Rangers Notebook: 4.5.09
Here are some Ranger notes for your Sunday afternoon:
NY Daily News: Sean Avery and the Rangers losing grip on playoff race.
NY Post: Rangers' playoff picture takes a hit.
Newsday: The Sather Issue
The Fourth Period: Coyotes will look to bring back Derek Morris.
The Bleacher Report: And then there were three.
LoHud.com: Rich Carpinelli confirms what I was saying here and on From the Rink yesterday. The referees made the call on Avery's stick slap of Thomas after they saw it on the replay. None of them saw Avery hit Thomas. And regardless of what anyone tries to say, it does set a precedent. Yes, refs have conferences to discuss calls. This is so each one can discuss what they saw. In this case, nobody saw anything. Here are the NHL rules regarding NHL referees. Nowhere on this list does it say they can consult arena scoreboards to make calls. Like Carpinelli says, if the NHL doesn't have a rule for something Avery does, it just makes one up on the fly.
The amount of discussion on Sean Avery is just comical, everyone has an opinion on him, everyone is an expert on Sean Avery. He did a stupid thing, wasn't his first, won't be his last. Quite frankly, all I care about is that the Rangers lost. They didn't lose because Avery tried to stir things up by doing something dumb. Sean Avery's antics are way down on the list of the Rangers problems.