So far, at least.
The Grate One, who's out with a sprained right knee, was off crutches and walking comfortably through the Rangers' dressing room today. He had an MRI yesterday and it "came up clean." Tomorrow, he'll go for that procedure where they inject his own blood into the tissue around the knee in an effort to speed the recovery. Avery said there's no timetable for him to begin skating again but, when I asked him if he thought he'd be able to play in the season opener, Oct. 2 at Pittsburgh, he said, quickly, "Definitely."
Avery also called Monday's on-ice collision with Ryan Callahan, "flukey," and said he saw Callahan coming but couldn't figure out which path Callahan was taking, left or right, so he failed to get out of the way.
I also asked Avery about coach John Tortorella's comments that he was disappointed the Rangers were tired in the first round of the playoffs last season. Avery had an interesting response.
"It was a tough situation, I think it was a long year," Avery said. "Much of it was a lot of smoke and mirrors with the team. It was not as close as people indicated."
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love Avery's honesty on last season. I think all of the fans know only got to the playoffs and to game 7 on Smoke, Mirrors, and Henrik Lundqvist.
Posted by: Chris | September 23, 2009 at 01:38 PM
Maybe I'm missing something...
Can you translate that quote a little? Can't quite see what he's saying as far as "close"...
Posted by: Dig it | September 23, 2009 at 01:49 PM
Dig It,
The context was this: Avery was discussing how excited this team was for the season to begin and how excited the group was to be able to play together. Avery said while every team usually says that, that it's close-knit and a happy bunch, that's not always the case. That's when he brought up last season as an example of a team that wasn't as tight with each other as people might have wanted to believe.
Posted by: Andrew Gross | September 23, 2009 at 01:52 PM
man, that thing you described with your own blood being injected into the area... sounds like something out of a horror movie! yeesh!
Posted by: amos | September 23, 2009 at 02:08 PM
I wonder if he was specifically talking about Gomez and maybe Zherdev.
Posted by: Ian | September 23, 2009 at 02:22 PM
Wow, that is a very interesting comment by Aves. I wonder who the culprits were, and if they are still here?
Posted by: Rangers Tribune | September 23, 2009 at 02:45 PM
Rangers Tribune,
I'm guessing not since he made the statement
Posted by: PuckCentral.net | September 23, 2009 at 03:11 PM
Betts strikes me as the type that didn't have any friends.
Posted by: bob | September 23, 2009 at 08:29 PM
Betts? I think Betts and Sjostrom were probably the most liked on the team...
Posted by: CP (Chris) | September 23, 2009 at 09:28 PM