Avery Kissed By Tortorella And New York Rangers Turn Into Cinderella

"Cinderella story. Outta nowhere. A former greenskeeper, now, about to become the Masters champion." -- Bill Murray, Caddyshack

With back-to-back wins at home and away, the New York Rangers have ended their mid-season slump are now the Big Apple's newest Cinderella team as they sprint to the finish of the NHL season, heading for the playoffs.

The New York Rangers added the combustible John Tortorella behind the bench and reacquired Sean Avery on re-entry waivers before adding center Nik Antropov and Morris.

Does that make Avery the toad and Tortorella the princess that kisses him and turns him into a prince? Many predicted Torts and Aves big personalities would clash like cymbols crashing.

Coming into the final stretch, the Rangers and their fans watched a promising season spiral down. New York started the season by winning 10 of 12 but in midseason they lost 11 of 13 contests, going 2-7-4. 

In a span of eight games, the goal-challenged Rangers hadn't scored more than twice in regulation.

Defenseman Wade Redden was in a 57-game goal-scoring slump. The New York Rangers captain Chris Drury was in a career-long, 16-game drought. They needed spirit, scoring, and toughness.

Rangers GM Glen Sather fired coach Tom Renney, hired coach John Tortorella, got Sean Avery back to help with the offense and give the team a bit more toughness, and then, at the trading deadline, got Nik Antropov from the Toronto Maple Leafs, to bring some size upfront, as he is 6-6, 230 lbs., and has 21 goals and 25 assists, and Derek Morris from the Phoenix Coyotes for the blueline.

Cinderella was ready to go to the ball.

In American and Canadian sports, a Cinderella or "Cinderella Story" refers to a team that goes much further than expected. The Rangers were expected to finish out of the playoffs, but now their drive has come alive.

Cinderella teams tend to gain a lot of media and fan attention as they move closer to the championship game at the end of the tournament and that looks likely to happen as the Rangers play their final 17 games of the regular season and head for the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The 2007 New York Giants were the most recent Cinderella story in the Big Apple. In the playoffs, the Giants stunned the top seeded Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers.

Then, in Super Bowl XLII, the New York Giants overcame extreme odds by defeating the previously undefeated 18-0 New England Patriots, 17–14, and became the first NFC wild card team to win a Super Bowl.

Before that, the 1968 New York Jets had a Cinderella season when they beat the heavily favored NFL champions the Baltimore Colts.

Baseball has given New York a couple of Cinderella teams as well. The New York Giants of 1954 swept the 111-win Cleveland Indians in the 1954 World Series. That was one of the greatest World Series upsets in baseball history.

The New York Mets won their first ever title in 1969 after finishing last or next to last for years, beating the heavily favored 109-win Baltimore Orioles in the World Series.

The term comes from the ending of the fairy tale Cinderella, and it implies unexpected success after a period of obscurity. The media will debate whether the given "Cinderella" team or player will "turn into a pumpkin."

It was the carriage that turned into a pumpkin at midnight, not Cinderella herself, but that detail is overlooked. Another popular term is "strike midnight" when a Cinderella team does finally get beat.

Before the use of "Cinderella" became so popular, it was more common to use the term "Miracle", as in the "Miracle on Ice" in 1980. The United States' men's national ice hockey team, made up entirely of amateur and collegiate players, won the Olympic gold medal.

The Americans defeated the Soviet Union, considered the best hockey team in the world at the time, by a score of 4-3 in the semi-final round. The Miracle on Ice and widely considered to be the greatest U.S. sports achievement of the 20th century.

In the United Kingdom, by contrast, a Cinderella team is one which usually underachieves, such as England in the Euro 2008. This refers to the early part of the Cinderella fairy tale, where the heroine is downtrodden.

The Rangers were widely criticized for being under-achievers this season.

Chris Drury and Scott Gomez were given huge contracts but had not posted big numbers. Wade Redden, Markus Naslund, and Michal Rozsival were also making the big bucks but the Rangers were not scoring goals or winning games.

Rangers fans were upset all season that  Jaromir Jagr, Brendan Shanahan, and Sean Avery all moved to other teams. Now Avery is back, Antropov and Morris have been added, and Tortorella has a Cinderella on his hands.

Most Cinderellas send one strong message: a team or a player that hasn't had a good regular season can atone for the struggles with brilliance in a short period of time.
They tend to push a playoff series to a seventh game.

Will this New York Rangers team be able to take the Boston Bruins in seven games in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Well, they have to get there, first. But I can assure you—we will all be watching!

P.S. Don't call Sean Avery a toad to his face. And erase the image of Tortorella kissing Avery!