How big a distraction has the Sean Avery escapade been? It sounds like the Rangers are staying loose about the whole situation.
John Dellapina / Daily News:
Rangers Get Silly Over Sean Avery Antics -- Jaromir Jagr couldn't resist. With a chance not only to crack a joke but to do it at Sean Avery's expense, the Rangers' captain had to seize the moment.
So at one end of the MSG Training Center ice yesterday morning, he got in backup goaltender Steve Valiquette's face. Then, his line rush having proceeded to the other end, Jagr did the same in front of Henrik Lundqvist.
Of course, Avery couldn't resist either. When he caught a WNBC camera filming his own replay of the incident, Avery flipped off the cameraman.
Suffice to say, while the NHL had a very serious and official reaction Monday to Avery's samba act in face-guarding Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur during Sunday's Game 3, the Rangers mostly treated the incident as an amusing sideshow upon returning to practice Tuesday...
- Devils Hope To Stop Folding In Crease Against Rangers At Garden - Daily News
- Sean Avery Practices 1-Finger Salute - Daily News
- Humbled By Devils In Game 3, Rangers Look Four-ward - Daily News
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Larry Brooks / NY Post:Now It's NHL That's In Yer Face -- Avery's second-period Game 3 break dance in the face of his unwilling partner was right out of "Slap Shot." It crossed a line, even if it's all but impossible to define what that line actually is.
As Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart so memorably wrote in a 1964 obscenity-case opinion, "I know it when I see it."
But Avery v. Brodeur was neither a federal case nor an obscenity case, no matter the sour response from Commissioner Gary Bettman on a television interview within hours of the incident.
The demonizing of Avery in the wake of his creative shenanigans is completely out of line. What shrine, exactly, did he desecrate? What player's leg did he step on with his skate blade? What player did he send flying face-first into the boards on an icing touch-up? ...
- Marty's Gotta Step On Clutch - NY Post
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Steve Zipay / Newsday:Rangers Try To Focus Amid Avery Controversy -- With grins and impersonations, the Rangers yesterday tried to put Sean Avery's latest escapade in the rearview mirror before what Jaromir Jagr described as the critical game in the first-round playoff matchup with the Devils tonight at Madison Square Garden.
"It would be a lot nicer if we were up 3-0," said Jagr, who mimicked Avery's Game 3 face-guarding of Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur in front of Henrik Lundqvist at practice. "The reality is, we're still up 2-1. We could be up 3-1 or it could be tied going back to their building. It's the key game in this series. We have to bring everything; we have to. But they're going to do the same thing. It's going to be a war out there." ...
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Johnette Howard / Newsday:Avery's Act Just Part Of The Hockey Culture -- Considering the NHL is the same league that's given us the face wash, the high stick, the hip check, the crosscheck, some amazing adventures in dentistry, the unique nightly phenomenon of legal bare-knuckle fistfighting and those unseen backstage seamstresses who stitch up players' faces and send them flying back to the ice after barely missing a shift, it was comical to hear how many folks in the NHL were outraged, just outraged, I tell you, about the novel stunt that Rangers instigator Sean Avery pulled against Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur on Sunday....
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NY Times:To Rangers, Antics Are Just Avery Being Avery -- Drury, like most Rangers, reacted to Avery’s theatrics with an amused shrug. Many said they laughed.
“When you look at it, there weren’t any rules like that,” said the Rangers’ captain, Jaromir Jagr. “Five-on-five you won’t do that because the other team would have an advantage five-on-four. But five-on-three, I thought it was cool. I thought it was smart.” ...
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Journal News:Rangers' Rookies Respond To Pressure -- It would be tempting to say the Rangers' corps of rookies doesn't quite grasp the pressure of playoff hockey, which is why they've played so liberally through the first three games of their series with the Devils...
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ICINGS:Barry Who?
Barry Bonds has disappeared and his "career has vanished into thin air." Happily no one seems to have noticed or cared. Bill Simmons at ESPN nicely explores the disappearance, plus brings up a very ironic Barry Bonds cameo in a 1994 episode of Beverly Hills 90210.
I, for one, will have this memory: that 90210 in which Steve Sanders was roped into playing in a father-son golf tourney with his dad, Rush, against Rush's country-club nemesis …that's right, a father with a wisecracking baseball-player son named Barry Larson. (The casting of Bonds wasn't even the biggest leap of faith here. C'mon—we were supposed to believe Rush would ever belong to a country club that allowed black members?) As the tourney starts, Rush is cranking his longest drives in years, and that prompts Steve to confront him because, after all, nobody was allowed to cheat, engage in premarital sex, get drunk or use diet pills on 90210 without serious consequences.
When Steve (played with Emmy-worthy zeal by Ian Ziering) threatens to quit and take his blond curls with him, Rush breaks down and admits to using—wait for it—souped-up golf balls! Why, you ask? As Rush explains, he's past his prime and wants to become a club champ once more. In other words, his fear of getting old has forced him to artificially enhance his performance in an athletic competition against a character played by Barry Bonds! In 1994! I can't stop using exclamation points! Someone stop me! ...
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