They went 50-23-13 when he was in the lineup and dropped to 9-13-3 when he was sidelined by injury.

The Rangers advanced to the second round of the playoffs in both seasons Avery was on the team. Last season, he had 15 goals and 18 assists in 57 games with the Rangers, and was second on the club in penalty minutes (154).

In the 86 games Avery played for the Rangers, he became a fan favorite at Madison Square Garden for agitating opponents, along with scoring 23 goals and 30 assists. 

After Avery officially became a Ranger again at noon, new teammates also expressed love as well as fear and loathing.

Chris Drury, the Rangers captain, reportedly said, “The only two things I need to know and I think the other guys in this room need to know are: One, that he wants to be here, that he wants to be a Ranger, he loves wearing the jersey, he loves living in New York. And second, he wants to win a Stanley Cup.”

The new Rangers coach, John Tortorella, made derogatory comments about Avery on TSN. Today Tortorella said. “My role is to teach him.”

The team Avery returns to is quite different than the one he left. The Rangers recently replaced the player-friendly coach Tom Renney with John Tortorella, who may already have a conflict with Avery.

Rangers general manager Glen Sather was eager to give Avery a second chance, allowing Dallas to place him with the Rangers’ American League affiliate in Hartford when he was reinstated by the league last month.

Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, “We’re very focused right now, trying to win games down the stretch. Anybody who walks into this locker room has to lock into that as well," according to Newsday.

Steve Valiquette, the Rangers second goalie was quoted as saying, "We're gonna be winning regardless of who's in the lineup."
Brandon Dubinsky said, "I'm immediately excited for him and looking forward to have his on-ice capabilities help us win games."
When Avery was with the Rangers before, he had supporters in captain Jaromir Jagr, now playing in Russia, and Brendan Shanahan, now playing for the Devils.

Some Rangers fans say Sather and the Rangers should never have let Avery, Straka, Shanahan, or Jagr go. All four stars were great Rangers and their replacements have been major disappointments this season.

Rangers fans loved them. Team chemistry is as powerful as it is mysterious so when the magic happens you do nothing to interfere. Hockey players keep everything the same when things are going well, even though they are not overly superstitious. The Rangers team was not broken, but GM Glen Sather fixed it, and the new version of the team is not nearly as good as last year's Rangers.

Last year's Rangers could have beaten this year's Rangers 10 - 0 and left nobody standing.