Avery’s Suspension a Joke

Former Red Wing Sean Avery has been suspended indefinitely by the NHL following comments made to the press about Calgary Flames defenseman Dion Phaneuf and Phaneuf’s girlfriend (Avery’s ex-girlfriend) Elisha Cuthbert.

“I am really happy to be back in Calgary, I love Canada,” Avery said on camera this morning in Calgary. “I just want to comment on how it’s become like a common thing in the NHL for guys to fall in love with my sloppy seconds. I don’t know what that’s about. Enjoy the game tonight.”

I’m no fan of Avery. I wasn’t sad to see him go when the Wings traded him to LA. That said, I think the NHL’s handling of him is absolutely pathetic.

In a league where players throw elbows at each others heads with no penalties called, where slew-foots and hits from behind are still issues, Avery is suspended indefinitely for an off-the-ice insult? At least the league has its priorities in order.

Was what he said tasteless? Absolutely. Was it true? Seems kinda like it. If Phaneuf was offended he could reply off the ice with words or on the ice with fists. Instead, the league stepped in where it had no right to.

And, yeah, the Dallas Stars support the suspension. Of course they do, none of them like Avery, he’s a locker room cancer. That doesn’t mean the suspension is right.

It’s the second time in less than a year that Avery has been targeted. In last year’s playoffs Avery annoyed Devils’ goalie Martin Brodeur by waving his stick in the netminder’s face. In that case the league was quick to announce an unprecedented mid-playoffs rule change banning that behavior.

I scream all night, nearly every game for the officiating to be consistant. Here is a prime example of the NHL’s bias against certain players and its tendency to use the officials (both on- and off-ice) to met out punishment not for breaking the rules but for p*ssing off someone at NHL HQ. It’s sad but its true and I hope blind hatred of Sean Avery doesn’t stop people from seeing it.