Is it just me, or wasn't it nice to see Avery back to his old tricks last night? He managed to get a few guys off thier game, not to mention McCabe. He also had a brief shift with Dubi and Lisin, I wouldn't mind seeing these guys together on the second unit for one period. Seems to me with the speed of both Lisin and Avery on the wing it would lead to some good forechecking and Dubi's shot has improved and could very well be the finisher by going to the net. Give AA another shot at the first unit and have Drury play on the third with Cally and Higgins.
Agreed...Thought he actually played well over the past week or so. I love looking at the faces of the the opposition and how pissed off they get at him from his antics.
He is definatley a key player to this team, I would hate to see him go, again! I still wish he would have dropped that kid Ducko though, Avery was laughing in his face, love it! I still think his speed and puck movement are truly under-rated.
I think we all want to see the nastier side a bit more. And I'd really like to see him chip in with a few more goals -- historically he's scored at or near a 20 goal per 82 game pace, and he's well below that right now -- but I don't think it helps that he's constantly playing with different linemates.
The Rangers have scored 14 even-strength goals in their last 11 games. Sean Avery has been on the ice for eight of them, leading Blueshirt forwards in that category. Drury, Marian Gaborik, Ryan Callahan and Artem Anisimov have each been on for five
Quote:
Over the course of the season, Gaborik leads Rangers forwards by being on the ice for 28 even-strength goals. Vinny Prospal has been on for 25 with Anisimov, surely making a play for more minutes in his freshman season, on for 19 and Avery on for 17.
....meaning what? Avery's primary purpose has never been to score a lot of goals.
So we pay him 2 mil not to score, but to be an *******. I'll take that job. The guy doesn't bring anything that any average third liner with an attitude problem cant.
So we pay him 2 mil not to score, but to be an *******. I'll take that job. The guy doesn't bring anything that any average third liner with an attitude problem cant.
Hahaha, okay man. I forgot for a moment that you're one of our resident "Avery is a blight on the game" people. Fair enough.
I don't see why more people don't see this. The guy rarely fights anyone tough, he falls on goaltenders and expects the refs to protect him, and the Garden chants his name. Not to mention the guy gets injured more than Gaborik.
When he was off the team a while ago people began to see through articles and news reports what kind of guy he was. But when he was required (we were the only team that would even take him) the homerism begins to set in again.
And now hes on pace for a 30 point season again he's outstanding.
I don't see why more people don't see this. The guy rarely fights anyone tough, he falls on goaltenders and expects the refs to protect him, and the Garden chants his name. Not to mention the guy gets injured more than Gaborik.
When he was off the team a while ago people began to see through articles and news reports what kind of guy he was. But when he was required (we were the only team that would even take him) the homerism begins to set in again.
And now hes on pace for a 30 point season again he's outstanding.
i agree that he gets way too much love from the crowd.....
but he's a unique player and he definitely adds something to the team. he can definitely be a detriment as well...i don't understand why so many people LOVE him SO much, but i definitely like having him on the team.
avery is a tremendous passer you cannot take that away from him.
Thats the worst of it though. The guy could actually be a decent hockey player and potentially a second line playmaker if he wasnt so focused on "getting other peoples skin"
When Avery is on top of his game, he has everyone focused on him. That is a frikkin lethal skill to have. Can you imagine being a 15/20 type player that has an entire team focused on you instead of some guy named Gaborik?
Averys value on this team goes well beyond his numbers. Hes a diversion, he takes focus off of other players and brings it on to himself, hes the kind of player who makes his linemates better just by being out on the ice because everyone is so focused on trying to murder him, they forget about the other guys out there.
That's why hes on the ice for so many goals for us, not necessarily because of his talent (which by the way isnt anything to sneeze at) because when hes on the ice, its almost like having a man advantage.
At the moment both Avery and Drury are heading for 30 point seasons. One of them is making $7 mil and the other is costing us $2 mil. One has the intangible of driving opposing teams to distraction the other doesn't. Which would you take?
I'm happy that Drury is starting to put some pucks in the net and would rather not rag on him today. What's more is he is beginning to get into good shooting areas--something he hasn't done all season. Much as I'm not happy with how he's turned out for the contract he's got the Rangers still need him to be a major point producer.
Avery on the other hand definitely falls more into the secondary scoring category. He shouldn't be expected to contend for top scorer on the team. That's not what his game is about.
I don't see why more people don't see this. The guy rarely fights anyone tough, he falls on goaltenders and expects the refs to protect him, and the Garden chants his name. Not to mention the guy gets injured more than Gaborik.
When he was off the team a while ago people began to see through articles and news reports what kind of guy he was. But when he was required (we were the only team that would even take him) the homerism begins to set in again.
And now hes on pace for a 30 point season again he's outstanding.
I don't understand why so many people liked Paul Mara/Blair Betts when they played here. I don't understand why people continue to bash players like Rozy even when they are playing well.
Not everyone is going to like or share the same distaste for certain players, but it happens. Different strokes for different folks.
It seems like every other week we have a thread that says the old avery is back. If the old Avery was truly back, he'd be much more consistent and we wouldn't need a thread about it every other week. His consistency from game to game was what made him so liked here. We've had agitators before, even ones that scored a decent amount of goals for us (Fluery and Barnaby are the first two that come to mind), but the fact that unlike Barnaby he did it all the time, and unlike Fluery he didn't have the baggage off the ice(for the most part), combined with our great record with him in the lineup...it was just awesome.
I don't think it's just one thing or one person that can be blamed for the inconsistency. The team's lines are shuffled multiple times a game sometimes, the talent around him is not what it was in his previous stint with the Rangers, the team in general has had a difficult time scoring, Torts is a completely different coach than Tom Renney AND runs a completely different system. You've also got to consider all the different things he went through to get here again I suppose, I'm sure it's "neutered" him and his style of play to an extent.
The way he's been since Dallas gave him that contract, I'm so glad we DIDNT give him that contract. Can you imagine paying him $4mil per? It's funny how cheap Sather gets when it comes to retaining players, but he made the right decision in that case.
...And now hes on pace for a 30 point season again he's outstanding
Avery's numbers are down, but Renney played him more than Tortorella does:
2006-07: 17:49 ATOI
2007-08: 15:51 ATOI
2008-09: 16:44 ATOI
2009-10: 13:52 ATOI
And 13:52 is with several games with higher minutes factored in, while Dubinsky and Drury were injured. When we've had all our forwards healthy, Avery has played about 10 to 13 minutes per game -- much lower than in previous seasons.
That of course raises the question, does he deserve more minutes...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fitzy
So we pay him 2 mil not to score, but to be an *******. I'll take that job. The guy doesn't bring anything that any average third liner with an attitude problem cant.
Here are some numbers:
Coming into this season, Sean Avery had scored 28 goals and added 37 assists for 65 points in 104 total regular season games as a Ranger over (parts of) three seasons.
His regular season numbers average out to about 22 goals, 29 assists and 51 points per 82 games. In terms of points per game, his numbers work out to a point every 1.6 games.
In the playoffs, Avery has 5 goals and 9 assists for 14 total points in 24 total playoff games. That's a point every 1.7 games.
That's a relatively large sample -- at least large enough to say with some significant degree of certainty that this is what Sean Avery can bring to the table, offensively. And that's just what can be measured -- then there are his contributions that are a little more difficult to measure, but have been mentioned in this thread, like by Inferno.
I would like to see him get some more minutes, and I think if he did his numbers would return to previous levels.
Personally, I'd like to see him with Dubinsky and Gaborik and let Prospal play with Drury.
Last edited by Kind of Blue: 12-24-2009 at 01:56 PM.
The guy in between the glass on the Canes broadcast was remarking how quiet Avery was on Monday, saying the last time Avery was in Carolina he was making fun of his purple tie/purple shirt combination.
