52-20-16

No, that's not the winning mega ball lottery numbers, but for Jimmy D and gang, it may very well be. See - that's the record of the New York Rangers with Mr. Sean Avery dressed in uniform.

Let that sink in for a second.

Very - VERY few times over the last decade have played at a clip like that. But our heroes from Manhattan have done that.

Why may you ask? Some people will argue that its because we sell our soul to devil himself. But I counter that with this

Sean Avery vs the Devil(s)

As you can clearly see from this footage, not only does it prove we are not selling our sole to Lucifer, but Sean Avery has come here to help slay the nasty beast below.

So what else could it be? Could it be tenacious forechecking, ability to draw the ire of the other team and thus throwing their game off? Or maybe the fact that this little water bug is the exact spark that a team with a low pulse rate needs.

Up until Avery and Torts arrived, this team was a dead car battery. First you put Torts on one end, then Avery,and your seeing a team sparked and hitting on all cylinders.

Now, some people will tell you that you can manipulate stats - and you can, if you use a small enough sample size.

Such as the Martin Straka effect, which reads:

Martin Straka is 6th on the team in points, 5th among forwards. He holds those same rankings in goals, too. This is despite playing in a little more than half of the team's 40 games so far. His points per game average is probably not far off the pace of Gomez or Jagr, and a little bit better than Drury and Shanahan.

He's a +2 on the season. A little over 19 minutes per game on average, so he's out there a lot.

Most people would agree he's an energetic player who gives a good effort. He kills penalties. Will take a hit to make a play. Doesn't take many bad penalties. He's far from perfect, but there's not much to complain about in Straka's game.

You would think a player like this would have a positive effect on the Rangers chances, right?

The Rangers are 9-16 when he's in the lineup.

Now, that is a nice little story, credit to our friends over at rangerland, rocha. However - 9-16 is 25 game sample. In 25 games, you could make a case for many things that just aren't true. Such as:

• Mets would win the NL 2 yrs running
• Jets would be getting a bye in the NFL playoffs
• Brett Favre would be a great pick up and worth the investment
• Alabama would have played Texas Tech in the BCS Game

You get my drift, I hope...