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Avery’s big night proves Tortorella was right

Image (1) Avery1-thumb-250x166-7246.jpg for post 313

You know Larry Brooks is smiling this morning. After Brooks lambasted New York Rangers coach John Tortorella for scratching Sean Avery last week, the NHL’s most annoying player responded last night with two goals in a big win against Philadelphia.

“I see Sean as a player who is at his best when the games are more emotional, which they are down the stretch and in the playoffs,” Henrik Lundqvist told The Post. “These are the games where he belongs.”

“Sean plays a lot better when he’s a little angry,” said Lundqvist, who was extremely sharp behind an outstanding collective defensive effort. “He was making good decisions, he was moving his feet, he had great speed and was good with the puck.

“It was great to see.”

Brooks may not have been happy with Tortorella about his treatment of Avery -- heck, he’s always angry with Torts -- but you can’t find anything wrong with how the coach handled some bad games by Avery. It’s not like him sitting out hurt the Rangers much; they soundly beat down Atlanta on Friday night. The next game, Avery has perhaps his second-best game of the season.

Whether you like it or not, Avery is someone who is fueled by emotion and much more so than any other player in the NHL. When he loses that edge, he’s just not very good. Tortorella did what he needed to do to give Avery a reason to play hard again, even if it was a metaphoric big middle finger to his coach.