Avery is gone....

...but the Rangers and Devils still have to play each other.

Pre-game stuff from MSG:

Brodeur admits that it will be "easier" without Avery playing for the Rangers, and he wondered who else would take that role for them now. Also mentioned how the Rangers have their number, and had to flash back to the late 90s/early 2000s when the Devils won 3,204 straight games against the Rangers. I might be a little off on the official tally of that streak, I'm just going by what it felt like.

Dan Fritsche is playing tonight in place of Pat Rissmiller. I'm not quite sure why he hasn't played since Bern. He was only one of the stronger players in training camp and during the preseason.

Tom Renney was having lunch when he heard about Cherepanov's death. This isn't really relative to anything, I just had a vision of Al Trautwig pulling a Clue and saying it was Renney in the library with a lead pipe. Sorry, that wasn't very funny, was it?

Interesting bit of news from the Hartford Wolf Pack: They signed Brandon Sugden to a try out, as the team was a little short on toughness (i.e. someone to drop the gloves). Sugden played for the Summum Chiefs, formerly known as Les Chiefs du Laval. There was a documentary made about them, which you can buy from Amazon for less than ten bucks. Go buy it, now, because it's a great flick, and there's lots of hockey fights. And if you don't like hockey fights, you're basically supporting the terrorists.

Anyway, Sugden is on a tryout contract, and here's hoping he makes it, because anybody that plays for the Chiefs deserves a shot.