I was referring moreso about his effectiveness as an agitator and not his effectiveness as a possession player. In his first stint, he pissed the hell out of star players such as Kovalchuk and creatively disrupted Marty's line of vision by waving his stick in front of his face. In his second stint, he was tapping Tim Thomas' helmet during a play stoppage and mocking Maxime Talbot's fighting ability - not exactly the same type of effective on-ice agitation we saw in his first stint.
I think Avery sealed his fate with the "sloppy seconds" comment. He had embarrassed the league before and they were not going to let it happen again. Even if Avery had a coach that told him to go out there and do whatever he wants, the league/officials were not having it. Avery had to toe the line at that point, because if he was involved in another incident, that would be it for him in this league.
Hm. I think he still "had it"
In the Caps series, the Rangers were about to lose the game, everyone knew they were going to lose that game, and Avery started stirring **** up to get them riled for the next game. (I think this was game 4 going into game 5). Torts benched him for game 5, so it never really came to fruition.
For sure, a lot of players around the league caught on to his "schtick", but it was still effective.
And you know what, it kind of speaks volumes about Avery. In a weird way. Other players in the league caught on to his antics, but he NEVER resulted to playing dirty like guys like Cooke, Rinaldo, etc...
As far as I know, Avery was never suspended for an on ice offense. Considering that someone like that is pretty well known as being one of the best agitators since the NHL lockout, well, that's pretty damn impressive. To me at least. I don't know.
Like I've said, I'm biased. I loved having Avery on the Rangers.