The Avery Effect and the Monkey off Dubi's Back

The Rangers won their 6th straight last night against the Carolina Hurricanes, continuing to be  unbeaten since the recall of Sean Avery. Avery played his best game of the season, scoring his first to but the Rangers up 1-0 in the 1st, and drawing two penalties in the 3rd, forcing Torts to give him more ice time. The Hurricanes were able to tie it up in the 2nd off a defensive breakdown. Things were looking down for the Rangers, who were 27 seconds into killing a penalty, when a struggling Eric Staal, who had been booed the whole game by the Garden  was called for high sticking against Dan Girardi. This was the turning point of the game as the Rangers went on to score 4 goals in an explosive 3rd period. During the Rangers 27 second power play, Richards made an amazing pass cross ice to Girardi who hammered it in for a 1 goal lead. The next goal came just seconds later When Dubinsky put the puck into a wide open net, after a shot by Callahan had rebounded. Some good play by Dubinsky along the boards lead to a penalty against Caroline, but Callahan scored off a rebound before the play stopped. The final goal came from Brad Richards, who capitalized off of Cam Ward's mistake behind the goal for one of the easiest goals in his career. While the GAS line had a ton of chance, they were unable to get on the score sheet. This game showed that Rangers have secondary scoring, as they don't have to rely on the top line for all their goals. Also, the replay of the Callahan goal shows Cam Ward trip up Dubinsky behind the net with his stick, and it also shows Ward waking Brian Boyle with his stick after the goal. That should have been a penalty, but I think the Rangers got revenge anyway on the Richards goal, which, personally, I think is better than a power play. Dubinsky was awarded the Broadway hat for his efforts, and the three stars of the game were Avery, Dubinsky, and Girardi.

Girardi was not put on the All-Star ballot despite his stellar play, so The New York Rangers Blog has started a write in campaign, similar to the one for Sean Avery last year. Voting starts in Monday.

Del Zotto is not practicing today, and the lines appear to be the same as they were at the end of the game-
GAS
Dubinsky-Boyle-Callahan
Avery-Richards-Fedotenko
Prust-Christensen-Deveaux