Stars don't have issue with Rangers' Avery

DALLAS - Before the Rangers faced the Stars on Friday night, Sean Avery's return to the city where he played 23 games in 2008 before being jettisoned was overshadowed by two developments: the debut of rookie defenseman Ryan McDonagh for the Rangers and the acquisition of Devils captain Jamie Langenbrunner by the Stars.

"A lot of the guys in this room weren't even here when that all went down [with Avery]," said the Stars' Brenden Morrow, who had warned when Avery signed a four-year, $15.5-million deal that "some stuff that makes the individual more important than the team, that's not something we want to see here."

Avery has since gone through anger management and accepted the blame for his controversial stay in Texas, and Morrow said that "we'd love to not still be paying for [half] his contract; there's nothing that we can do. It's just another game. We're trying to stay on top of the Pacific Division. The Sean story is more about selling papers than what we talk about in the locker room."

When the teams last met, at the Garden on Jan. 6, 2009, an out-for-payback Avery scored twice in a 5-2 win. Rangers coach John Tortorella said Avery would start on the No. 1 line with Marian Gaborik and Artem Anisimov, but not because of that performance.

"Sean's gonna start where he ended" in Wednesday's 2-1 overtime defeat of Carolina, Tortorella said. "He was all over the tape this morning. Sean played one of his better games this year, so it's not because it's Dallas. I don't get involved in that stuff."

The issue on Tortorella's plate was his retrofitted defense, which not only was without Michael Del Zotto, who was assigned to the AHL on Monday, but was missing Michal Rozsival, whose pulled rib muscle has prevented him from skating for two days. As a result, two of the three defense pairs were shuffled. Rookie Michael Sauer moved up with Steve Eminger. Matt Gilroy played with McDonagh, 21, who became the sixth rookie to debut for the Rangers this season along with Sauer, Derek Stepan, Mats Zuccarello, Dale Weise and Evgeny Grachev.

"We've gone over our foundation with him, and what we do with guys who come up is not overload them," Tortorella said. "He's an outstanding skater . . . We want to win a game and we certainly don't want to hinder his progress by putting him in spots where we don't feel comfortable. We'll see where our comfort level is as the game goes on."

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McDonagh, one of the players received in the trade that sent Scott Gomez to Montreal in June 2009, turned pro this past summer after playing with Stepan at the University of Wisconsin. "You've just got to stay with what's gotten you here," McDonagh said. "A big motto for this team is to play hard, block shots. That's right up my alley."

Notes & quotes: Vinny Prospal, out since knee surgery Oct. 18, is expected to resume skating again Sunday. "They see it's healing," Tortorella said. "He's just had some swelling that set him back." . . . Langenbrunner, 35, swapped for a conditional third-round draft pick Friday, did not arrive in time to play.