Pot-ery sucks? A Tale of Two Avery's

You'd think that the Garden Faithful present for Monday night's much hyped matchup between the Dallas Stars and the New York Rangers really hated clay pots if you'd never heard of Sean Avery or understood just how annoying he is when he's no longer wearing your team's jersey.

If you've been following the New York Sports Media you'd know that the biggest soap opera this week has been...

Well Madonna and A-Rod but after that its been... Brett Favre whispering sweet nothings in the Lions' ear about his old buddies the Packers. But after that its been... ok well somewhere on that list was Sean Avery's return to the Big Apple. I actually went to his return to the Garden on Monday. It was an interesting experience.

To begin with I got the sense that Avery was listening to Alanis Morisette's "You Ougtta Know" in the back while staring at a picture of Aaron Voros in a Rangers Jersey but changing the lyrics so it was about him. So, like..."Is he annoying like me, and does he har-ass Mar-ty, can he get rules changed in... the playoffs," or something like that.

I didn't know what to expect walking in and neither did most of the fans I talked to. The guy sitting in front of me, who had no reason to suspect that I was a Devils fan, turned around and asked "Hey you gonna cheer Avery or boo him when he comes out." I almost laughed but held it in check and matter-of-factly replied, "I'm going to boo him." He nodded and said "Yea I don't know. I think I'm gonna cheer him. I liked the guy." He would later participate in an Avery Sucks chant.... the first of which happened 45 seconds into the game and was almost immediately followed by the Rangers famous Potvin sucks chant during which half of the Garden substituted Avery for old Denis Potvin, creating the puzzling "Pottery Sucks" chant referenced in the title. I bet he enjoyed that.

Avery was working hard to get on the crowds' nerves early. He jawed with Orr during warmups (quick aside, I would love to know the etymology of this colloquialism. I mean it means to talk angrily but... why jawed?) and then absolutely harassed Dubinsky on his first shift, leading to a penalty for Dubes and increased attention from Voros and Orr for the remainder of the game.

A passive observer would think Avery was being relatively quiet... he wasn't. He was all over Gomez, sticking him in the face at least once, he refused to fight Colton Orr more than once, and he smacked Lundqvist in the head with his stick when the ref wasn't looking. That was all in the first ten minutes of the game. The effect was instant. The Rangers were out to kill Avery every time he was on the ice. The result, a distracted 2-1 loss to one of the worst teams in the Western Conference. Avery probably laughed over Cigars and Apple-tini's with his Vogue friends the entire night.

Last night at "The Rock" was a completely different story. To begin with it was a different Sean Avery. The Sean Avery that came to the Prudential Center last night was the one who rarely shows up... Sean Avery the skill player. Avery nearly doubled his season total for shots on goal, taking four on the night, two of which were absolutely beautiful scoring chances.

He attracted attention but not from Zajac, Parise or any of the Devils other talented youngsters. No offense to David Clarkson but his job is to harass guys like Avery, and harass he did. Avery was once again not interested in dropping the gloves, refusing the opportunity to tangle with Clarkson twice.

That's not to say that Devils fans didn't get their retribution. Avery skated into the zone with his head down in the second and was absolutely leveled by Bryce Salvador. Marty also got some payback, cross checking Avery in the ear while he was trying to screen him on the powerplay and shooting a puck AT HIM when Avery was on the forecheck.

And for those Rangers fans that like to talk about Marty's dives like he's the only goalie in the NHL who does it; I offer up Marty Turco's absolute flop in the first period. He dove in slow motion... like he got shot in the Matrix and then complained that Clarkson clocked him.

So whats the verdict? The Devils, treating Avery like the sideshow he is and not making him the focus of their game were able to earn Marty his second shutout of the season (putting him 6 away from passing Terry Sawchuk) in defeating the Dallas Stars 5-0. Instead of his, and he's my favorite player, embarassing childishness in the playoffs that made Marty a joke, his gritty play last night was compared to Billy Smith's, particularly to Smith's noted rivalry with Bobby Clarke. I'd say thats a nice improvement.

So instead of a demoralizing loss last night turned into a meaningless win in October against a team thats 2-3-1. Dallas is in trouble... which is a nice segue to my today's BREAKING THE SLUMP, up later today. It will feature a trio of Centers: Mike Ribiero, Jonathan Toews and Nicklas Backstrom. Until then..."Does he know how you told him you'd love me until you died, but you're still alive and I'm here to remind you..."