So Avery is now a Ranger again, having been picked up off waivers. What exactly is Glenn Sather thinking? Avery was obviously a cancer to the Stars, a team known for having strong leadership. The Rangers need scoring forwards and capable defensemen and Sean Avery is supposed to be the answer? He’ll give the team plenty of opportunities on the power-play by drawing penalties but he also takes a considerable amount of penalties. Avery is more talented than most instigators but when you have a guy on your team like Avery, he becomes one your team’s figureheads. The other players on your team will watch Avery and match his tempo. Why would you want a guy like Avery emotionally leading your team when you have Chris Drury?

Speaking of Drury, I can’t help but wonder, with all the chaos surrounding the Rangers this season, what Chris Drury is thinking about this. He’s just a role player on this team. There are too many powerful influences directing this team for Chris Drury to be a true difference maker. It’s pretty much the worst situation for him in terms of taking advantage of his potential. Drury is expected to put up numbers first and foremost and lead by example. Do you think he wants to play with Zherdev or Avery? Drury leaves it on the ice every game but he’s not talented like any of the superstars in this league. Drury scores because he works harder and plays smarter than his opponents. He’s been ineffective as a Ranger because there are too many different personalities, not enough unity, and not enough skill in that locker room.

On the opposite side of the spectrum is Avery, a modern day Barnaby, who is supposed to energize his team and agitate his opponents. Most of the time however, he takes it too far. The Dallas Stars will tell you, his behavior distracts his own team’s focus most of all.

It’s a desperate roll of the dice for Glenn Sather. His job should be on the line after what has happened in New York this year. If Avery doesn’t work out, they’re stuck with him for another three years. It’s as if Sather is saying, listen guys I know the Rangers haven’t performed well this year but I really think Avery is the piece we’ve been missing all year. He might be right. The Rangers have had a surprising amount of success with him in the lineup the past couple of years. But they also had players like Jagr, Shanahan, and Straka to provide better scoring depth in years past. The Rangers roster had a complete overhaul the previous summer and now it’s a disaster that’s about to add another long contract to an undeserving player.

Just like the Rangers of old, there’s no accountability. Everyone gets paid no matter your age or how unproven you may be. If the Rangers didn’t have Lundquist, this team is in 10^th place in the East.

All that being said, Tom Renney, head coach of the New York Rangers since the start of the 2003-2004 season, was fired Monday. I don’t have much sympathy for the Rangers. They’ve struggled lately and it has everything to do with the irresponsible free agent signings they’ve made. The Rangers, are like the Dallas Cowboys of the NHL. They throw money at under achieving, veteran players, with no regard for team chemistry. It’s almost an impossible situation to coach in.

Perhaps it was the fact that Sean Avery made his bones as a New York Ranger. Or maybe it was the comments Tom Renney made during the ’07 playoff series between the Sabres and Rangers. But somewhere along the line I started to hate Tom Renney – just as I did for Ken Hitchcock when he was with the Dallas Stars and then later with the Philadelphia Flyers – just as I did for Bryan Murray with the Ottawa Senators. I loved hating those teams and more specifically those coaches. More than that though, I was always tickled pink to see them fail especially at the hands of the Sabres. But I never wanted to see any of them get canned.

I hate how there doesn’t seem to be any loyalties between organizations and coaches anymore. Why is it that when a team is successful, the players and the management that brought in the players are praised. But when players under perform or when the talent level is low, the coaches are always blamed for the teams lack of success. The NHL is a league where rosters change dramatically from year to year. It seems that one bad year is enough to get just about any coach in the league fired.

You can’t tell me that the Penguins are better off without Michel Therrien, who led them to the Stanley Cup finals last year. Or that the Canadians and Devils don’t regret firing Claude Julien who has won with every team he’s coached and currently is the bench-boss for one of the leagues most prolific teams, the Boston Bruins.

All the coaching changes going on around the league only benefit the Sabres in the long term. It’s tough to say what will happen with teams immediately after a coaching change, but when it comes to player development, there will be a significant adjustment period when new coaches implement their new system. That’s just a fact.

As for Renney, I’m sad to see him go. Likewise the Sens and Flyer’s just aren’t the same after Hitch and Murray vacated their former positions. If nothing else, the personalities those guys brought to their teams was unique and worth the price of admission.