Rangers-Thrashers: Bad Blood, Revenge, Hot New Rangers Meet Atlanta Thrashers

Bad blood between the New York Rangers (39-27-8) and the Atlanta Thrashers (30-38-6) should lead to a good game on Thursday night.

The Rangers were looking for revenge after the Thrashers beat them in Madison Square Garden on the night they raised Adam Graves' jersey to the rafters and retired his number. The Rangers were defeated by the Thrashers 2-1 in a shootout on Feb. 3, the last time they met, but New York won the other two games against Atlanta this year.

The Rangers were booed on their own ice in front of a full house of fans who had stood reverently when Graves' jersey was raised, but a lot has changed for New York since then.

The new Rangers want to make a couple of points where they count—in the standings. New York could move up into a tie with the Pittsburgh Penguins, again, and put more distance between themselves and Montreal, Florida, and Buffalo.

The Thrashers remember the Rangers from the 2006-2007 playoffs when Sean Avery  tormented many an Atlanta Thrashers fan and Thrashers players alike, according to an Examiner.com article from Atlanta.

Atlanta remembers when Avery found Brendan Shanahan for the game-winning goal in New York’s 2-1 victory and when he ticked off the normally mild-mannered Ilya Kovalchuk so much he took a run at him. 

The Examiner.com piece called Avery a goon, the closest thing hockey has to Dennis Rodman, and hockey's Jerry Springer. They might not recognize the new Avery or the new Rangers.

Avery just had his first fight since rejoining the Rangers and the NHL but he has very few penalties and he has turned into a scorer on the first line with four goals, two assists, and two stars in the last six games. Avery had a key assist on Gomez’s goal to go along with a rousing fight with the NHL's hits leader, Cal Clutterbuck, that sparked the team in their last game.

The Thrashers might not recognize the Rangers with 6'6" Nik Antropov up front, 6'3" Mike Sauer on the blue line and 6'9" Stephen Valiguette in net.

Antropov, Sauer, Avery, and coach John Tortorella were not with the team the last time they played the Thrashers. The Rangers have an 8-4-1 record since head coach Tom Renney was fired and replaced by Tortorella, and an even better 7-2-1 record since Avery arrived with Antropov and Morris.

Tortorella came from Tampa Bay via TSN, Sauer came from the Hartford Wolf Pack, Avery came from the Dallas Stars by way of the Wolf Pack, Antropov came from the Toronto Maple Leafs, and Morris from the Phoenix Coyotes.

The rest of the Rangers have been re-energized by the changes. Ryan Callahan, Nikolai Zherdev, and Scott Gomez are all scoring again. Callahan wants to score to make this his first 20-goal season.

It was 19°C in Atlanta today, where the basketball Hawks are hot but the hockey Thrashers are not, and only 9°C in New York City, where the Rangers have been hot with an 8-3-0 record over their past 11 games.

The Thrashers have a 14-19-2 record at home this year, but they have won five of their last seven home tests.

The Hawks have won eight in a row. The Rangers are 20 points ahead of the Thrashers and the Rangers were looking for their fifth win in six games, coming off Tuesday's home win over Minnesota.

New York is just 16-16-4 as the guest this season. Thursday night's game is the first of two on the road for the Rangers. They visit the rival Pittsburgh Penguins this Saturday.