There was plenty of excitement leading up to Wednesday's game between the Dallas Stars and the Calgary Flames, although few would have suspected that it would lead to a pre-game suspension. The NHL suspended Dallas left wing Sean Avery for an indefinite period on Wednesday, not for any on-ice violations, but rather for his comments to the Canadian news media.
In an interview a few weeks ago, Avery criticized Commissioner Gary Bettman's inability to effectively promote the NHL and appeared to claim that Flames superstar Jarome Iginla is a boring hockey player. Desperate for controversy as always, The Sports Network (TSN, ESPN north of the border) had been desperately trying to build ill-will between the Flames and Stars. It was a non-starter, but fortunately for TSN, Avery proved himself quite capable of making a story. He blew right through TSN's front-page article about an imagined controversy between Avery and Iginla and created one from scratch.
Avery, an agitator both on the ice and off, made reference to the relationship between Flames defenseman Dion Phaneuf and actress Elisha Cuthbert, who happens to be Avery's ex. On the ice, that's no big deal; in the NHL, bits of repartee that are not fit for print are regularly exchanged on the ice or on the benches.
Avery has said that he gets the biggest rise out of his opponents when he plays the wife/girlfriend card. But it's a different matter in front of a rolling TSN camera in a clip that will be shown repeatedly, and the commissioner's office felt that a suspension was necessary to show exactly how players can and cannot act off the ice.
His suspension was probably a long time in the making. Avery is an extremely high-profile player outside the league, in part due to his media antics, his fashion sense and his string of attractive and famous girlfriends. His high media profile earns him a lot of interviews with nontraditional outlets.
He never fails to criticize the league, the commissioner, his fellow players and anybody else who comes to mind. Bettman and company were just looking for an excuse, and Avery was kind enough to supply it by making some misogynist comments on national television. Dallas Stars owner Tom Hicks also issued a press release stating that he would have suspended Avery had the league not taken action itself.
Avery is one of the most fascinating players in the NHL; opponents both hate him and are impressed by his skills. Teammates enjoy his antics when they work, yet they hate the distractions that he causes. Fans love him or detest him or alternate between the two. The people who like him revel in watching him agitate, scrap and do all the dirty little things, and the people who dislike him have fun watching him get the tar beaten out of him by a guy like Andrew Ference.
With Avery, everyone wins. It's a lot more exciting to have him around than not. He had to have a penalty invented for him last season when he parked in front of New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur. Avery attempted to distract Brodeur by waving his stick in front of his face like a giant fan. In the end, he draws attention to the NHL, and there is a case to be made for the league keeping players on the ice who can help maintain fan interest in professional hockey.
