My Take on Sean Avery

It is amazing to me that the NHL is trying to censor and rid itself of Sean Avery. It is amazing to me that in the age of Michael Vick and Plaxico Burress, a professional sports player is suspended for a pretty minor, albiet immature, comment to reporters. And it is amazing to me that more than half the league, including Avery's team, and teammates, are thinking "good riddance" to themselves.

Sean Avery is what the NHL needs. He is entertaining, unpredictable, innovative, and overall a complete douche bag. His whole game is to get the other team off of theirs, and he is very good at what he does. His tactics are ingenious, his execution of them legendary. It is arguable that his stick waving antics against New Jersey in the playoffs last year completely knocked the Devils off their game and had a big part in their loss to the Rangers. He is an agitator, he gets under the skin of other teams, and statistically, teams of which he is a member do far better when he is in the lineup then when he is out of it.

Not to say that Avery isn't, as mentioned above, a douche bag. The guy has zero class, he's a nut case, and he loves the spotlight and the attention that his antics provide for him. He is the NHL's version of TO. And you know what? The guy is what could bring the NHL out of its current recession.

The NBA has Ron Artest, Major League Baseball has Manny, Soccer has Wayne Rooney, golf has Happy Gilmore, skiing has Bode Miller, and the NFL has TO, Chad Ocho Cinco, and more people than I can count. Those guys are all nut cases. They are distractions to their teams and to their sports. But in no way would any sport be at the same popularity level without guys like them. The fans love them, because they are entertaining, and the NHL needs entertainment right now. Despite all the claims by Bettman's front office, the league isn't doing much better than before the lockout. Most people who are avid hockey fans these days were fans before the lockout, and several fan bases and ticket sales that have been strong for years, like Detroit, are now shrinking. The NHL shouldn't suspend Sean Avery, they should make sure that he gets as much exposure as possible.

Think about if the NHL hadn't suspended Avery, and he was in the game against Calgary. Think if the NHL had released a lot of press, condemned Avery's comments, sure, but let him play. Now that game would have been interesting. It is entirely plausable that Avery's comment was meant to get the best defenseman in the league off his game, and, knowing Phaneuf, he would have likely responded by giving Avery an open-ice ticket into unconsciousness. Either that, or Iggy would have beaten him into the ground. The matter would have been settled on the ice, like feuds in hockey are supposed to be settled, Avery would be punished, and, 2 or 3 weeks later, he would pop up again with some other antic, just like the last 100 times. More and more people would take notice, as they have been and Avery's already budding flame as the guy everyone loves to hate in the NHL would continue to bring people in. There is a reason many videos featuring him on youtube have over 400,000 hits.

Instead, the NHL took the initiative and silenced one of their best marketing assets, and took him off the ice, with an indefinite suspension. I mean, come on, the NFL eventually suspends Plaxico Burress because he shoots himself in the leg with an illegal firearm. The NHL suspends players one or two games for illegal hits to the head that ruin player's seasons. Hell, this is a game which endorses, for the sake of its ratings, two men dropping their gloves and trading punches until one falls to the ice. And the NHL suspends Sean Avery indefinitely for a comment he made about an ex-girlfriend and a fellow hockey player to a bunch of reporters? How does that make the league, and hockey in general, look? Just another embarrassing moment for the NHL and Gary Bettman.