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Rangers lose Avery as playoff exit looms

The Rangers have denied reports that forward Sean Avery was rushed to a Manhattan hospital after going into cardiac arrest, saying that the agitating forward lacerated his spleen but did not suffer any heart problems. (Newsday / David L. Pokress)

BY STEVE ZIPAY | steve.zipay@newsday.com

May 1, 2008

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Rangers forward Sean Avery remained hospitalized last night as doctors monitor bleeding from a lacerated spleen that he suffered during the team's 5-3 loss to the Penguins at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.

It was unclear yesterday when or how Avery, 28, who reported discomfort during the intermission between the second and third periods, was injured. But he skated seven shifts -- a total of 4:58 -- with the injury in the third period. He had four goals and three assists in these playoffs.

When the pain worsened after the game, the team's medical staff sent him in a private car with team physician Andrew Feldman to St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan. Avery underwent a CT scan and was admitted. Surgery was not deemed necessary, a hospital spokesman said, and Avery was in stable condition last night.

Avery complained after the second period, while centers Blair Betts (possible cheek fracture after being struck with a puck) and Chris Drury (torso injury) were being treated, Brendan Shanahan said. "It was apparent between periods that we had more than one injured player," said Shanahan, who noted that during a game, players assume that an injury is a bruise or a pulled muscle and learn otherwise "when you wind down."

Shanahan, who also played with Avery in Detroit, said, "Sean is an incredibly gutsy player, a guy who takes this game very personally, as we all do. Sean gets a lot of attention for a lot of things he does -- some fair, some unfair. One thing you can never question is his competitiveness."

Avery will not play again this season, the team said, but a full recovery during the summer is expected. Initial erroneous reports said that Avery had suffered cardiac arrest, was not breathing and was unconscious when he arrived by ambulance at the hospital at 3 a.m.

"Not true," Rangers coach Tom Renney said. "After the game, our guys looked at him and right away thought it was most prudent to get him to the hospital and have a little better look, and it was the right thing to do. There was contact of some kind, it was a hit. I found out on my way home that he was on his way to the hospital. And I got home before 3 a.m."

The injury capped a headline-filled season for Avery, who has won over a legion of fans for his motormouth and abrasive play that often angers opponents, as well as his off-ice romances and after-hours interests that land him in gossip columns.

Avery was rocked by Ottawa's Chris Neil in the third game of the season, a blow that separated his left shoulder and forced him to miss 10 games. When he returned, he was involved in two pregame scrums. After the second altercation in Toronto, the NHL summoned him for a warning and fined him $2,500.

He had arthroscopic surgery for a fracture in his left wrist in late November, and missed another 11 games. In the 57 games he played, Avery, who will be a free agent this summer and is seeking a long-term contract, scored 15 goals, added 18 assists and amassed 154 penalty minutes. In Game 3 of the Rangers' first-round defeat of the Devils, Avery face-guarded goaltender Martin Brodeur, a legal move at the time, but one that immediately prompted the league to tinker with its rules on unsportsmanlike conduct.

"Everybody has difficulties through the course of a hockey season, and the way we are able to rally around someone like Sean is very easy to do because he's a personality that we love," said Renney, who may employ Petr Prucha and Greg Moore to replace Avery and Betts tonight as the Rangers, down three games to none, attempt to stay alive in the series. "It's a hole; this is a good hockey player who can make a lot of good things happen with our team and inspire us to do more than even sometimes we think we're capable of."