NEW YORK – Sean Avery is a lot of things when he is in a hockey rink.

He's been called an agitator, a lightning rod and sometimes a player who takes useless penalties.

But after his goal and assist in the Rangers 4-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins, Avery also must be called a pretty good hockey player.

“He's an antagonist, there's no question about that,” said coach Tom Renney. “He's a good player. I think he is confident and comfortable and he continues to do what he does. I think it elevates the other players.”

Added Avery: “I think teams want me to take penalties and don't want me to play well. That's the thing that motivates me.”

In his fourth game back, Avery made his presence felt by unnerving Gary Robert – a 20 year veteran, resulting two penalties which led to Michal Rozsival's goal and giving the Blueshirts a 2-1 lead.

“It's probably easier to do it [to a veteran],” Avery said. “Young guys really don't know what's going on. A guy like [Roberts] takes it more of an insult.”

He did that after assisting on Scot Gomez's third of the season, 7:35 into the game. No. 19 knocked in Avery's rebound after Marc-Andre Fleury made a nice stop.

Avery then scored his own power play goal at 9:30 of the second when he knocked the puck from the right circle by Fleury [35 saves] to give the Rangers a 3-1 lead.

“It was good to play a team as well as we did,” Renney said. “I thought our power play showed quick puck movement.”

Yet, with the extra scoring came some worried. Henrik Lundqvist did give up two goals, one to Sergei Gonchar early and then to Mark Recchi on the power play late in the third. The goalie though was still sharp with his 26 save performance.

And to pretty much put the game out of reach, Brandon Dubinsky scored his first goal of his NHL career at 2:48 of the third to make the score 4-1.

“It came off of a turnover by them, I think in the neutral zone,” Dubinsky said of his goal that was assisted by Nigel Dawes. “I was coming off the bench. I just tried to rush from there and let Nigel know I was there. He made a tremendous pass and I just drove to the net and got a shot off and it went in. It was nice.”

As was the rest of this overall good Rangers win.

Notes: Although Avery is a character, he also is pretty hard on himself, and will be very honest with the press when he feels his play is not up to par.

He also has a sense of humor about it.

“I had a revelation as well of what happened to me as a child when I called home and my mother told me 'I played like [bleep]’,” Avery deadpanned. “I think that's was a little bit of motivation tonight.”