Sean Avery Sets up Game-Winning Goal, Sends Rangers into Playoffs

Sean Avery did not get credited with an assist on Ryan Callahan's game-winning goal against the Philadelphia Flyers that put the New York Rangers into the playoffs...but he did all the work to set it up.

Anybody whose idea of the Rangers' game against the Flyers, and Avery's part in it, came from reading the box score will have the wrong impression.

Avery did a tremendous job of lugging the puck down the left side; then he stopped, whistled a shot just in front of Flyers goalie Martin Biron, and then battled behind the net to get it again.

Avery picked up the puck behind the net and held onto it, fighting off two Flyers checkers. The puck went back to Derek Morris, who slapped it at the net.

The goal was given to Morris first, but then it was ruled it ricocheted off Callahan, so he was credited with the goal.

Avery was credited with several shots, 17 minutes of ice-time, one hit, and was plus-one for the night. Those statistics do not reveal his real contribution to the game.

The Rangers' starting lineup was the Avery Line with Avery, Scott Gomez, and Nik Antropov. They have started the last four games in a row.

Avery got promoted from the third line several games ago. He responded by scoring a goal a game for three games and two goals in the last game the Rangers played against the Flyers. He was also the first star of the game.

Avery also registered an assist on the game-winning goal on Tuesday vs. Montreal.

In the 17 games since Avery rejoined the Rangers, he has four goals and seven assists for 11 points, and that doesn't count the assist he should have been given on the game-winner against the Flyers. The Rangers are 10-6-1 with Avery in the lineup.

He was criticized widely for tapping Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas on the back of the helmet earlier this week. It was turned into the tap that was heard around the hockey world.

However, Avery’s antics were described by Douglas Flynn of the New England Hockey Journal as the element that might make the Rangers the Bruins' opponent in the Winter Classic to be held at Fenway Park next New Year's Day.

Flynn also said that what Avery did added to the potential of a Bruins-Rangers first-round clash in the Stanley Cup playoffs, as it served to "ratchet up the rivalry and spice up such a meeting."

"Faustian or not, the bargains the Rangers made weeks ago have bought them a berth in the NHL playoffs," Steve Zippay reported on Newsday.com.

"The devilish Van Dyke sported by coach John Tortorella and the rascally tactics of forward Sean Avery may be unduly suggestive of some diabolical deal, and there certainly is more to the Rangers' late-season success than actions as shadowy as their uniform numbers."

He added, "the Rangers took things up a notch by bringing back Avery, whose skulduggery both on and off the ice had moved even Tortorella."

The fans' loudest chants of praise were for Avery, he noted, saying, "Avery indeed has brought speed, athleticism, and hustle to the Rangers."

The Rangers were in a slump and on their longest skid since the 1960s until they hired coach John Tortorella, traded for Nik Antropov and Derek Morris, and Avery rejoined the team. They needed a scorer, a blue-liner, and spirit, and Rangers GM Glen Sather went out and got it.

Sather got Avery for half price and he is doing double duty. Not only has he turned the vanilla Rangers into villains, he has contributed points as well.

There are many hockey fans who still love to hate him, but it's going to be hard to say he hasn't helped the Rangers now.

P.S. The Dallas Stars are still blaming Avery for their problems at the start of the season, but now they are out of the playoffs and the Rangers are in. Of course, other factors are involved, but right now Sean Avery is making Glen Sather look like a very good GM.