The big story coming into the game was the return of Sean Avery. And when the Stars’ 2-1 victory over the Rangers was over, the story was how I managed to stay awake for all three periods. I missed Two and a Half Men for this? It was a soothing, back-and-forth affair, and I wish I could get my daughter to be as quiet and well-behaved as the Garden crowd.

Things got off to a rollicking start, though. Less than a minute into the game, Loui Eriksson was called for a tripping penalty. And there was an actual Markus Naslund sighting. Michal Rozsival ripped a shot from the point, and Naslund banged home the rebound for a 1-0 lead. For approximately the next 59 minutes, the two teams played a careful, defensive game. Things got so boring I thought I was watching a Devils intrasquad game. Dallas sat in the neutral zone, stopping the Rangers from getting into any kind of offensive flow. The Blueshirts’ signature aggressive forechecking, puck-control game wasn’t there last night. They tried to out-fancy their way around the Stars instead of dumping and chasing. After the game, Tom Renney gave the reason for that: “We were stupid.”

When the Rangers did get scoring chances, the missed wide, missed high and I think they shot a few pucks under the net. Let’s just say they missed the net a lot. Brenden Morrow scored a power-play goal while lying on the ice to tie the game in the second. And eight minutes into the third, Mike Modano wristed in the game-winner with Dallas’ first shot of the period, after the Rangers couldn’t get the puck out of their own zone and Henrik Lundqvist accidentally tipped it right to the Stars’ star.

As for Avery, he did some chirping before the game to his critics Brandon Dubinksy and Stephen Valiquette (and called him a minor leaguer after the contest). During the game, he didn’t wave his stick in Lundqvist’s face. He didn’t fight anyone. He didn’t score a goal. He didn’t even get a shot off. He got a few hits in, while Paul Mara, Dan Girardi and Colton Orr took turns knocking him to the ice. He was mainly met with boos by the Garden faithful, but there were no antics or high jinks. No Slap Shot moments. Just hockey.

Lundqvist’s evil twin brother, Bad Henrik, played center for the Stars last night. Ok, he’s not really evil, and his name is Joel. Even their older sister, Gabriella, was there. She stated that she wanted to see Joel win the game. Henrik must have broken some of her ABBA records when they were kids.

After their 5-0 start, the Rangers have gone 1-2-1 in their last four games. They’re still a team in progress. Whenever they revert to an individual style of play, with the players trying to do too much on their own, it just doesn’t work. They need to find some consistency with their hard-working, puck-controlling style (maybe playing seven games in the last 11 days has something to do with that). And Chris Drury needs to actually score a goal sometime this year. Next game: Friday at Columbus.