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Around the rink: Friday, January 7th

Sean Avery

New York Rangers’ Sean Avery (16) celebrates after scoring a goal during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Atlanta Thrashers, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

AP

I’ll be honest here, there’s not a lot going on with tonight’s schedule that reaches out, grabs you by the collar, and demands that you watch it. There is one game though that gives off the “circus side show” vibe and that goes down in Dallas as Sean Avery makes his less-than triumphant return to Texas with the New York Rangers. After Avery claimed 100% responsibility for screwing things up with Dallas, we’re suspecting that he’ll get welcomed very poorly back to town. All times listed are Eastern.

7:30 p.m.

Toronto @ Atlanta

The Leafs will have to tighten things up a bit defensively to deal with what should be a grumpy Atlanta team. While the Leafs got a great game out of Phil Kessel last night, getting that kind of output every night would help make them more of a pain to deal with. As for Atlanta, Dustin Byfuglien continues to be their most reliable player on offense. Getting better work from their forwards would do wonder for the Thrashers who are right in the mix of things in the Southeast Division.

Carolina @ Florida

The Hurricanes will have redemption on their minds against the Panthers. These two faced off on Monday night and the Panthers were able to escape with a win in overtime. If Carolina wants to get serious about getting in the playoffs, knocking off divisional foes like Florida will be the key to that. Of course, solving Tomas Vokoun sounds a lot easier than it actually is.

8:30 p.m.

NY Rangers @ Dallas

Sean Avery makes his return to Dallas where his signing there managed to splinter the locker room and caused the team to essentially have a mutiny until he was gone. Now that he’s back in New York the distractions are gone (for the most part) but if you’re a betting person, I’d say there’s even money out there on someone from Dallas looking to make themselves famous for going after Avery. On the other side of things, hey there’s a game to be played and one the Stars could stand to get a win out of to distance themselves from the rest of their division. The Rangers are hoping that Kari Lehtonen can have a relapse to help their offense get jump started and get a winning streak started.

Ottawa @ Chicago

Ottawa rolls into town with nothing but bad feelings surrounding everyone, especially coach Cory Clouston and GM Bryan Murray. Things aren’t going well there but getting a win over the Blackhawks would go a long way towards helping keep the psyche up in Ottawa. Chicago, meanwhile, has dropped four of their last five games and have to be looking at Ottawa as a must-win game to prove to themselves that things aren’t as bad as they seem. Desperate times often lead to spirited games. Let’s hope that’s the case tonight at United Center.

9:00 p.m.

Detroit @ Calgary

Detroit’s five game road trip got off to a good start in Edmonton with a win, but dealing with the Flames in Calgary is never an easy feat. With the Flames having lost two games in a row and eager to get off the skids this sets up like a trap game for the Wings, especially with a game against Vancouver tomorrow night. One curious thought is how Mike Babcock will handle goaltending duties. Will Jimmy Howard get both games or will we see Chris Osgood get his second straight start against Edmonton or a shot at Vancouver? We shall see.

10:00 p.m.

Edmonton @ Vancouver

The Oilers are doing their best to hang tough as a lowly team in the West and getting a win over the Islanders last night helps their confidence. Taking on the streaking Canucks, however, is a completely different brand of monster. The Canucks have won seven in a row and their confidence is soaring. To say this game doesn’t bode well for Edmonton would be completely correct. Perhaps their one saving grace might be that the Canucks could be looking past them and ahead to Detroit tomorrow night.

Columbus @ Anaheim

The Blue Jackets’ four game road trip has not been kind to them so far. They’re 0-2-0 and dealing with an Anaheim team that plays them very hard doesn’t look so good for them to break their slide. The Ducks are winners of three of their last four but dropped their last game to a hot Nashville team. With both of these teams running as streaky as anyone can, it’ll be interesting to see which version of each team shows up tomorrow night.