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I said I wouldn’t write about Sean Avery, but there is just too much going on for me not try and type out a few words.

Well the NHL has taken action and have suspended Sean Avery indefinitely. Waiting for the verdict from the NHL big wigs later on Thursday afternoon, Sean Avery will know his fate with the league. From the words of Dallas Stars owner, Tom Hicks, in an issued press statement, Sean Avery would have been suspended by the team if the league did not take action.

His teammates don’t want anything to do with his comments, with his actions, and  with his apology.  That speaks volumes.  Dave Tippett has always made it clear that he doesn’t feel Sean Avery being back on the team would make it beneficiary to the Dallas Stars.  Avery put out a public apology via the media. The Dallas Stars organization did not sanction his apology.

So where Avery go from here? He has been shunned by his teammates, his coach and the whole entire Dallas Stars organization.  If there was another team to take on Avery in their locker room, which team would be crazy enough to take on Avery? No one is quite sure if he would be a detriment to their team or an asset, as he did show  with the Rangers.  Even his more ardent fan in Brett Hull doesn’t know how to deal with Avery’s comments and recent behaviour.

Sloppy seconds aint my style

"Sloppy seconds ain't my style"

What I want to know is what do the fans of the NHL think? Were his comments suspension worthy?  Were they so obtuse and tactless that Avery should not be welcomed back to the Dallas Stars organization?  Many do, but there those out there that believe that Avery was just doing his job and just being his outspoken self.

Now there have been outspoken guys in the league, many of which are still very outspoken to this day.  In fact, co-GM of the Dallas Stars, Brett Hull, was never shy to share his opinion, make bold statements, and stir a little controversy in regards to issues in the NHL. Still, nothing that ever came out of Hull’s mouth, was ever that tactless and that pre-meditated.  It was as some of you wrestling fans out there call it, “A work”.

Another NHL star that has been outspoken in his time was Jeremy Roenick.  And Roenick has stirred a lot of controversy amongst his peers, management, media, and fans, but when it came down to it, Jeremy Roenick never thought himself bigger than the game.

Remember the crap that Claude Lemieux used to take from the media after he said a bone-headed thing?  Like when he wasn’t chosen for the 1998 Canadian Olympic team and he uttered the words , “Go USA!” as his displeasure for not being on the team? This makes Lemieux look like an angel.

Last time I had encountered a hockey player’s significant other being publicly ‘disrespected’ was a few years back in Vancouver when sports radio broadcaster, John “The Beast” Connors, said something about Todd Bertuzzi’s wife. Brian Burke, who was the Canucks GM at the time, made sure that John Connors felt the reprucussions of saying anything about a player’s wife/gf ever again.  John Connors lost his job and it was quite some time before the Vancouver Canucks organization granted interviews with the Team 1040,  which now carries the Canucks’ radio broadcast.

What do I think some of you ask? Well, as a woman, I am deeply offended that a man would refer to someone he had intimate relations with as “sloppy seconds”. To me, that comment sexist and misogynistic, not to mention pre-meditated. He had been waiting in the wings for someone to interview him and he used the media as his platform to talk the lowest type of trash you could to another player. Personally, Avery was lucky he was suspended that night and not able to play against the Flames. I think Phaneuf would have had a target on Avery’s forehead and wouldn’t have missed much throughout the night.

Brett Hull has even come to the ends of  Avery having a possible medical condition in terms of his behavioural patterns.  That may be true, but he’s a 30 year old man who is playing a game that many young men throughout Canada and United States dream of doing for a living. He dates Hollywood Starlets, but yet despite it all, he can’t ever just be content with what he has.

It’s one thing to talk SH*(T on the ice, it’s an unwritten rule of anything goes, but this one was premeditated, on the record, and something Mr. Avery can’t erase. Outspoken is one thing, offside is another.
This is a view from a broad, a not too distant perspective.

Justine Galo

Toronto, ON

justine.galo@gmail.com