According to Sam Weinman, the Rangers will get an early Christmas present tonight with Sean Avery back in the lineup. After losing the two game West Coast trip, although getting a point, the Blueshirts will need a spark in order to get themselves back on track.

With Avery, the Rangers had a hot November, and vaulted into first. Without him, the team struggled this month, losing seven of nine.

Renney is alos scratching Paul Mara with Marek Malik in and Petr Prucha also may be sitting in favor of Nigel Dawes, but we will find out more about that later.

 

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I hate to use the word trap game, but the Rangers are in somewhat of a tough pickle tonight with Ottawa in town With Christmas two days away, coach Tom Renney is trying to get his team focused, even though they came back from a tough road trip.

“I hope not,” Renney said. “This is the Ottawa Senators. This is the NHL. This is what we get paid to do to put a product on the ice in front of our fans. They want to support us for the right reasons. We have to play.”

The fans will get to see the play of Sean Avery, who Renney said will provide spark to the team as he comes back from surgery back on Nov. 27. The wrist is fine and after the doctors checked it out this morning, he was given the good to go.

“What he brings us is what he always has,” Renney said. “He’s an intelligent player, who doesn’t scarifice the defensive side of the puck to do his things. I like his speed, naturally. He’s an abrasive guy.”

What Renney is hoping for is a trickle down effect, where the rest of the Rangers follow No. 16′s lead.

“To a point,” said the coach. “There are a number of times during the hockey season where you are looking to establish traction and gets parts of your game back. When he is not in the lineup, there’s a vital part of our game that is missing to a point. He helps everybody to understand this is [what we are missing.]”

Avery will be in. Petr Prucha is a scratch, along with Paul Mara. Marek Malik in, as will be Nigel Dawes on the third line.

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Sean Avery will be with the Rangers on Thursday and Friday on their western trip, but according to Tom Renney he’s still a ways away from suiting up.

“[He'll] drive us bananas because he is itching to play,” Renney said. “He’s a few days away from serious contact and there’s still a little bit of pain there. We can rehab him, and he could be day-to-day in two days.”

***

Al Montoya was called up in case Henrik Lundqvist was not ready after coming down with the flu. Based on last night’s perfromance, The King was ready.

***

The line shakeups seems to work very well.

Jaromir Jagr seemed pleased with playing next to Scott Gomez: “From the first time we played together, Scotty is a lot more confident. He’s gotten a lot quicker.”

Gomez on Jagr: “I think that was the problem in the beginning, I was thinking too much,” Gomez said with a laugh. “We get in trouble when we start to think. We’re just a bunch of hockey players.”

Chris Drury and Brendan Shanahan also seemed pleased, although Shanahan wantes to take some time before passing judgement. Said Shanahan: “It was good. I though at a certain point of the game, it seemed like we were getting more special teams shifts together. We killed a lot of penalities. He had a lot of shifts with Nigel [Dawes], but then we couldn’t string them together. It’s tough to gage.”

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As a precaution, the Rangers called up Greg Moore to skate with the team today, in case Ryan Callahan was a no-go. He wasn’t and was returned to Hartford afterwards.

Sean Avery though did practice in a non-contact drill, wearing the yellow jersey.

Now, Avery said he expects to play tomorrow,  but expect to have him have a few days for on the shelf until he’s fully ready, so maybe Sunday against Wayne Gretzky’s Phoenix Coyotes.

The rest of the team play tomorrow in Washington as the Rangers look to build on their overtime win on Sunday against the Devils.

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From Greenburgh, the Rangers has a light practice with everyone particpating except Sean Avery and Paul Mara, who sprained his shoulder in yesterday’s game.

Towards the end of practice, some of the Rangers were hitting pucks off a piece of wood in front of the net to practice rebounds, which is something Chris Drury brought from Buffalo as part of his routine.

Tom Renney put Marek Malik back on the top pairing with Michal Rozsival, while Marc Staal skated with Jason Strudwick.

I asked the coach if these next two games, against division leaders Ottawa and Carolina, were a test and he said that they were and if they can compete with these teams, we may have better insight on how good the team is.

 

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Sean Avery had wrist surgery today at 5:30 and the Islanders came in an hour and half later.

The Isles went to a six round shootout last night beating the now slumping Ottawa Senators and may be tired for the game at the Garden.

But these are the Rangers they are playing and the Isles tend to play up to the Rangers.

As for the lines, Marcel Hossa played on the second line with Scott Gomez and Brendan Shanahan and Ryan Callahan is back on the third line.

As for Avery, no word on how the surgery went but we may have more of a word after the game.

Right now, as I press send, Jaromir Jagr just scored to make it 1-0 Rangers,

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The Rangers announced Sean Avery will have arthroscpic surgery on his left wrist tomorrow, before the Islander game, so he will be out for the near future.

Avery said to me after the last Islander game at the Garden, he hurt the wrist in the “Tucker Fight” as he was leaving. HE then had a puck hit it in Tampa.

After having a Cat Scan, it was determined that surgery was necessary to clean it out. So expect Ryan Callahan to slot right into the lineup as a replacement.

The Rangers will miss Avery though. They were 17-6-6 with him last season and 9-4-1 this year. Without the forward, the Rangers stuggled to a 4-5-1.

Now there’s no telling until after the surgery how long he will be out. He said to reporters in Greenburgh today a “week or two,” but he said that to me a week after his shoulder was seperated and he was out a month.

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Now that Sean Avery was punished and Mark Messier got into the Hall, there’s a game to play.

It’s 1-1 with goals early Jamie Langenbrunner and Nigel Dawes. With Langenbrunner’s coming off a rebound in front of the net and Dawes goal should have been saved by Henrik Lundqvist.

The real question is how both Scott Gomez, playing his first game in New Jersey in an opposing sweater, and Avery, who may tone down the act tonight will play. Will they be able to adapt to the hostile Newark crowd?

More later… 

 

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Even though Sean Avery wants to play tonight, coach Tom Renney will have nothing of it.

After going through contact during the moring skate today, Renney will hold him out against Washington and then consider using him on Saturday against the Devils.

“He want through it this morning and we will see about it tomorrow,” Renney said. ”He will have more contact and put him into situations and draw some conclusions. And we will listen to him to.”

Avery’s style will test the shoulder and even though the Rangers need him right now, Renney and his staff will not bring him back early. Yesterday, Avery expressed discomfort after practice, which may be an indication that the shoulder may not be healed.

“The problem is there is some discomfort there,” Renney said. ”We have to see if they injury on the joint has any damage and that’s where the medical people step in and help us. We all know how Sean likes to play and how he has to play to help us. That may be the ultimate test.”

And when that test happens is all up to the coach. If it’s not Saturday, then Monday or Tuesday against the Flyers and Islanders, respectively.

***

Jaromir Jagr was chatting with the press, while adjusting his sticks for the game. He was stunned to hear about the Martina Hingis situation, who was dating a friend of his during Wimbledon when her positive test for cocaine took place [they now broke up]. After heaing the situation he said Hingis played well afterwards and loudly denied any knowledge of her improprieties.

 

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Sean AVery decided to take in the thid period of the game against the Bolts standing in the Blue Seats – the 400 section.

Avery, recovering from a seperated shoulder, came in to elevator on the fifth floor and hit nine saying he wanted to be with the people. He was seen signing autographs to every fan that came up and asked.

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