The Avery Effect: Rangers New Fan Favourite Still Booed Everywhere Else

Sean Avery returned to the New York Rangers nearly two years to the day he first suited up for the team, and he rapidly became a fan favorite in New York, then and now, but he is still booed everywhere else he plays hockey.

New York Rangers fans have welcomed Avery back with open arms and so has NBC, but he gets a different welcome from opposing players, their fans, and the referees.

It's all called The Avery Effect.

The crowd chants A-vree, A-vree, A-vree in New York but in Montreal the crowd chanted "Avery sucks," according to Sean Gordon of the Globe and Mail.

The Canadiens have their own version of Sean Avery, in center Maxim Lapierre. Lapierre is a designated pest, according to the New York Times.

In his first six games with the Rangers, Avery had four goals, five points and just 10 penalty minutes.

He played a solid game against Montreal, even though he did not score, and the Canadiens took turns running into him while their fans applauded.

The Rangers did what they usually do with Avery on the ice: They won another close, hard-fought game.

It's a bit of a mystery as to why, but success seems to follow Avery in New York, if not elsewhere.

In 93 games with the Rangers, over three seasons, the club is 55-22-16 with him in the lineup, and 9-13-3 without him.

Go figure, as Joseph Heller, the New York author who wrote Catch-22 used to say.
The Rangers are now 5-2-0 in Avery's second run with the team. His presence is making a difference.

At the Rangers last home game, Avery got a Gordie Howe hat trick, an unofficial dime, five hits, drew a few penalties, and attracted so much attention from the Flyers it threw them off their game. The Rangers called it "The Avery Effect."

NBC's website offers video banks of Avery in action, as well as a slide show of no fewer than 55 photos of him on and off the ice.
 The NHL, NBC, the Rangers, and Ranger€s fans are only too happy to have him Avery back on Broadway. New Yorkers refer to him as their "beloved bad boy."

Stan Fischler, blogging for the Rangers, explains The Avery Effect this way: "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."

The fans of other NHL teams love to hate Avery the super-pest and the so-called King of the Agitators.

Garth Woolsey, writing in the Toronto Star, recently asked, How much Sean Avery is too much? He noted that the NHL, the New York Rangers, their fans, and NBC-TV, think there is no such thing as too much Avery.

"In a league that sometimes appears populated by interchangeably bland characters," Woolsey writes, "Avery has personality. Much as it generally cultivates and trades off its fighting "tradition," the NHL also specifically loves the attention he brings in the media capital of the world."

Woolsey described Avery as a player who is marginally productive at the highest levels and whose offences pale in comparison to some others. "He'll be 29 next month, maybe ready to grow up," he added.

When Avery left New York at the end of the season, last year, there was some concern the Rangers couldn't live without him. The numbers seemed to indicate that. The Rangers were 60-28-16 with him in the lineup, and a much less-impressive 10-14-3 without.

What Is the Avery Effect?

It used to refer to Avery Johnson, former NBA star and coach of the Dallas Mavericks, who now has a book and is on the banquet circuit, speaking and preaching.
It's difficult to imagine Sean Avery going that route.

The Avery Johnson Effect appears to work in Texas, but not the Sean Avery Effect.

While he was in Dallas, playing with the Stars, he often teamed up with Steve Ott.

"Those two spend so much time in the penalty box together, they probably qualify for a common-law marriage," according to the Dallas Morning News. "The Stars aren't getting the benefit of the Avery effect."

In the New York area, the Avery Effect is so strong, even Martin Brodeur setting the record for wins by a goaltender is upstaged by his nemesis from the playoffs last year. The names Martin Brodeur and Sean Avery are still linked by The Avery Rule.

"Sean Avery's two-goal effort is still the more talked about story in the Tri-State area," according to Michael Schlossberg, a columnist with the Bleacher Reports.

That's also part of The Avery Effect.