I copied the following off the New York Times hockey blog today (Dec.16). I liked Jagr's comments. The first part was about Sundin.
Quote:
An Unsavory Exit: For Avery, after the Dallas Stars announced yesterday morning he would not be rejoining the team following his N.H.L. suspension, the question is also “What’s next?”
The answer is even less certain than Sundin’s, first because Avery is toxic right now. No N.H.L. team will touch him, neither will many minor pro teams except for those who would hire him to juice the gate and have him play the rodeo clown act that got him in this mess in the first place.
There has been some speculation on this blog and other places that Avery would be a good fit in the K.H.L., especially in one of that league’s more cosmopolitan cities, Moscow or St. Petersburg, and that might be true.
But first, Avery has to contend with what got him to where he is. Mike Heika writes in today’s Dallas Morning News, “Avery is in a behavioral modification program run by the N.H.L. Players Association and is getting treatment for anger management. One of the stipulations of the program is that the Stars must communicate to Avery through his representatives, [G.M. Brett] Hull said. As such, they will await an update from Avery’s agent, Pat Morris, to see if there is a time this season when Avery would like to return to play hockey.
“Morris said Sunday that Avery is doing well and facing up to some of his issues.
“‘He wanted to thank Les Jackson and Brett Hull and Mr. Hicks for the classy way they have dealt with this,’ Morris said. ‘Right now, we’re just concentrating on getting things right from a health point of view, and I think there has been a lot of progress with Sean. Once we do that, then we’ll worry about his hockey career.’”
Heika also detailed the potential scenarios Avery faces when rehab is done: ” If Avery wants to play this season, the Stars could send him to the minors on a two-week conditioning assignment to showcase him for a possible trade.”
“If Avery doesn’t play this season, the Stars can buy him out in the summer at two-thirds the cost ($8 million) of his remaining contract and then spread a cap hit of $1.33 million over six years. He would then become an unrestricted free agent and attempt to return to the N.H.L. that way.
“Avery, 28, also could simply retire and pursue other business interests.”
Heika discussed Avery with injured Stars captain Brenden Morrow, who said the most recent incident was hardly Avery’s only blemish in Dallas. “That was probably just the last line,” Morrow said. “I think we did a pretty good job of keeping the rest of that stuff in-house.”
Morrow declined to detail for Heika what “the rest of that stuff” was, but Hull said Avery was unable to adhere to the Stars’ code of conduct.
“It was the off-ice stuff that really was the problem,” Hull said. “He obviously didn’t understand that besides being a hockey player, there’s a code of conduct that not only the N.H.L., but the Dallas Stars have in place. He was unable to follow that.”
An interesting perspective on Avery has arrived from Omsk, where Jaromir Jagr spoke about his ex-Rangers teammate and other things to Sovietsky Sport’s Pavel Lysenkov (and part of the English translaiton by Dmitry Chesnokov of that interview is posted by Eric McErlain on AOL Fanhouse
Jagr: “I think if Avery was not in Canada, he wouldn’t have said that. The guy was simply working the publicity. He tried to unsettle the opposing team players before the game.”
He was disqualified for six games because of two words. This is unprecedented in the history of the N.H.L.
Jagr: “No one else would have faced this. But Avery was punished for all of his old sins. You can say that he was punished for everything combined. This is a political decision by the N.H.L.”
Dallas does not want him to play in the League and his teammates are recommending to have him sent to Russia for rehabilitation.
Jagr: “I don’t think he will be kicked out of the NHL because of the ethics standards. Not everyone there is such goody two shoes. I would believe that the club is not happy with Avery’s play and now stumbled upon a great chance to part ways.
“But you have to know Sean. Yes, he is a bad boy. But this is his image. It is all acting. In his soul he is a vulnerable and sentimental person. And Avery also loves confrontations and trouble. He likes to draw attention to himself. That’s his life. Sean should have become an actor. He would have had a great career in Hollywood. But he is a good player. Believe me. He has speed, sense of the game, sees the net well – he has everything. In some games Avery was Rangers’ best player. If he is trusted by the team he always plays well.
“And he always comes up with something. I remember once we were playing the Devils, when Avery stood in front of their goaltender Martin Brodeur and started swinging his stick. He was not breaking any rules, but Martin got really mad. Sean achieved what he wanted, he unsettled an opposing player.
“I think Sean needs a strong coach like Mike Keenan. To have him under control. Then a lot of scandals could have been avoided.
“Actually, people with a big self opinion will never understand Avery and will always think of him as an outsider. But I can never take Sean seriously. I have never had any problems with him.”
Have you played on the same line with him?
Jagr: “Sometimes. Sometimes we didn’t have a good game and Sean would come to me and say with a straight face: ‘You played awfully bad today.’ And how should I react to that? I would reply with a sad face: ‘Sorry, Sean. I know, Sean. I am going to work harder to improve my numbers.’ It’s a little anecdotal.”
Would you love to see him playing for Avangard Omsk?
“No!” Jagr started waiving his hands and almost fell from his chair laughing. “Two years playing together for the Rangers was enough. Couldn’t you come up with a lighter sentence?”
And finally are opinions like that of someone named Paul Kix on ESPN.com today. ESPN, as you are aware, is known to love hockey so much that they gave the Tampa Bay Lightning their lone celebrity analyst — only to have the ungrateful Lightning give him back. Kix’s love for and knowledge of the game is also quite apparent from what he writes as well.
“To put it bluntly, Sean Avery was the only reason we followed hockey. A sartorially minded on-ice agitator who trashes the new boyfriends of his old exes? That’s reason enough to stay tuned, dude. We won’t anymore, now that the Stars have banished him from the team, even agreeing to pay his salary so long as he keeps out of the arena. But with a look at Avery’s sins, one thing’s for certain: Whoever gets the Stars’ sloppy seconds will have to up the tolerance for anarchy, because this is milquetoast stuff.
“Seriously, National Hockey League? This is how you a treat a man whose crimes include (and we’re pulling this straight from the conference call yesterday): talking with the media; not getting along with all his teammates; and commenting on other players who date his exes? The Stars owner, Tom Hicks, needs to take a lesson from his colleague at Valley Ranch: Second chances lead to buzz-worthy teams. Half the fun of watching the Cowboys is clucking at the never-ending drama, and then trying to anticipate how that plays out on the field.
“This is the problem with the N.H.L.: It thinks a guy who interns at Vogue and routinely shows up in People and on PerezHilton is bad for the game. You fools. He’s growing the game. Or at least, he was.”
This is what comes from the World Wide Leader In Sports who some actually believe will save hockey in the U.S.? Dude, your depth of understanding blows us away. Most likely, in your eyes, for any sport to discipline a player, that athlete must commit a felony. You know what? Don’t pay attention to hockey. If Sean Avery was the only reason you could find to follow hockey, your absence won’t mean a thing.
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Amen!
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17 Dec 2008, 08:31 AM
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