If the Rangers are going to make the playoffs, they need Sean Avery to be the player he was in each of the last three stretch drives to the playoffs when he wasn’t a third-line afterthought but an essential ingredient in the club’s success.
Which is to say that if the Rangers are going to make the playoffs, they need Avery to be exactly what he was yesterday at the Garden when he scored twice, created a pair of power plays for his team, disrupted the opposition and was a focal point in the 3-1 victory over the Flyers — a win that pushed the Blueshirts within one point of the eighth-place Bruins, though Boston holds two games in hand.
“I see Sean as a player who is at his best when the games are more emotional, which they are down the stretch and in the playoffs,” Henrik Lundqvist told The Post. “These are the games where he belongs.”
That’s not to suggest that Avery didn’t belong in Friday’s game in Atlanta instead of watching it in street clothes after being scratched by head coach John Torto rella. The knee-jerk reaction would be to credit yester day to a cause-and-effect, but that would require a bout of amnesia to erase memories of the last three seasons.
“It’s huge when Sean plays like this, because he raises everybody’s game,” said Ryan Callahan. “He lifts the bench. We need him down the stretch.”
Avery, who opted out of talking to the press, scored his first goal by going to the net off a left wing draw to sweep in a backhand rebound at 1:53 of the second to negate Danny Briere’s early first-period goal. Michal Rozsival gave the Rangers the lead with a power play drive at 4:54. Avery finished the scoring by blowing a left wing wrist shot past Michael Leighton late in the third.
“Sean plays a lot better when he’s a little angry,” said Lundqvist, who was extremely sharp behind an outstanding collective defensive effort. “He was making good decisions, he was moving his feet, he had great speed and was good with the puck.
“It was great to see.”
Marian Gaborik had an unusually quiet game. Olli Jokinen had what’s become a commonplace quiet game. Vinny Prospal was unable to get much accomplished. But the Blueshirts won as a team without relying on the first line to carry the load.
They were strong on the puck, tough and effective in the one-on-one battles in their own end where Marc Staal was a monster, and able to move out quickly. Their forecheck was efficient and their work in the neutral zone became more effective as the match evolved.
“We talked about being physical in our own end,” said Lundqvist. “We wanted to go at them, not stay back.”
The Rangers did not stay back and they did not back down, even if Tortorella chose not to give Jody Shelley even a single shift against Daniel Carcillo, whom the Rangers ignored all afternoon. Remember this though: the 1996-97 Red Wings bided their time before extracting their pound of flesh from Claude Lemieux after the hated Colorado winger broke Kris Draper’s face in the vicious 1996 western finals.
So now the push to the playoffs continues tomorrow against Montreal. It continues with a push from Avery, just like the last three seasons.