Rangers need to send Avery to the bench

Bold call… and the right one.

Limit his ice time tomorrow to 5-10 minutes for sure, but see how he plays with that time. I don’t think the Rangers have a better skater to put out there. I mean if it isn’t Avery its Voros and … thats just bad news.

If Tortorella rips his head off Sean might learn not to cross that line again and might just have himself a good game. Other thoughts?

I can’t say I agree with you Jim, but I think there’s a good chance that Tortorella is going to at the very least limit his ice time. Sure what he did was scummy and uncalled for. But in reality, it had little to no effect on the game.

Forget that it’s Sean Avery for a moment.

Of the three earlier penalties, only one was actually warranted. The other two were blown calls by the officials. By the time he did his dance with Varlamov, the game was over.

I’d be more concerned with Markus Naslund who has has taken all sorts of penalties, including ones in the offensive zone.

What Avery did was inexcusable, but he’s played well and has busted his ass this series. He obviously walks a fine line, but when he crosses it, people can’t freak out because it was Avery who did something brash. Nobody got hurt, it was stupid and ridiculous but the game was lost at that point (not that that’s a good reason).

Sean Avery is a two way street. The league has no problem criticizing him and the media has no problem belittling him. But at the same time, the league doesn’t mind profiting from him and the media doesn’t mind the attention they receive for criticizing Avery.

The league has no problem looking at Avery through the microscope and having a separate rule book for him. But then they also have no problem allowing what players do behind the scenes against him go unnoticed and unpenalized.

Bench him? as in don’t dress him? Or how about dress him and don’t give him a shift? Because that would be less detrimental to everyone.

He can’t be winning friends on his team or points with his coach.
Tortorella shouldn’t have to deal with such displays of stupidity. He’s much better than that.

    I think Avery has been a HUGE help to the Rangers since he has come back. But last night was the Avery of old and it’s also the Avery the Rangers DON"T want. As much has it hurts to say this…BENCH HIM!!!!! He screwed up royally last night.
    He let his emotions get the best of him and it caused the Rangers to be short on the ice for 8 MINUTES. Then he gets a 10 MINUTE GAME MISCONDUCT. WHAT THE $&#) IS GOING ON?!?!?! Bring up someone. I don’t care who. Hey, it worked for the Caps. They benched Nylander and put in Brashear. I hate that man, but he did his part. Maybe Avery just needs to go sit in the corner for a game or two to collect himself.

In my opinion, Avery is a two/three steps forward, one step back player. If you sit him for every questionable thing he does, he wouldn’t be cracking the lineup in half the games.

Was it stupid? Yes. But it was at a smart time in the game when the game was basically lost. Who knows, maybe it takes a Capitals D-man off his game Wednesday.

The guy is one of the handful of Ranger forwards who is wheeling it out there, and he will do anything to win. Isn’t that what the playoffs is all about?

why would you sit Avery? He was probably the biggest reason the Rangers even made the playoffs.

When he is on his game, he picks his agitation spots well. You have to give the Caps credit they didn’t let Avery goad them into doing anything.

When Avery was on the ice, he was one of the only Rangers to skate hard and at least try to make plays.

Yea, his penalties may have cost the Rangers the game even if they converted a few times, but bench him?? Are you nuts? Might as well bench Lundqvist for letting in 4 goals.

Yea he crossed the line. But teaching him a lesson by benching him is not gonna get it done cuz not having him out there is gonna hurt a whole lot more.

You want a bold move, try benching the still injured Drury. Try benching the ineffective Zherdev. The ineffective Mexican’t Gomez who aborted every damned attack single handedly. Try winning a power play faceoff for once for chrissake. Try not going offsides 18 times a game. Benching one of the four players who show up for every game is just stupid, no matter how many penalties he is ‘awarded’. We have Hank, Bettsy and Sjostrom – they can take care of the kills.

If Avery had taken 4 penalties, and earned them all, your point would have some merit. But two of the calls on him were marginal at best – and they came from him doing exactly what he was brought in to do. How can you say he was at fault for those?

The punch at the end – while unlikely to have any effect on the Caps goalie – how is that any different from what he did on Tim Thomas that day? Where was the outrage then?

Avery has been a sparkplug, first in getting into the playoffs and now with a 2-1 lead in the playoffs. But one bad game and you want him benched? Are you insane? Who other than Avery is going to the net, time after time? Avery has been a great addition and I dare say we’d be watching the playoffs, instead of a 2-1 lead in the first round, without him. Should Torts have a talk with him? Yes. He should remind him that the refs are dying to call penalties against him. But take him out of the lineup? Hell no.

btw, agree or disagree, I don’t care, I’m enjoying the debate. We’ve all got our opinions, Blueshirt Banter is up to 150 GM’s and counting. It’s all good. I had a feeling the minute I typed the word “Avery” into the title, people were going to come with passion

Avery needs to be in the line up, if your going to bench anyone bench Drury he has been usless. Or Zherdev, but i feel like we need his shot.

The guy is one of the handful of Ranger forwards who is wheeling it out there, and he will do anything to win. Isn’t that what the playoffs is all about?

exactly.

say what you want about Avery and the bullshit he does. In the end, he will do anything to win. He’s busted his ass every game he’s played for the Rangers. I’d rather have guy like him who walks on the edge than a player like Redden who doesn’t play with any sense of urgency.

You want a bold move, try benching the still injured Drury. Try benching the ineffective Zherdev. The ineffective Mexican’t Gomez who aborted every damned attack single handedly. Try winning a power play faceoff for once for chrissake. Try not going offsides 18 times a game. Benching one of the four players who show up for every game is just stupid, no matter how many penalties he is ‘awarded’. We have Hank, Bettsy and Sjostrom – they can take care of the kills.

Well said.

I’d be much more willing to sit the injured Drury and take a roll of the dice with Anisimov.

The Rangers inability to win faceoffs is absolutely pathetic.

Ok, well that’s what this board is all about, discussion. Sometimes we’ll agree, sometimes not. I’m glad that even though most of you didn’t agree with me, you came out and said so. I’d rather hear that you disagree and why, then hear nothing. It’s even helped to soften my stance a little. You guys all did a great job, even the ones who called me “Crazy”, “insane”, and, oh yeah “out of my mind”

Best of all we even managed to pull in some new members today, welcome to the site!