Shawn P. Roarke at NHL.com looks at player journeys that have caught his eye during the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs...Sean Avery, New York Rangers -- The agitating wing certainly packed a lot into his eight-game playoff run, filling it with peaks and valleys. He scored four goals, including a game-winner, became a cause célèbre for his attempts to distract Devils goalie Martin Brodeur and took part in one of the most-dissected and discussed handshake lines since Claude Lemieux weaved his way through the Red Wings back in the day. Oh yeah, he also saw his career, if not his life, flash before his eyes after suffering a lacerated spleen in Game 2 of the second round, an injury that was erroneously reported as a cardiac-arrest incident.
Jaromir Jagr, New York Rangers -- On the eve of these playoffs, speculation was rife that Jagr might be done with the NHL. He had turned in his worst season as a NHLer and had been accused of looking uninspired in doing it. There were rampant rumors that, as impending free agent, he would close out his career in Russia. Then, the playoffs started and Jagr was one of the five best forwards in the postseason, turning in a series-turning performance against the Devils, a team that had tortured him into despair just two springs earlier. Now, many of the same people that called Jagr washed up in March are now awaiting his return for another season on Broadway in the fall. Will it happen? That will be one of the most intriguing questions of the summer....Avery did have one crazy playoff run. Roarke doesn't even mention that Avery had a rule named after him.
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