Canadiens Host Rangers with Saint Sean and Begorrah on St. Patrick's Day

"Sure and begorrah" is an Irish term used as a mild, usually jocular, oath that you hear a lot on St. Patrick's Day. It means "sure and by God," as in "Sean Avery is no saint, sure and begorrah, but he is a changed man."

The headline of the Ranger's blog by Stan Fischler on their website says, "Rangers: Sean and Begorrah!—Avery Does It Again!"

He notes that on St. Patrick's Day (Tuesday night) the New York Rangers will be in Montreal to play the Canadiens. He wonders if the Canadiens got the memo about "the new Sean Avery."

By that he means the Montreal Canadiens will be facing a New York Rangers team they might not recognize. The last time these two teams met, the Rangers were described as vanilla, lacklustre, even comatose.
 
Since then, they fired player-friendly coach Tom Renney and replaced him with the fiery John Tortorella. Plus, they've welcomed back Sean Avery from anger management.

They traded for big Nik Antropov, the 6'6" forward from Kazakhstan, by way of the Toronto Maple Leafs, to add size and scoring ability to the froward lines. They also added Derek Morris to bolster the defense.

The Rangers expected Avery to add toughness and hoped he would spark the team the way he did the past two seasons. Rangers fans discovered Avery is a changed man. Tortorella promoted Avery from his third line agitator role and turned him into a first line scorer.

Avery has four goals and one assist in his six games with the Rangers, plus lots of hits and relatively few penalty minutes.  He scored two big goals in NBC's Game of the Week yesterday and was named the first star of the game.

He also had a "Gordie Howe hat-trick" plus five hits and drew two or three penalties.

Fishchler points out that Sean Avery is no saint. He says, "Perhaps the most captivating aspect of Avery's game is that he has added go-to scorer to his dossier which also includes such vital categories as, one. Drive the opposition crazy; two. Drive the enemy coach nuts; and three. Play the game like a light tank while imitating a pinball being bounced around by a flipper."

Antropov is playing a big role with the Rangers, now that he is no longer with the Leafs and out of the shadow of Mats Sundin.

Morris is solid on the blue line and the power play. It appears the rest of the Rangers have been re-awakened and re-energized since Tortorella, Avery, Antropov, and Morris were added to their squad.

The Rangers started this year strong, going 10-2, but endured their longest skid in decades, going 2-10. Now they are back in the playoff picture after a three-game win streak, including a victory over the league-leading Boston Bruins. They have won five of their last seven games.

You might say the Rangers have been playing with the luck of the Irish with Sean Avery in the lineup again.

They also have the luck of the Swediish in net with Henrik Lundqvist, who recently set an NHL record by winning his 30th game for the fourth year in a row since joining the league.

The Canadiens just lost a game to the New Jersey Devils and watched Martin Brodeur set a new record for wins by a goalie. Now they will go up against another record-setting goaltender and this one has a revitalized Rangers team in front of him.