There have been some harsh words tossed around about Sean Avery ever since he has entered the league. He was never a major threat in a fight, but always knew how to rile up the opposition to get them off their game. Call it what you want, its strategy, and we have seen it work time, and time again. He is the new Matthew Barnaby. He's the Rock (aka Dwayne Johnson) of the NHL. He's the Reggie Miller of hockey.
However, there are two sides to Mr. Avery. It is the common trend among hockey fans to think he is the worst person imaginable. Any person who stands by him should be immediately shunned by the hockey world and should never be listened to on the topic of hockey. This should not be the case. There is a method behind his madness.
For anyone who played any sport as a kid, you knew that when you were losing whatever sport you may be playing, if someone on the opposition made a comment, not necessarily directed to you, but if it was something so minuscule that it got you to think about it more than once, it threw you off your game. You would spend the rest of the game trying to oversell yourself so that you can prove that player wrong. Sean Avery is the kid making those comments on a nightly basis for the Rangers.
There are two sides to Mr. Avery. On the ice, he would insult your mother, even if she was in a coma. Sean Avery doesn't take mercy on the punches he pulls during a game. But, off the ice, he is nothing like he is when hes on it (not counting the 'sloppy seconds' incident, Sean jumped the gun too early in the smack talk on that one).
You never hear about Sean Avery going out and partying into the night with sketchy porn stars, ala, the Philadelphia Flyers (pictured right). You never hear about him punching cabbies like Patrick Kane. Sean Avery has never done anything off the ice, again, other than the "sloppy seconds" incident that would garner him a bad person. He leaves all of his talk on the rink, and it stays there.
Most recently, Sean Avery made a comment to the Toronto Sun about a topic he endorses, support for gay hockey players. Sean Avery commented:
"If there's a kid in Canada or wherever, who is playing and really loves the game and wants to keep playing but he's worried about coming out, I'd tell him to pick up the phone and call [NHLPA executive director] Donald Fehr and tell him to book me a [plane] ticket. I'll stand beside him in the dressing room while he tells his teammates he is gay. Maybe if Sean Avery is there, they would have less of a problem with it."
I cannot think of any other NHL player who would have the testicular fortitude to stand up and say that to the media. Knowing that there have been many shots taken at Avery's manliness for his love of fashion, and his less than upfront fighting style, he still stood up on this topic and spoke out about it confidently. That, in my opinion, takes about as much balls as it takes to stand in front of a slap-shot in the NHL.
So next time you hear someone smack talking Avery, throw that little bit of knowledge at them. Ask them if they would would have the balls to be as upfront about something like the support of gay hockey players. Any player can talk smack on the ice, but Sean Avery leaves his talk on the ice.
The first reports came from Twitter, which were met with much scrutiny from fans, and for a plethora of reasons. Most fans were upset to find Erik Christensen was going to get a shot over Avery. Christensen has become sort of a Redden-esque scapegoat here in New York, after speaking his mind on what he believed was an Avery sucker-punch in a game against the Oilers last season. This decision of Christensen over Avery drew the ire of many fans because they believed that Avery put in more work than Christensen did, and that another factor was because of coach John Tortorellas opinion of Averys play. Tortorella did not keep it a secret that he thought Avery was a distraction to the team, and many fans believe that that opinion was what fueled this decision.
