THIS is the night for Picture-in-Picture.
This is the night on which anti-hero meets hero.
This is the night on which Sean Avery the Ranger faces Martin Brodeur for the first time since last spring’s roiling first-round playoff series that featured face guarding, the unconstitutionally written Avery Rule, the famous spurned handshake, the infamous public reference to “Fatso,” and the five-game victory for the Blueshirts.
This is the night on which the Rangers will attempt to extend their record against the Devils to 12-2-3 with Avery in the lineup. This is the night on which Henrik Lundqvist will attempt to extend his record against Brodeur to 18-6-4. This is the night on which the faltering Blueshirts will attempt to solidify their tenuous hold on a playoff spot.
This is the night at the Garden on which to focus on the big picture of playoff implications without ever allowing your vision to stray far from Brodeur’s crease whenever Avery is on the ice.
This is the night to keep your eyes on Bobby Holik if he’s on the ice with Avery, to keep your eyes on Lundqvist’s crease if the Devils choose to respond indirectly against Public Enemy No. 1, to keep your eyes on the officials, whose handling of their professional duties will come under strict scrutiny.
This, as always, is the night to keep your eyes on Avery, who has been Mr. Mxyzptlk to Brodeur’s Superman from the moment he joined the Battle of the Hudson on Feb. 6, 2007 and turned it into his own comic strip.
There will be serious business conducted at the Garden tonight, you bet there will be with the Rangers now hanging on for dear life in the wake of a 1-2-1 backslide that has thrown the proposition of a fourth straight trip to the playoffs into serious doubt.
But to believe that Avery-Brodeur is somehow just a sideshow is missing the point, which, quite simply, is that Avery the Ranger is as singularly responsible for tilting the rivalry Manhattan’s way as anyone since Mark Messier.
The whole world will be watching tonight — well, not really; the whole tiny part of the world that gets Versus, that is — to see what Avery will do, what Brodeur and the Devils will do in response, and whether the referees working the game will call it without a politically correct agenda.
Avery was mum yesterday just as he was mum immediately following the 4-3 defeat in Pittsburgh on Saturday, in which referees Dave Jackson and Steve Kozari made No. 16 their companion, to steal a phrase from the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson.
John Tortorella repeated his belief that Avery, whom he praised for his self-control under the spotlight, has not received equal treatment from officials and that, in his opinion, there has been a different standard applied to the interpretation of what is legal when done by Avery as opposed to what is legal when done to Avery. The quotes from the head coach and his players were otherwise vanilla.
Tonight won’t be vanilla.
Tonight will be Avery and Brodeur, anti-hero and hero, antagonist and protagonist, Public Enemy No. 1 and Mr. 553, together again.
Tonight will be theatre in the round building.