So since we can’t do the second annual Paul Mara Memorial Boneheads/Festivus Playoff Beard Extravaganza Contest and Picnic … how about we have a little game to see who can best predict the first round of the playoffs?

Anybody got a catchy…

A few other odds and ends, from the players this time on breakup day in Greenburgh. It starts with Sean Avery, who said he feels he would have been ready for Game 1 of a playoff series, or at least early in the first round. Avery had been playing his best hockey since returning to the Rangers and would have loved another crack at the Capitals, against whom he had a rough time in last year’s playoffs, even being benched for a game.

But Avery said that he final felt comfortable that he’d found the way he needed to play the game - that delicate balance that has been talked about since he returned to New York last March. Elsewhere around the room, a still-devastated Henrik Lundqvist said he would be going now for “some treatments - I have some issues with my knees and my hips,” he said. Olli Jokinen took himself to task as he enters his free-agent summer, while UFA Vinny Prospal and RFA Dan Girardi are hoping to settle back in next year.

A little more of what they had to say:

AVERY

On his injured left knee: “It’s gotten better every day. I think ideally I probably would have been ready for Game 1. Certainly disappointed that I didn’t get the opportunity to get back in there and help the guys.

“It’s definitely frustrating. I kind of found my game towards the end and felt like I was contributing a bit more. And then to get hurt in Toronto right at the stretch was certainly something I wasn’t happy about. I guess that’s one of those things that that’s the way the game goes.

“I think I had some good games, I think I had some bad games and I think I just had some okay games, and I think the okay games were probably more than the other two. I’m certainly not ecstatic about my year, I’m disappointed; I think the consistency wasn’t there. And I think the other part of it was just trying to find my game and just trying to get comfortable with what was asked of me.

“I think coming into the season it was kind of a question mark. There was a lot of thought into how I was supposed to play and how I needed to play, and I think I probably overthought it a little too much when it comes down to it, and I didn’t just go out and play the way that I’m supposed to play. It’s disappointing that it didn’t come sooner for sure.”

On the team’s motivation for next year: “It’s a tough thing to play in New York; it’s even tougher to play in New York and not make the playoffs. I think that should fuel guys’ fire to come back certainly more focused.”

JOKINEN

“Last couple years definitely haven’t been the hockey I want to play. Partly this year in Calgary, there were some good games this year, but it wasn’t there, you know? It wasn’t good enough. I’ve got five months to get ready for next season, and I’ll come back. Getting 50 points and under 20 goals and the team not making the playoffs, it’s not going to cut it, for my standards. For some players that’s a good year, that could be a career year for some guys. But I have high standards for myself - I’ve been a 90-point scorer in this league a couple years ago, I’ve been a good goal-scorer in this league. Next year, it’s where I want to be again.”

PROSPAL

On potentially re-signing with the Rangers: “The interest on my end is there, for sure. I don’t like to change places in the first place, and we have kids, they need stability, they can’t just change schools every year. And hopefully there is some interest on the New York Rangers’ part as well. That’s basically all I can give you right now. I have an agent, and they have to do some talking and see how it plays out.”

On whether he made the Lightning regret buying him out of the summer: “I hope so. You always want to prove people wrong, and the best way to do it is one the ice. The Lightning mad etheir decision, I was surprised, it was late in thte summer, but I was fortunate enough to land a job with the Rangers. Hopefully my play showed it was a bad decision on the Lightning’s part. (Laughing) I get to be paid until I’m 40 from them; that’s a good thing for me.”

LUNDQVIST

“I’m so disappointed right now. I’ve been a pro for nine years now - five years here and four back home - and I’ve never missed the playoffs. I can’t find words right now.

“It’s one of the toughest losses of my life. You think of how much work you put in for the whole year, and it comes down to that - that one hurt.”

Never much of a fun day for anyone when it’s time to pack up the rink for the summer, particularly for the Rangers having to do it the day before 16 other teams are starting a postseason these Blueshirts thought they would be a part of (instead, they got the 10th pick in the draft lottery tonight, no movement up or down). Nevertheless, the players all came through for exit interviews with coach and media today, and unfortunately I can only provide quotes from the latter.

But the main event turned out to be John Tortorella, who sat down and chatted candidly with a room full of hockey writers for 48 minutes that were in the same vein as the hourlong interview he gave the day before training camp opened. (In a way, Tortorella was to the media the way his team was to hockey this season: surprising start, surprising finish, but all that stuff in between…)

“Inconsistency was a huge part of our year in a lot of different areas - that falls with me. That’s my responsibility,” Tortorella began a session during which he talked about the need to “weed some people out” of a dressing room that needs a character check, as well as the need for Marian Gaborik to find a way to show up for big games in the wake of a no-show by the Rangers’ top players in Philadelphia on Sunday that the coach termed “despicable.”

Here is a (not-so small) sampling of Tortorella’s comments today:

On whether Tortorella foresees an overhaul like last year’s influx of 10 new players on the opening night roster: “I don’t think we need to. I don’t want to speak out of turn and get myself into (trouble) with my general manager, but I’m going to be honest with you. I don’t think we need to; I think we added to our core. … There are some really good people here, but there are some very important decisions we have to make on some very important positions on our team, after our core. …

“You got to be really careful: When you lose, you just don’t blow everything up and cause more problems for yourself. I have a number of things that I think we need to fix here. I think people are going to ask me about a number of other things to fix that I’m going to fight because I just don’t think they need to be fixed. I think you cause more problems for yourself, when you don’t get in, and say, ‘Okay, we need to change this, and change that’ - sometimes it’s maybe just execution. And I don’t think it comes down to winning or losing; even when you’re winning, you’ve got to keep an eye on what’s going on, or you’ll lose.”

On cultivating youth: “I’ve talked to Glen about this: I’d like to see us get younger. I’d like to see us add to our core, and grow ’em together. And then we’re not adding 10 pieces this year - I think that’s important. I think Henrik’s at an important time in his career. I think we’ve got Gaborik who is a legitimate star - I don’t like the way he has played in big games. I still think he needs to cross the line there and play better in big games.

“But we’ve got some pieces here. I think Rozsival has grown his game to be more competitive. So there’s some good things, there’s some good things with the core. But I think we need to add to it with some youth and grow it together. And then you get an opportunity - hey, I may not even be here - but when you get there, and you begin to get to where you’re not fighting ninth and eighth every year, and you get to legitimately being a good team, you could be there awhile. That’s the way at least in my mind I’d like to see us go.”

On Lundqvist’s comments that the Rangers could never win on Sunday with the Anisimov line the only line contributing: “He had a perfect right to say what he said after that game. … That’s what makes my stomach turn today, 48 hours after, is that we had zero top guys show up. And the way we fought to get back into the race, no matter how you guys feel about it, we were there, and we played a (gutsy) game against Philly in our building, and we had zero top guys show up in Philly. Which is despicable. So I’m glad Hank said what he said.”

On frequent juggling of line combinations: “That’s something I don’t back off of. … Do I like changing the lines all the time? If I didn’t have to change lines, we must be playing pretty well. Things must be going pretty well. … The other night, I think I made a mistake the other night in our last game by staying with the lines. Because I was hoping - I was a coach in hope. I kept the Christensen line together; they were brutal. I kept the Jokinen line together; they were brutal. Dru and that line. I had defensemen play, I had a goaltender play off his (rear end), and I had a line play 16 or 17 minutes in Anisimov’s line - you’re not gonna win. I look back on that and said, ‘I should have changed lines.’ But I kept on hoping, and hoping, that Erik would make a big play, or Gabby would make a big play.”

On character in the dressing room: “I wasn’t crazy about the room, and still I think our room has work to do. And that isn’t an indictment on Chris Drury or Ryan Callahan or our leadership group, it’s the room itself. I think some people need to be weeded out of there. And it’s certainly not our core people, it’s the people around it. I said it all along, for you to win that room needs to sustain itself. That room didn’t sustain itself.

“It took a big step with the addition of those guys (Brandon Prust and Jody Shelley) to help out, but I don’t think the room is a strong room, I don’t. … You bring some people in, other people get knocked out of the bus, and we need to knock some people out of the bus.”

On Artem Anisimov centering the “fourth” line: “Can’t stay there. He can’t stay there. We’re looking for him, and he’s had such a great development year, we want him to be a scorer. I told him that today: I can’t keep you there, because we’ve got to keep on progressing.”

On Brandon Dubinsky and moving him out of the middle: “I think he’s progressed nicely as a left winger. Especially the latter half of this year I think his consistency’s been there a lot more. I think putting him on wing forces him to be the player that is his strength, and that’s a straight-ahead guy - he’s a willing guy, strong on the puck. I don’t think he’s sees the ice tremendously as a centericeman. … But the thing I like about Dubie, and I hate to say it, but I have to give him a little credit … he’s learned not to get too high when he plays a good game. That’s my biggest problem with Dubie. I love his arrogance - you need to have arrogance as a player, but you also have to walk that fine line.”

On Michael Del Zotto’s rookie year: “His first half was real good, (but) he has to realize that he’s not going to be a premier player in this league just due to offense. It was a struggle for him defensively, where I thought at times, especially the first 25, 30 games, he was one of our best defensive defensemen - that’s been a struggle for him the second half of this year, it’s been a major struggle for him. And probably he was given too many minutes in the situation we are in back on our blue line, for a 19-year-old. But he has to be careful as he comes in that he has a long way to go as far as being a pro, being a National Hockey Leaguer

“I just want his head on straight. I don’t want him to go down the wrong road. I’ve seen young players come in at such a young age, have a little success, and veer off and go down the wrong way and it’s tough to recoup. I think he’s a smart enough kid, he’s a great kid, he’s got jam. We just want to make sure he stays down the right path.”

On Matt Gilroy, and scratching him for the final eight games: “I don’t regret one bit sitting him out; I know it was tough for a guy to play as much as he did and then we get into a little run at the end of the year and he wanted to be part of it. I don’t feel bad about that at all, I think Eriksson brought us some good minutes, good stability. It’s part of the process for Gilly. He has to learn that some of the things you get away with in college you’re not going to get away with in the National Hockey League - it’s been a little bit of a bumpy ride for him to understand that and accept that. I think he’s gotten intot he accepting mode of it; now he has to do it. And certainly as he progresses he can become part of the core.”

On pending free agent P.A. Parenteau: “I’m not sure where we go with it, but he comes up and he’s probably our second-most talented player on our team when he comes up from the minors. Or third - you’ve got Gabby, you’ve got Erik Christensen, and. P.A. P.A. is a talented guy. I would love to see if we can progress with him to work on his speed, his intensity in certain situations, because you can’t look by the talent that he has there, and I don’t think we’re a talent-heavy team right now.”

Tuesday, as the Rangers packed up their practice rink in Greenburgh, John Tortorella backed his goaltender by blasting his top players - Henrik Lundqvist very much excluded - for their no-shows with the season on the line.

I’m skipping some of the guys who said the same things about the inconsistencies, and for example Dubinsky, who kind of repeated what he said Sunday in Philly.

Henrik Lundqvist:

“It’s been tough. It was definitely not the ending w…

Wade Redden:

“You look at the whole year and how things were and you’ve just got to realize that as a team we can’t expect to win our last 10 games to make it in. It’s a whole season of being consistent and playing the right w…

This will come in waves, too.

By the way, Happy Anniversary. April 13, 1940, when the Rangers won the Stanley Cup,  is now 70 years ago. So it’s 1 for 70. Going on 71.

I’m not going to transcribe three hours of player interviews, so I&…

On Tuesday night, the Rangers learned which pick they will have in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft as a result of the league’s annual Draft Drawing.

That pick will be at No. 10.

The Edmonton Oilers, the team that had the highest chance of winning t…