Sean Avery loves fashion as much as the next guy - much, much more, in fact - but he'll be happier than anyone when he gets to ditch the suit tonight.
Avery gave the thumbs-up on making his season debut when the Anaheim Ducks visit the Garden today, meaning the abrasive left winger will join a Ranger lineup that has shown some grit of its own in building a three-game winning streak. Avery missed the first four games of the season after a freak collision with Ryan Callahan during a Sept. 21 morning skate left him with a sprained right MCL. He has been skating daily with a knee brace for more than a week but only shed his no-contact jersey on Friday.
"Had a pretty good day again," Avery said after practice Saturday in Greenburgh. "The X's and O's are probably even more so in my head than most because I've been up top watching. You get a pretty good vantage point from up there.
"I'm excited to play at home again."
The Garden crowd will be customarily excited to have him, as should John Tortorella, who has emphasized how he wants his team to be "tougher to play against" - which is Avery's bread and butter. Since Avery came to Broadway, the Rangers are 61-26-17 when he plays, 12-14-3 when he doesn't. The last meaningful game Avery played in was Game 7 against the Capitals back in April, when the winger put his speed and aggression on display and was the Rangers' best player in the do-or-die game.
"That's Sean's identity, a hard forechecking guy," Tortorella said. "We're hoping when he comes in he adds that to our team. That's the type of team we want to be."
"The physical part of the game is always needed, maybe not so much Game 4 as Game 40," Avery said. "But I'm certainly going to play my game."
Exactly who gets displaced by Avery's return remains up in the air - Avery has practiced in a four-man fourth-line rotation - though Tortorella has no plans to break up his top unit of Vinny Prospal, Brandon Dubinsky and Marian Gaborik.
Also a possibility to make his season debut tonight is Steve Valiquette, giving Henrik Lundqvist a break in the nets as the Rangers begin a stretch of three games in four days at the Garden. Lundqvist still seemed to be coming to grips Saturday with the events of the victory in Washington Thursday, when Nicklas Backstrom's dump-in from the red line somehow got past him for a game-tying goal in the third period. The Capitals took the lead shortly after the fluke goal, but Lundqvist saw the fact that he was able to shut the door from there - while his teammates grabbed the game back, with help from Gaborik's two goals - as evidence that this retooled Ranger team can develop a stiff upper lip.
"It builds your character, builds your confidence as a group," Lundqvist said. "As a team we did really well. Last year, we might have just fallen apart."
Avery gave the thumbs-up on making his season debut when the Anaheim Ducks visit the Garden today, meaning the abrasive left winger will join a Ranger lineup that has shown some grit of its own in building a three-game winning streak. Avery missed the first four games of the season after a freak collision with Ryan Callahan during a Sept. 21 morning skate left him with a sprained right MCL. He has been skating daily with a knee brace for more than a week but only shed his no-contact jersey on Friday.
"Had a pretty good day again," Avery said after practice Saturday in Greenburgh. "The X's and O's are probably even more so in my head than most because I've been up top watching. You get a pretty good vantage point from up there.
"I'm excited to play at home again."
The Garden crowd will be customarily excited to have him, as should John Tortorella, who has emphasized how he wants his team to be "tougher to play against" - which is Avery's bread and butter. Since Avery came to Broadway, the Rangers are 61-26-17 when he plays, 12-14-3 when he doesn't. The last meaningful game Avery played in was Game 7 against the Capitals back in April, when the winger put his speed and aggression on display and was the Rangers' best player in the do-or-die game.
"That's Sean's identity, a hard forechecking guy," Tortorella said. "We're hoping when he comes in he adds that to our team. That's the type of team we want to be."
"The physical part of the game is always needed, maybe not so much Game 4 as Game 40," Avery said. "But I'm certainly going to play my game."
Exactly who gets displaced by Avery's return remains up in the air - Avery has practiced in a four-man fourth-line rotation - though Tortorella has no plans to break up his top unit of Vinny Prospal, Brandon Dubinsky and Marian Gaborik.
Also a possibility to make his season debut tonight is Steve Valiquette, giving Henrik Lundqvist a break in the nets as the Rangers begin a stretch of three games in four days at the Garden. Lundqvist still seemed to be coming to grips Saturday with the events of the victory in Washington Thursday, when Nicklas Backstrom's dump-in from the red line somehow got past him for a game-tying goal in the third period. The Capitals took the lead shortly after the fluke goal, but Lundqvist saw the fact that he was able to shut the door from there - while his teammates grabbed the game back, with help from Gaborik's two goals - as evidence that this retooled Ranger team can develop a stiff upper lip.
"It builds your character, builds your confidence as a group," Lundqvist said. "As a team we did really well. Last year, we might have just fallen apart."
