That team across the river...

[Daniel]

1 hour ago, Martyisth3b3st said:

Haha. My best friend and I have a promise made to eachother. The day Sean avery dies; we will drop everything we are doing and meet at one of our houses (we live in two different states now) with an expensive bottle of scotch. We’ll then drink the scotch and piss on a photograph of him. 

I genuinely can’t wait. 

I’ve got a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle at my folks’ house (don’t keep liquor in my own place).  My brother and I have some every so often.  Sadly, I think Avery will be alive, kicking and loathesome as ever (probably telling anyone who will listen how much money he has) by the time it’s finished.  

But if I were Josh Harris, and Avery suddenly died in the most painful way imaginable, I’d do a video montage at the next Devils-Rags game to the music of “ding dong the witch is dead.”  I mean, if I could be Jeff Bezos for a day, I’d buy the Rangers just to do that at the Garden.  And the thing is, a lot of Ranger alumni would probably get a kick out of it.

[Steven M.]

I really don't give a fvck about Sean Avery at all other than the minor inconvenience of trying to listen to NHL Network Radio on Sirius this morning while commuting at 3AM... put on Ice Cap to catch some talk about our win over the Ducks and find that I just missed it and for the last half hour of the program they're airing some interview with him. Yep, never mind, instantly turned it off.

Look, the guy spends his days harassing homeless people on snapchat these days somewhere in the dirty streets of New York. Guy's a dickhead through and through and anyone who feels the need to delete some brain cells by reading about the antics of some AHL scrub must be really bored or already not all there to begin with.

Devils are going to stomp them Thursday night.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

re:  the Rangers, I've brought this up in other threads, but since it's relevant here...they've now played 22 home games and just 12 road games.  They've also ridden Lundqvist very hard to this point (who, to his credit, has responded with one of his best stretches in quite some time).  Come 12/29, the schedule really turns:  15 out of 22 games will be played on the road, including (2) four-game trips (the second trip is a little more forgiving).  12 of their final 19 games will also be played on the road.  Not going to be easy for them to keep up their current pace.

re:  Avery...yes, he's a douche.  Always was.  There was actually a decent hockey player somewhere in there who, if he had the slightest idea of how to reign himself in, could've had a pretty solid career as a somewhat productive agitator...think a very poor man's Claude Lemieux.  But he never figured that out.

My main beef with him isn't Avery himself, but with the Devils for actually letting him get inside their heads, and not really doing anything to try to deter him...Avery's crap didn't work on any other team nearly as effectively as it did in 2008, and it was infuriating to watch it happen.  As for his trash-talking...yeah, it's classless and low-rent, but he's far from the first guy in sports who tried to get players off their game by hitting well below the belt.  Some players do this kind of stuff to get an edge.  Doesn't make them right, but they do it...especially if it seems to be working. 

It wouldn't surprise me if not so deep-down, Avery wasn't just a little jealous of Marty's career and accomplishments.  One guy is a decorated first-ballot Hall of Famer who was one of the best ever at his position.  Avery is only memorable (and pretty slightly at that) for mostly all of the wrong reasons.  What's sad is that, based on the OP's account of Avery's book (which probably isn't selling much), this guy has pretty much turned into the irrelevant ex-athlete that sits at the end of the bar, drinks too much, and then starts telling stories (to anyone dumb enough to listen) about his supposed "glory days"...imagine if he ran into a Devils fan: 

"Yeah, back in 2008, I made Brodeur crazy, and my team beat his in the playoffs, five games, it was awesome, ha ha ha!"

"Wow, nice...what happened after that?  Did you go deep into the playoffs?"

"Uhhhhh, no, we, we kinda got crushed in the next series, lost in five..."

"Hey, didn't you face him again in the 2012 playoffs?  You were still on the team then weren't you?"

Avery (now mumbling):  "Well, not really, yeah, sorta, I was actually playing in the AHL, and they brought me up for a little while during the season, then I played for 15 games, then they scratched me a whole bunch and sent me back down, and then, uh, no one else wanted me...then those guys [the Connecticut Whale, Avery's AHL team] told me not to report anymore...so I, uh, retired..."

"How many games did you play in the NHL?"

Avery (perking back up a little):  "Uhh, I think it was about 600 [580].  Not too shabby."

"You know Brodeur had more wins than you had games played?  When he was 31 he was still going strong...he was just coming off his third Cup win.  You were toast by then...HA HA HA!  Come to think of it, without Marty and you sounding kinda stupid a lot, you're really just this great big ball of forgettable nothing..." 

Avery (slamming down a shot and storming off):  "You know what, fvck you man!  fvck you!  I...I...I beat Brodeur in the playoffs once!  Made him crazy!  So what if he won three Cups and bunch of other stuff and will be in the HOF and...aw, fvck it!  fvck this!  People are so mean sometimes!  I'm outie!"

Edited December 20, 2017 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[SterioDesign]

While i thank the lord that i don't have to deal with Rangers fans on a daily basis.. (i basically know 2 Rangers fans and they are fine)

i'm reminded that i have to deal with Habs fans which are even worst... 

life is a battlefield.

[mfitz804]

Avery played at the right time. If he tried that sh!t 10 years earlier, Stevens would have ended his career. 

[DevsMan84]

14 hours ago, Since1982-83 said:

Was doing some Christmas shopping earlier today at a Barnes & Noble and decided to leaf through Sean Avery's new book. The bitch that he is continues to hammer away at Marty in many of the pages and states that he continually insulted Marty on the ice basically telling Marty what a degenerate and a disgrace he was for leaving his wife and eventually marrying his sister-in-law. He also says that he would skate by Marty and ask him where his wife was in the stands so he could blow a kiss to her. All these years later I still find myself getting angry that not a single Devils player ever took this scumbag out making him pay for his on-ice theatrics while allowing him to stuff it up our asses in that series back in 08. Also didn't help that the little midget (Gomez) enjoyed a career series against us over those 5-games. Anyway, Avery is still a slutty little bitch and I'd love to kick his ass.

I read most of Avery's book last month out of sheer curiosity.  FWIW while there is a chapter called "The Avery rule," he only spent about 1-2 total pages talking about him and Brodeur.  Most of the chapter was him saying how silly it was for the league to implement a rule at the last minute without consulting the NHLPA first all because of what he did.

In contrast, I read Marty's book this past summer and he spent a page or two every chapter trying to remind the reader about what a great guy he was and how he took less money to stay with the Devils.  It wasn't mentioned just once or twice, but like I said every chapter (or close to it).  I have read about a dozen of autobiographies by professional athletes, and Brodeur's is the one that spent the most time trying to remind the reader what a great guy he is.

[mfitz804]

Yeah, I had the same impression of Brodeur’s book. It should have been titled “Look What I Did For You”. 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

I'll have to read Brodeur's book again.  I don't remember thinking that at the time, but it's been a while since I read it.  I thought it was a pretty good book overall...some of it was pretty interesting.  He was pretty open about some things (like when he and agent Gilles Lupien parted ways, and how some of his contract negotiations went). 

Edited December 20, 2017 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[CommonDreads]

15 hours ago, Since1982-83 said:

How do you feel about spending the dough on Shattenkirk and seeing him not even used on the first defensive pairing? 

I don't view it quite as linearly as that, Shattenkirk has been New York's best defenseman this season and they're splitting McDonagh and Shattenkirk to give more balance to their d-core, not unlike when the Penguins played Kessel on the "3rd line" in 2016 to help their overall balance as a lineup. I'd view Skjei - Shattenkirk as NY's top pair, it just shows up differently on their lineup card.

Re: Avery, still to this day I haven't found a player in the NHL I hated more than him. I was in high school throughout most of his career with the Rangers and had to deal with their insufferable fans on the daily talking about how great he is, just made me hate him more and more. I was too young to remember the days of Tie Domi on Niedermayer, so Avery was always my easy target as most hated.

[Nicomo]

1 hour ago, SterioDesign said:

While i thank the lord that i don't have to deal with Rangers fans on a daily basis.. (i basically know 2 Rangers fans and they are fine)

i'm reminded that i have to deal with Habs fans which are even worst... 

life is a battlefield.

Guess I’m lucky too not having to deal with Rags fans. Hockey isn’t real big where I live, but those that are into it are Blue Jackets fans.

[mfitz804]

25 minutes ago, CommonDreads said:

 I was too young to remember the days of Tie Domi on Niedermayer, so Avery was always my easy target as most hated.

Domi was irritating, no doubt, but it was in a different way in a different league. The majority of what he did was agitate, he followed it up with dropping the gloves. When he won the fight, he’d ham it up for the crowd. There was the Niedermayer incident was bad, can’t make excuses for that.

But Avery doesn’t compare, his only claim to fame was waving a stick in a guy’s face. In a way, you can respect Domi more for the way he played the game (minus the Nieds incident obviously). Avery was a borderline NHLer who decided to play in a manner that even a pee wee player wouldn’t play. There was nothing about him to respect; the league made the “Avery Rule” which, essentially, was to stop only him from acting like a complete douche. 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Domi was more of a classic goon, but one who had a little more talent than most...the fact that he lasted as long as he did (1020 games) is a testament to that fact.  That Nieds incident was ugly for sure, but Domi got a little smarter as he went, and that helped him last a lot longer than most would have expected.

I would argue that Avery actually had more raw talent (his 2005-2009 numbers were pretty respectable for an agitator-type...about 44 points per 82 GP), but he never could get out of his own way...he just never evolved.  He almost seems like a bit of a mental case.     

[mfitz804]

9 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Domi was more of a classic goon, but one who had a little more talent than most...the fact that he lasted as long as he did (1020 games) is a testament to that fact.  That Nieds incident was ugly for sure, but Domi got a little smarter as he went, and that helped him last a lot longer than most would have expected.

I would argue that Avery actually had more raw talent (his 2005-2009 numbers were pretty respectable for an agitator-type...about 44 points per 82 GP), but he never could get out of his own way...he just never evolved.  He almost seems like a bit of a mental case.     

Well stated. 

[eldon]

Scouting report: They're still good.  We all hate them passionately. 

Thursday night s/b Fun. Hope we bounce them, obviously.  Want to see Kyle's one-timer on the Power Play. 

 

[Daniel]

17 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Domi was more of a classic goon, but one who had a little more talent than most...the fact that he lasted as long as he did (1020 games) is a testament to that fact.  That Nieds incident was ugly for sure, but Domi got a little smarter as he went, and that helped him last a lot longer than most would have expected.

I would argue that Avery actually had more raw talent (his 2005-2009 numbers were pretty respectable for an agitator-type...about 44 points per 82 GP), but he never could get out of his own way...he just never evolved.  He almost seems like a bit of a mental case.     

Avery is a bad person, period.  He's not just hated by people he played against, but also by many of his teammates and coaches. 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

10 minutes ago, Daniel said:

Avery is a bad person, period.  He's not just hated by people he played against, but also by many of his teammates and coaches. 

I'm not implying that he's a swell guy underneath it all, but he almost seemed self-destructive as a hockey player.  The fact that he never seemed to realize it and never attempted to become a better all-around person and teammate makes we wonder if he had some screws loose...but I imagine that's because I can't fathom being like he was. 

But yeah, some people are just bad by nature, and though some eventually recognize that about themselves and try to become as "good" as they can as they age, some just don't have that in them. 

[thecoffeecake]

17 hours ago, MadDog2020 said:

My scouting report is the Rangers fvcking blow.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This quote deserves to be published, remembered, enshrined. 

[CarpathianForest]

sh!t! We gotta play these cocksuckers in a game that may decide second place in the division? fvckingballs!

[Since1982-83]

11 hours ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

re:  the Rangers, I've brought this up in other threads, but since it's relevant here...they've now played 22 home games and just 12 road games.  They've also ridden Lundqvist very hard to this point (who, to his credit, has responded with one of his best stretches in quite some time).  Come 12/29, the schedule really turns:  15 out of 22 games will be played on the road, including (2) four-game trips (the second trip is a little more forgiving).  12 of their final 19 games will also be played on the road.  Not going to be easy for them to keep up their current pace.

re:  Avery...yes, he's a douche.  Always was.  There was actually a decent hockey player somewhere in there who, if he had the slightest idea of how to reign himself in, could've had a pretty solid career as a somewhat productive agitator...think a very poor man's Claude Lemieux.  But he never figured that out.

My main beef with him isn't Avery himself, but with the Devils for actually letting him get inside their heads, and not really doing anything to try to deter him...Avery's crap didn't work on any other team nearly as effectively as it did in 2008, and it was infuriating to watch it happen.  As for his trash-talking...yeah, it's classless and low-rent, but he's far from the first guy in sports who tried to get players off their game by hitting well below the belt.  Some players do this kind of stuff to get an edge.  Doesn't make them right, but they do it...especially if it seems to be working. 

It wouldn't surprise me if not so deep-down, Avery wasn't just a little jealous of Marty's career and accomplishments.  One guy is a decorated first-ballot Hall of Famer who was one of the best ever at his position.  Avery is only memorable (and pretty slightly at that) for mostly all of the wrong reasons.  What's sad is that, based on the OP's account of Avery's book (which probably isn't selling much), this guy has pretty much turned into the irrelevant ex-athlete that sits at the end of the bar, drinks too much, and then starts telling stories (to anyone dumb enough to listen) about his supposed "glory days"...imagine if he ran into a Devils fan: 

"Yeah, back in 2008, I made Brodeur crazy, and my team beat his in the playoffs, five games, it was awesome, ha ha ha!"

"Wow, nice...what happened after that?  Did you go deep into the playoffs?"

"Uhhhhh, no, we, we kinda got crushed in the next series, lost in five..."

"Hey, didn't you face him again in the 2012 playoffs?  You were still on the team then weren't you?"

Avery (now mumbling):  "Well, not really, yeah, sorta, I was actually playing in the AHL, and they brought me up for a little while during the season, then I played for 15 games, then they scratched me a whole bunch and sent me back down, and then, uh, no one else wanted me...then those guys [the Connecticut Whale, Avery's AHL team] told me not to report anymore...so I, uh, retired..."

"How many games did you play in the NHL?"

Avery (perking back up a little):  "Uhh, I think it was about 600 [580].  Not too shabby."

"You know Brodeur had more wins than you had games played?  When he was 31 he was still going strong...he was just coming off his third Cup win.  You were toast by then...HA HA HA!  Come to think of it, without Marty and you sounding kinda stupid a lot, you're really just this great big ball of forgettable nothing..." 

Avery (slamming down a shot and storming off):  "You know what, fvck you man!  fvck you!  I...I...I beat Brodeur in the playoffs once!  Made him crazy!  So what if he won three Cups and bunch of other stuff and will be in the HOF and...aw, fvck it!  fvck this!  People are so mean sometimes!  I'm outie!"

An incredible first-ballot Hall Of Fame post! Bravo!

[Since1982-83]

10 hours ago, DevsMan84 said:

I read most of Avery's book last month out of sheer curiosity.  FWIW while there is a chapter called "The Avery rule," he only spent about 1-2 total pages talking about him and Brodeur.  Most of the chapter was him saying how silly it was for the league to implement a rule at the last minute without consulting the NHLPA first all because of what he did.

In contrast, I read Marty's book this past summer and he spent a page or two every chapter trying to remind the reader about what a great guy he was and how he took less money to stay with the Devils.  It wasn't mentioned just once or twice, but like I said every chapter (or close to it).  I have read about a dozen of autobiographies by professional athletes, and Brodeur's is the one that spent the most time trying to remind the reader what a great guy he is.

Agreed. As great a career as Marty had, he's always been a weird bird with a monstrous ego to boot.

[Devil Dan 56]

1 hour ago, Since1982-83 said:

Agreed. As great a career as Marty had, he's always been a weird bird with a monstrous ego to boot.

Yeah, that's been discussed a bit here through the years. My thought has always been that to be in the position he was in, you had to have a bit of an ego and a heightened level of self confidence. I feel like that kind of comes with the territory. I know Roy and Hasek were said to have had egos as well, so i think it's part of the mentality of a top goaltender. 

[munichdevil]

7 hours ago, Devil Dan 56 said:

Yeah, that's been discussed a bit here through the years. My thought has always been that to be in the position he was in, you had to have a bit of an ego and a heightened level of self confidence. I feel like that kind of comes with the territory. I know Roy and Hasek were said to have had egos as well, so i think it's part of the mentality of a top goaltender. 

Lundquist as well. As a goalie you are always less of a team player and somewhat more on your own. And you are always more in the spotlight if you make a mistake because goalie mistakes almost always result into goals. There is no additional line of defense. The former german soccer coach Max Merkel once said it's a good idea to stay away from goalies and left wingers, because these guys are weirdos. Their surely is some truth in this, at least for the goalie part.   

[mfitz804]

Every goalie I ever played with was fvcking nuts. 

I was a goalie. 

[T0asterleav1ns]

fvck the rags. Run lundqvist all night. He's a crybaby and its very easy to get him off his game. 

 

Then we can listen to his post game speech where he throws his defense under the bus.

[DevsMan84]

6 minutes ago, Toasterleavins said:

fvck the rags. Run lundqvist all night. He's a crybaby and its very easy to get him off his game. 

 

Then we can listen to his post game speech where he throws his defense under the bus.

Sounds eerily familiar with one of our past goalies.