The Blog’s many problems are behind us. Or so I gather from this post from my friend and colleague Peter Abraham, who has had the same problems on his blog times 10.

So it’s smooth sailing from here. Or at least as far as the technical stuff goes. I can make no promises about Marek Malik’s giveaways, Scott Gomez and Chris Drury’s lack of goals, Brendan Shanahan’s age, Tom Renney’s long-winded answers, Nigel Dawes’ instability, Ryan Hollweg’s flu, Marcel Hossa’s poor taste in music, Sean Avery’s search for a girlfriend, Jaromir Jagr’s……

Pity poor Sean Avery. He was forced to come in and skate on Tuesday when everyone else was lounging in bed on their day off. He says he’s not shaving his beard until he finds a girlfriend (and not just any girlfriend, he said). And as he said, he can’t really give an honest assessment of his shoulder given his unique circumstances.

“It’s tough to say. When you’re Superman, your threshold of pain is a little bit higher,” Avery said. “So how do I gauge it?”

Whether he’s a superhero or just a needed spark at left wing, the Rangers are anxiously awaiting Avery’s return, and it looks like it could come tomorrow against the Capitals. It will be up to trainer Jim Ramsay and the coaching staff to give the final word, and Avery said he’s on board for whatever is decided. Tempering his enthusiasm a little bit was a hit he took from Brandon Dubinsky at the end of practice, which he was still feeling when he walked off the ice.

“I ran at him,” Avery said by way of explanation.

Sore as a result, the Rangers will wait to see if the player is just working his way through scar tissue before giving him the green light. If he does come back, it looks like Avery would play on the left wing with Dubinsky and Petr Prucha, while Nigel Dawes would stay with Chris Drury and Brendan Shanahan. These are all hypotheticals, mind you, but Tom Renney’s inclination was to not break up what has been a productive (at least by Rangers standards) second unit.

So, who you ask, would come out as a result….

This is something I’ve touched upon in the past, but having just scanned the comments section and seen the ongoing debate about why certain players get stars and other players don’t, I thought I’d refresh everyone’s memory on the process.

The basics: at home games the Rangers writers—myself included—are asked to vote on the three stars of the game. I’d love to tell you that it’s an arduous process, involving pages of research, review of game tape, and a background check on a player’s charitable donations.

Instead it merely involves us being handed a sheet at the start of the third period, and then being asked for it back a little more than a halfway through. As many of you know, it is the rare Rangers game that is not hanging in the balance at that point, so usually I at least am too engrossed in the action to give it much thought. In other words, it is a decidedly flawed system.

My votes the other night were for Jagr, Shanahan, and I believe Chris Drury since all of those players had multiple points. Should I have voted for Nigel Dawes? Maybe, maybe not. He did score a goal and drew an important penalty late. But the other part to consider is his goal was somewhat negated when Vincent Lecavalier scored his. Either way, the reasoning I just gave now is about three times the amount of thought I gave when I actually voted.

As for conspiracy theories about certain players being pumped up while others are suppressed, a part of me wishes that were true. At least then I wouldn’t have to think at all. Sadly, though, that’s not the case.

More from practice….

The good news is the Rangers earned back their off day on the merits of what was likely their most encouraging effort of the season: another sound defensive game that finally included some traction at the other end as well.

The bad news is the canceled practice cost Sean Avery a needed day of contact with his teammates, and hurts his chances of coming back Thursday night. And this is bad news for not just Avery: the noted irritant was in overdrive last night, bouncing around the upper reaches of the Garden (as many of you saw) and then pestering his teammates during the post-game media availability.

Usually the way it works is we talk to players first and then a Rangers staffer announces that Tom Renney is making his way down to the interview room for his press conference. Last night we got that announcement again, only this time it was Avery butting into an interview with Brendan Shanahan to give us the word.

Please, someone, get this guy a uniform.

Meanwhile, as hard as this might to believe, I’m still not totally sure what Renney’s plans are for Nigel Dawes, which I realize sounds pretty ludicrous given the wing’s production of late. But there is something in the way Renney answered a question last night about Dawes, saying yes, he’s been great, and has provided the Rangers a needed boost, but that he’s still fighting for his job—or something to that extent.

I’m not sure what else the guy can do, although I say that acknowledging that with proven entities like Avery, Martin Straka and even Ryan Callahan eventually making their way back, finding a place for Dawes to play remains a challenge.

Sure, play him on the fourth line, you might say. But do you really want Nigel Dawes playing with Colton Orr or Ryan Hollweg? Maybe you do. I’m not sure. 

Whether he scored the game-winner or not—still no word from the NHL, so assume that he did—Jaromir Jagr was in rare form after the game. With a swollen bloody lip and a row of missing teeth, the Rangers captain was well aware of his frightful appearance. 

“It’s Halloween tomorrow – I don’t have to buy a mask,” he said. “Broke my skate in the first period. Broke my gloves in the second. Broke my teeth. Broke my heart.”

Jagr was asked whether those were his teeth he lost.

“A gentlemen never tells,” he said. “I told my girlfriend they’re real.”

Then he added: “I think it’s mine when I paid $20,000 for it.”

Meanwhile:

Don’t worry: the Rangers still won. But there’s a chance the Rangers second goal went off Brendan Shanahan’s skate. The league is reviewing.

More when I have it…

The estimable Dave Maloney, who in addition to being a former Rangers captain and now their radio color analyst was once my counselor at Maloney Brothers Hockey Camp, had what might be the perfect analogy to describe Scott Gomez’s transition to New York.

Those of who you are fans of the film “Shawshank Redemption” will understand it. In it, Gomez is the sad character who spends the majority of his adult life in prison (i.e. playing in the Devils’ structured defensive system), only to struggle once he is given his freedom (i.e. coming to New York).

Here’s hoping Gomez’s outcome is a little brighter than in the movie The season might be bleak. But it can’t be that bleak.

As for some updates:

The Flyers’ Randy Jones was suspended two games for his hit-from-behind on Boston’s Patrice Bergeron.

The statement from Colin Campbell:

“While it is my determination that Jones did not intend to injure his opponent, he did deliver a hard check to a player who was in a vulnerable position. There have been suggestions by some that this hit was comparable to incidents earlier this season where players received significant game suspensions for blows to the head. These comparisons and suggestions are wrong.”

This doesn’t have any direct relevance to the Rangers, but it’s worth asking if the suspension would have been worse if Bergeron was seriously injured (thankfully, he wasn’t), or if it should have been. I think yes on both fronts.

This is why I’d have a hard time covering the NFL. Because as opposed to the Rangers, who can come right back tonight after Saturday’s debacle, a football schedule means scribes like me would have to come up with a full week’s worth of “what went wrong and what are you going to do about it” stories.

Instead, we have tonight to see how the Rangers respond to the latest in a string of setbacks. I will stop short of making any predictions.

As for news:

To borrow from Jack Johnson, that would be me: sitting in my house, waiting for an electrician to show up, and wishing that he doesn’t charge me so much that a second job delivering pizzas will be in order.

(Don’t laugh. I went back to the old shop where I used to work in college and the owner, in a fit of frustration with his current staff, offered me my old job back. So I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.)

But this is all a longwinded way to reference your Rangers, who are sitting in last place in the Atlantic Division, waiting for their supposedly high-powered offense to show up, and wishing that this season doesn’t descend into a disaster reminiscent of the not-so-distant past.

I am the trusting sort, but I honestly don’t see that happening. Of course, let’s not sugarcoat it: the first 10 games of this season have been an utter disappointment, and surely if this team is in a similar state after 20 games, we can no longer use such euphemisms as “slow start”. But there are still too many fundamental things to like about this team—starting with their goalie and continuing with a group of forward who simply cannot be as anemic as they’ve been for too much longer.

Of course, I never would have thought they would have started this badly, either. So in other words, waiting and wishing can only go so far.

More from the skate…