It’s beginning to look more likely that the Rangers will bring back troublesome prodigal son Sean Avery. I for one as a lifetime Ranger fan find the possibility appealing, but some thinking has lead me to question why I feel this way. Avery without a doubt has some talent and in many situations can be very effective. I loved watching him when he was on the team and he quickly rose to the status of one of my favorite blueshirts. It was a visceral reaction on my part, one that was the result of seeing a guy play with fervor and reckless abandon. People hated him, but they were never people from New York and that is why the locals took to him quickly. He’s brash, nasty, curt and on top of it the guy can play some hockey. In spite of this, I find it difficult to separate the image of Sean Avery from the player and I think most of the city has the same problem.
New York has always had an odd connection to celebrity. It’s been a mecca for artists athletes and performers since it was called New Amsterdam. We cultivate our celebrities and work them into the cities fabric. They become a part of the way the mechanics of the metropolis fall together just like alternate side of the street parking. The city without it’s more famous collection of denizens simply wouldn’t be the same. There is also an inverse relationship at play however, no matter how big the star, the city itself will always get top billing. The island itself is a freak-show that many of these people wouldn’t be the same without. The city and the stars in its universe need one another and Sean Avery fits the bill for that.
Alone, Sean Avery isn’t the most impressive of players. His stats are underwhelming independent of the team. However looking at the record of the Rangers with and without him, you can see that there is more to the idea that he brings an undefinable quality to the organization. The record with him in the lineup since his acquisition from the Kings is 51-23-16. Without him the Rangers have settled at a comparatively dismal 8-10-3 record. With a jump like this he should display the advantages of having him through his own performance, but he remains tied to time and place for his presence to take on its meaning.
The late Norman mailer was one of these particularly New York celebrities tied irrevocably to where and when they are. He’s up there with the Ramones and Mickey Mantle in the upper echelons of people that simply wouldn’t have been the same without the city they came from. They, just like Avery, were loud, problematic and bombastic; we loved them for it. The New York celebrities aren’t the vacant spots that make up the California celebrity parking lot. They’re more than that, they aren’t praised for their money or how pretty they are. Lindsay Lohan could get mowed down by a cab in midtown and all she would get in the way of sympathy outside of NYU dorms is a snarky headline in the Post. Conversely, there was recently a memorial for the Union Square peeler guy, Joe Ades. The fame they hold is rooted in their ability to channel the city’s essence into whatever it is they do. Mailer put it in words, Joey, Johnny and the rest of the gang recreated the noise and Mantle, like Avery now, translates it into an almost nihilistic interpretation of their sport. Winning isn’t everything, winning with style and a certain ruthlessness is even more than everything.
So when I examine the Sean Avery deal I have to wonder if there isn’t more to this whole back and forth than just a guy who can skate and put up decent numbers. He encapsulates what makes the city as a whole become infatuated with the dark parts of human experience that refuse to die. I’ll be honest, the stupid Vogue style internship almost made me hate him. That’s LA, not New York and I don’t think that he managed to see that. We want him putting blood on the ice, not coffee down Anna Wintour’s miserable smug bourgeois gullet. (I hate her, but you could argue she fits my criteria for a true NY celebrity.)
There is more to this city bringing Sean Avery back than numbers and coaching decisions. He needs to come back to the island and you don’t have to be John Locke to see that. He appeals to what makes this city what it is: Grit, piss and vinegar. I don’t want to downplay any achievements that he’s made, but I can’t honestly say that there is nothing to what he is that doesn’t play into why he’s here. There isn’t anywhere else he could be appreciated, somewhere where the fans not only recognize, but empathize with the sentiment of his take no prisoners hockey. There are few other cities where the “Avery Rule” incident would be defended widely by people saying “well there’s no rule against it…” buttressed by a feeling that Brodeur was capitulated to like the whiny frog he is. Few things thrive here like a scrappy underdog. New York is a shaded city where there isn’t much room for black and white and the gray areas spill into the gutters, Avery is a player who’s so gray he might as well be black and white. If we don’t take him back, who would have him or rather, who could?
Tags:
brodeur,
hockey,
rangers,
sean avery
