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Sean Avery tweets "Fire John Tortorella!"

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Former Ranger Sean Avery has called for John Tortorella to be fired. (Jonathan Kozub, Getty Images)

John Tortorella

When he's not starring on E!'s Fashion Police or ripping off Charlie Sheen's catchphrases, professional lightning rod Sean Avery sets aside some time to follow his old club, the New York Rangers.

And like most of the team's fans, he's not too happy with the way things are going of late. In fact, the team's listless 3-0 loss to Montreal tonight inspired a rather pointed suggestion for Rangers' GM Glen Sather regarding the future employment of coach John Tortorella.

Avery, always on the cutting edge, decided to shared it on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/imseanavery/status/318177194490875904

Now, Avery isn't exactly an unbiased observer here.

Back when Tortorella was a commentator on TSN, he tore into Avery after the "sloppy seconds" incident with Dion Phaneuf.

"He's embarrassed himself, he's embarrassed the organization," Tortorella said. "More importantly, he's embarrassed his teammates, who have to look out for him. It's the NHL, he's embarrassed the whole league. Send him home."

The duo ended up together in New York after that and, not surprisingly, they had their issues during a four-year run together on Broadway. In the end, it was Tortorella who decided that Avery couldn't cut it anymore, leading to Avery being waived and demoted to the AHL last season. When his controversial contract expired, he announced his retirement, as most players do, on the Bravo Network to pursue a career in advertising.

Is he acting out on a grudge here? Maybe. But while his choice of words is a little colorful, he's not exactly taking a bold stand on this one. The Rangers look like a group playing to get their coach fired. Tonight marked their second consecutive shutout loss and dropped New York to 3-6-1 in their last 10 games.

The chorus of voices calling for Tortorella to pay the price is growing with every defeat. After this one, it could get really noisy.

But it's one thing for the folks paying the bills to call for blood. They do it all the time. This may be a first for a former player to call for the termination of his old coach.

Classless? Sure. Good manners have never exactly been in Avery's wheelhouse.

But fun? Oh yeah. The only thing that would make it better would be live coverage of New York Post beat writer Larry Brooks reading the tweet to Torts for his reaction.

Please, please let that happen.