NY-NASH: Avery Helping Turn Things Around For Rangers

The New York Rangers are back in the playoff picture, currently tied with the Carolina Hurricanes for eighth place and just one point behind the Pittsburgh Penguins after beating the Nashville Predators 4-2 last night.

The Rangers began the season hot, rocketing to first place in their division at the start of the season after getting off to a 10-2 start. A long midseason slump had them slide down the standings to the final playoff spot where the team is today.

The dramatic turnaround started when John Tortorella was hired to replace fired Tom Renny, and it picked up momentum when Sean Avery was reclaimed off waivers.

General Manager Glen Sather also traded for Nik Antropov and Derek Morris at the trade deadline to improve New York's chances of making the postseason.

Under Tortorella the revamped Rangers have a new game plan featuring an aggressive attack. After losing their first two games under Tortorella, they added Avery and took off with a three-game winning streak with victories against the lowly Colorado Avalanche and the New York Islanders, followed by an upset win over the league-leading Boston Bruins.

The Rangers then fell to the Carolina Hurricanes, but got back on track with a win against Nashville. Their next game is the NBC game of the week, against the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday.

Once again Avery is playing the role of difference-maker, just as he did when he first joined the Rangers from the L.A. Kings a couple of years ago.

He played the same role with the Hartford Wolf Pack of the AHL before rejoining the Rangers. The Wolf Pack went on a six game winning streak with Avery in the line-up.

Avery was welcomed with cheers in his first game back at Madison Square Garden and played a good game, getting an assist, but against the Predators he played his best since returning to the Rangers.

Tortorella played Avery for over 13 minutes in his first game and has increased his icetime in each game after that. He promoted Avery from the third line to the first line for the game in Nashville. Avery rewarded his coach by scoring the first goal of the game, three minutes into the first period.

Avery also helped create the tying goal early in the second.

Jim Cerney of newyorkrangers.com described it this way:

"He quickly and aggressively got in behind the Predators net just as goaltender Dan Ellis was set to clear the puck. Ellis had to react quickly because of Avery’s pursuit, and the Nashville goalie blindly sent the puck up left wing where it was intercepted by Callahan, who had replaced Nikolai Zherdev on the top line after the first period."

Avery, Callahan, and Gomez led a buzz-saw-like assault on the fore-check, which led to both goals in the second period, as well as numerous other scoring chances according to Cerney.

In addition, his play set the tone for the rest of the team, as Brandon Dubinsky, Colton Orr, and Antropov clearly stepped up their game after the first intermission.

After several excellent scoring chances in the second period—many created by the Avery, Gomez, Callahan threesome—the Rangers scored late in the third period to grab a 3-2 advantage.

Avery set the scoring play in motion again, this time by collecting the puck on the right of the offensive zone, curling towards the middle of the ice, and firing a shot towards the goal that deflected off defense-man Ryan Suter’s stick and off the right post.

Fredrik Sjostrom scored a shorthanded goal to up the Rangers' advantage to 4-2.

By posting his 30th win of the season Henrik Lundqvist became the first goaltender in NHL history to earn 30 victories in each of his first four seasons. Lundqvist, who notched his fourth straight win, finished with 19 saves on the night.