New York Rangers Deal with Devil To Get Sean Avery (the Prodigal Son)

It's Sunday and the sports reports out of New York today are full of biblical imagery. Although some reporters refer to him as the prodigal son, Sean Avery is usually described as a devil or someone with connections to the devil or a villain who fights devils.

The Rangers have a dramatically different personality than they did last week because they have Sean Avery in the lineup, writes Mark Hermann of Newsday.com, adding he didn't come in a trade (unless you're one who says they made a deal with the devil to get him back).

In the hours leading up to Wednesday's trade deadline, the team added prodigal son Sean Avery through re-entry waivers, it says on NHL.com.

The name Sean Avery will always be linked to the Devils and Martin Brodeur, thanks to The Avery Rule for unsportsmanlike conduct, after the NHL created it during the play-offs last year when he took screening the goalie to a new level.

The Prodigal Son, also known as the Lost Son, is one of the best known parables. A man who has two sons. The younger demands his share of his inheritance while his father is still living, and goes off to a distant country where he wastes it with riotous living.

That's not exactly the story with Avery and the Rangers. He wanted to stay and play but GM Glen Sather did not meet his agent's demands, despite the fans in Madison Square Garden chanting "Re-Sign Avery, Re-Sign Avery!"

Avery's salary demands were met by the Dallas Stars, so he went to Texas. There were no reports of riotous living, just riotous behaviour in hockey arenas.

Eventually the prodigal son has to take work as a swineherd. He comes to his senses and decides to return home and throw himself on his father's mercy.

For a while, it looked as though Avery's best option was to go play in Minsk in the KHL, but he did the NHL/NHLPA's anger management program and played with the Hartford Wolf Pack, instead.

He thinks his father will disown him but might make him one of his servants. That would be better than feeding pigs. When he returns home, his father greets him with open arms.

Avery knew the Rangers wanted him while he played himself back into game shape in the AHL. When he returned to the Rangers, he was welcomed with open arms. The New York Times reported "It's Hugs All Around".

The older brother resents the favored treatment of his faithless brother and complains about the lack of reward for his own faithfulness. Nobody on the Rangers is playing the role of the miserable brother, unless it's team captain Chris Drury.

But the father tells the good son, you're always with me, so I'll give you everything I've got. But we're going to celebrate because your brother was lost and now he's found. It's like he was dead and now he's born again.

The Rangers did not throw Avery a party after they won their first game in the line-up, beating the lowly New York Islanders on the road. A victory against the Boston Bruins in MSG would be another story.

Avery says he expects to get a warm reception at the Gardens as soon as he steps onto the ice. He was a fan favourite the last time he played for the Rangers, alongside Jagra, Straka, and Shanahan.

Avery was claimed off re-entry waivers from Dallas last Tuesday. He played one game at the Garden this season as a Star, back in October. There's a new book out about it called Sean Avery: Hope & Change, chronicling the comeback of "the Rocky of Hockey."

He returned to the Rangers at a turbulent time, with the Rangers in such a tailspin they fired their coach, Tom Renney, and hired John Tortorella.

At the NHL Trade Deadline, they got Nik Antropov from the Toronto Maple Leafs and Derek Morris from the Phoenix Coyotes.

The Rangers are 2-2 with Renney but a win today over the Bruins will have the New York media and Rangers fans talking about the team as some kind of Phoenix, rising out of the ashes, or as a Cinderella team. Avery will get some credit and he'll be treated like the prodigal son.

If the Rangers lose to the Bruins, who are also in a slump, there will be the devil to pay, as they say. No doubt Avery will get the blame, as he did in Dallas. Scapegoat, devil, prodigal son, or Cinderella, somehow Avery always attracts a lot of attention.

He has been engulfed by reporters and camera crews from the start of his comeback in the AHL and it has intensified since he has returned to the NHL.

The Rangers hope the attention will go to the whole team instead of one hockey player. That could happen if the Rangers turn into a Cinderella team, under Tortella, turn their season around, and win a lot of their games leading into the playoffs.

Sean Avery rejoined the Rangers on Thursday and wasted no time in doling out some pain. He was credited with three big hits in the game against the Islanders. He took a lot of hits from the Islanders but did not retaliate.

Michael Obernauer of the New York Daily News asks, "If the Rangers get this thing turned around in time to make some noise in the playoffs, will it be because they kicked the nice-guy coach to the side of the road and brought in the pepperpot, or because they brought Sean Avery, the pest opponents (and some teammates) love to hate, back into the fold?"

The truth is, there's quite a bit more to the game against the Bruins than just Avery. Two new Rangers, Antropov and Morris, make their Garden debut. And old Rangers Wade Radden and Chris Drury recently ended long scoring droughts.

To win against Boston and get points against the Pittsburgh Penguins, it will take all the Rangers, old and new, playing together like a well-oiled machine.

With 17 games remaining, the Rangers are part of a group in fifth through 10th place in the East that are all within two points of one another. To win, they will need their prodigal son, or the devil, Sean Avery to be a sparkplug, as he was for the Hartford Wolf Pack and for the Rangers the last time he joined the team.

The Wolf Pack went on a seven-game winning streak with Avery in the lineup. The Rangers went 50-23-13 with Avery in the lineup the last time he played for New York.