Caps coach Bruce Boudreau has a noted history with New York Rangers agitator Sean Avery. He said so during the playoff series between the two teams last season when Avery was doing everything possible to get under the skin of Washington’s players. That’s a big part of his job, of course. Avery skated past the Caps’ bench and called Boudreau “the biggest, fattest [explitive] pig he’d ever seen,” according to Boudreau in his new autobiography “Gabby: Confessions of a Hockey Lifer”.
Remember, Boudreau coached Avery when both were in the AHL with Manchester so he comes by his feelings the hard way. Avery must have grabbed a copy of Boudreau’s book, though, because he spent much of warmups prior to Tuesday’s game at Madison Square Garden lobbing verbal bombs at Boudreau again.
“I didn’t even know he was doing it until I looked over and I said to [assistant coach] Bob Woods ‘Is he talking to me?’ [Avery] just stayed at the redline and talked and talked. Didn’t even take warmups. I never responded or even looked at him. But he took himself out of the game.”
Avery committed a tripping penalty in the first period. He later drew a penalty on Caps defenseman John Erskine after punching goalie Semyon Varlamov in the head and waiting for the inevitable response. The Rangers would score the tying goal on the ensuing power play. Earlier, Avery got into a confrontation with Caps defenseman Tom Poti – the two having a smirk-off when they collided behind the Washington net in the first period. Erskine, though, spent the brunt of the night dealing with Avery’s antics.
“Avery is a good player,” said a laughing Caps defenseman Brian Pothier, Erskine’s defense partner on Tuesday night. “He does his job really well and [Erskine] did a really good job against him. So it’s a really good battle. Thankfully, I get to be on the ice to watch it. Because it’s always fun.”
