Off Waiver-y Avery

Thack announced the fate of Sean Avery recently, and it has given me the opportunity to make my weekend musings relevant.

I was a Dallas fan until they got Avery. Mike Modano is a legend and Marty Turco has long been in my top three favorite goalies. Brendan Morrow, Darryl Sydor, Joel Lundqvist, a classier group of chappies you will never see. Then we factor in THE LINE.

Steve "knee seeking missile" Ott and Sean "sloppy seconds" Avery. Two men voted least likely to win the Lady Byng trophy. Derided around the league for their potent antagonization of everyone else in the league. Ott just received another suspension, climaxing in his time served one game suspension keeping him from attempting to hurt Malkin in the Stars next game against the Penguins. I am not a fan of either of these gentlemen. I was happy that the Stars got rid of Avery, since the Stars are the only team in the West I can cheer for and now that my least favorite player in the league is gone, I can again cheer for them. They are doing far better without him anyway, discounting their recent six game skid.

I don't want to blame a teams misfortunes on one player, but let's look at the facts:

Okay, opinions first. Starting with his new head coach:

"Enough is enough. He's embarrassed himself, he's embarrassed the (Dallas) organization, he's embarrassed the league and he's embarrassed his teammates, who have to look out for him. Send him home. He doesn't belong in the league."

"Asked recently on the network whether the Rangers should claim Avery off of waivers, Tortorella said: "No, and I don't even want to talk about Sean Avery.'"

His former assistant captain:

"Tonight, it was idiotic and stupid. It was one of the most embarrassing things I've seen. If that's what we're going for, then they need to find me an office job."

“Boston center Marc Savard was settling in to face off against 38-year-old Mike Modano in the third period when he said, ‘Too bad you’ll be retiring after having to play with those clowns.’ Modano replied, ‘I know.’”

Mike Brophy quoted an anonymous source saying "If you take just one guy out of the equation, regardless of the team's injury problems, it would be a better team. That one guy is Sean Avery." This backs me up, but now for the facts.

As of Avery's suspension, the Stars were dead last in the NHL. 8-11-4 and 30th out of 30 teams. Since then, they have clawed their way up to 21st, ninth to last but still not high enough to have a prayer at a playoff spot. Overall they are 29-26-7 but that isn't as telling as their 21-15-3 record since letting Avery loose. .583 up from a dismal .342. Avery played every game of the season until his suspension and had three goals, compared to the five he had at that point the year before. He is a good player, don't get me wrong, but not at all productive for the trouble he causes.

Ott is even worse. He is not a strong player and he is well on his way to having twice as many penalty minutes as last year eclipsing his 2005-2006 season of 178 penalty minutes. I am backtracking a little bit when I acknowledge that this is his highest scoring season so far, he has an astounding 29 points, when he had 22 last season, his highest career mark so far. He had six points in fourteen games before Avery's suspension and 23 in the 30 games he has played since.

Overall, Dallas is much better off without Avery, and although Avery seemed like a better fit in New York, I hope that the Blueshirts don't falter after having made such strides without him.