Enough already

A few nights ago Sean Avery, the rogue player of the Dallas Stars, sought out the media to deliver this message to flames defeseman Dion Phaneuf:




He got suspended 6 games for this act, and the Star's organization has all but come out and said that they don't want him back.

The portion of the clip that is shown above, although is part of the story, isn't the tipping point. The overriding issue in the story for me is what you didn't see in this clip. The story is how he sought and created his own mini-press conference. He wasn't being interviewed at that point, it was someone else, yet he barged forward and created a stage for himself. This was a premeditated scenario, created minutes after Avery promised his head coach that he wouldn't talk to the media.

From a social standpoint, although his comments are vile and disgusting, they could be received as even funny and factual. The issue is, however, that Sean Avery is a professional representative of one of the classiest organizations in the league. At that moment, not only does he put his teammates in an awkward spot in regard to the game later that evening, but he cast a light on the Dallas Stars that they have never wished to be a part of.

There are arguments made in regards to Avery that he is 'good for hockey' and sells seats and gains exposure for the NHL, however there is no real evidence to support that. Avery started his career in Detroit, moved onto LA, then the Rangers and now is a Dallas Star. There was no peak in attendance when Avery played in Detroit or LA, the seats in Madison Square Gardens are always full anyway, and because the Stars aren't very good this year, the American Airlines center is as empty as it has been in years. Nobody buys a ticket to their local team because Sean Avery is coming to town. Ovechkin, Malkin, Crosby, and even Rick Nash sells tickets, but not Sean Avery. Would there potentially have been more viewers of that ensuing Stars/Flames game? Possibly, but it wouldn't have been to watch the hockey, it would have been to watch the sideshow that Avery created.

Have his recent comments put this story and the NHL in mainstream media? Sure it has, for a day or two, but so did the Berutzzi/Moore incident. These incidents don't put the NHL in the limelight in a positive way. Non-hockey fans look at a clip like this and they say: what a pig and it further confirms why they aren't hockey fans at all. Negative attention is fleeting and it isn't a means to draw long term fans into the game. There are loads of NFL criminals, I mean players, in the news for various quotes/acts/criminal behaviour, yet it doesn't make me want to watch football.

Sean Avery has been in the league since 2001. In 5 years he is now on his 4th team. The LA Kings suspended him for the last 3 games of the 06-07 season for basically being a pain in the rear, but they used the excuse of him getting in an argument with an assistant coach over his refusal to participate in a practice drill.

It has been reported that when Dallas' co-GM Brett Hull was about to sign him this summer, several players of the team went to him and told him that they didn't want him around. He signed him anyway in an effort to bring some spice and personality to a fairly 'vanilla' team. The Stars went to the Western Conference Finals last year...this year they haven't looked like a team at all and are floundering in the cellar of the league. Too much spice perhaps? Now this.

Sean Avery actually thinks he is good for hockey. He thinks he is helping the NHL in marketing. Sean Avery thinks because he will say things that nobody else will in front of a camera, that he is attracting fans. Sean Avery doesn't care about selling and promoting the game. He doesn't care about his teammates, he is a punk who only thinks about himself and self promotion. I have had enough of Sean Avery and his cavalier attitude, and from a selfish standpoint, I hope he plays out the rest of his NHL contract in the minor leagues.

If Sean Avery was as important to the enhancement of the NHL as he thinks he is, there would be a huge drop in attention and revenue when he is exiled. My prediction is that there will be none, and the only mediums that will miss him will be the desperately boring and lazy sports writers who need guys like Avery basically write their stories for them. The league will go on, and thankfully, the Sean Avery show will not.