Mirtle, I think you need to edit this and put this in bold:

And, at some point, someone might even try to make Avery the league’s latest version of Steve Moore.

The NHL should definitely clamp down on anything resembling incitement. Avery was basically talking smack to Phaneuf in an attempt to goad him into doing something dumb during the game. Something that could take Phaneuf literally out of the game. If this is considered personality and flavor, then I want none of it.

I’m fine with a fine (and sure, make it hefty), but anything more than a one-game suspension is nuts. I do like what Greg said, that letting the Stars handle this internally would probably have been the better course.

I love Puck Daddy (and I really like Avery as a player) but he lost me at ‘free speech martyr’, if not before. He also comes across as overly certain that the short-term buzz created by something like this is positive in the long run. I doubt it is, but I’m not positive.

Avery is a party to a Collective Bargaining Agreement for the operation of a business, not a free citizen. If he went into Phoenix and said he didn’t think much of Gretzky but that he’d totally be into f***ing his daughter, I don’t think that would go over well either. And I don’t think the NHL would or should be thrilled about it as a marketing opportunity. And I don’t think telling Avery YOU CAN’T SAY THINGS LIKE THAT turns him into a free speech martyr.

P.S. While I’m certain that the Stars are a worse team without Avery than with him, Marty Turco was awesome tonight and looked like the proverbial Happiest Man in the World after the game when asked about “the day’s events”.

The laughable inconsistency with which the NHL decides to use their iron fist is what I’m PO’d about here. A guy like Darcy Tucker can, within earshot of an entire bench, threaten to take out Nick Schultz at the knees, then FOLLOW THROUGH with it (unsuccessfully, thank god), and the league doesn’t do jack about it. And of course, thanks to the instigator rule, the team can’t do anything about it either.

That’s the stuff that’s completely appalling. Avery can blather on about North America’s most notorious puck bunny saying absolutely nothing that others haven’t said before about that whole situation. Yeah, it makes him look like a tool but I don’t think it reflects on the league as much as it does on him. (Worse yet, a case could be made that they created the monster themselves by penalizing instigation and creating an environment in which guys like Avery thrive.) But the bottom line is that the league needs to get its priorities straight. To me, this is the equivalent of the police shooting shoplifters but merely giving stern looks for armed assault.

I knew the “NHL refuses to sell a compelling product” argument was coming — I just didn’t expect to see that from Puck Daddy.

That line of thinking drives me nuts. I’m all in favor of the NHL creating a compelling product — on the ice. I even stomach the shootout because it excites fans even though I personally can’t stand it. But pretending that this sort of WWF (sorry, WWE)-style crap is what the NHL should be promoting is a nakedly narrow view of sports promotion and the NHL brand.

While I’m still surprised and conflicted about the suspension (suddenly now the NHL draws the line with this clown? After they’ve encouraged/enabled him to live in this Hollywood/TMZ world where Cuthbert — no anonymous daughter, she — clearly resides?), I would still absolutely prefer a product that is slightly less popular if it means excluding this junk from player conduct.

From what I can see in this article the AP isn’t even quoting him accurately for what I’d imagine is some form of censorship.

Avery’s obnoxiousness should not be surprising. Splitting hairs over which part of his actions are more offensive than others to the game is an exercise in moral finger-pointing. Any athlete who publicly insults women like this deserves a suspension, plain and simple. For the league to take advantage of the publicity that comes with such a tailor-made media circus would not be anything other than totally cynical.

I applaud the NHL’s involvement here, but question the indefinite nature of the suspension. Avery is protected by free speech, and his comments are more insulting to his exes than to the integrity of hockey. Give him a quick 3 games and be done with it. It’s hypocritical in a sport that allows huge men to throw punches at each other in the course of games to make more of a deal about this than it’s worth. Also, if hits to the head are only getting 3-5 games it’s hard to justify a longer suspension for someone just shooting off their mouth.

On the bright side, people should take solace in the fact that Avery’s post-hockey fashion career is now over before it began….so at least we are spared the sight of him after his retirement from hockey.

1) Unlike other bloggers, we do NOT hates Avery. He is what he is, an asshole/agitator. As such Avery’s comment was great. He has every right to say what he feels without facing suspension from the NHL. It’s up to Pheneuff and every other player he offends to handle it themselves. Dallas knew what they were getting when they signed him to that contract. If Dallas owner Tom Hicks has regrets, they should put him on waivers.
2) Its not like he was pulling a Reggie Dunlap and put a bounty on Dion Phaneuf’s head. It was dumb trash talk and should have been left at that. Gary Bettman and the NHL is so image conscious that they felt the need to quash this. A mistake in our opinion. Don’t go out of your way to promote it like the NBA does, but certainly don’t go the other way and restrain it either.

I respectfully disagree James. While no one wants a “latest version of Steve Moore” I think the NHL was too reactionary in its indefinite suspension. The public wants it both ways. It is tired of athletes saying useless lines like “one game at a time” or “my teammates really helped me out” but at the same time it treats people who saying anything outside of those pedestrian lines (like criticizing the sport [David Wells] or saying outlandish things [Terrell Owens]) as blowhards who should be taken down a peg or two.

Avery’s comments were unfortunately personal and caustic but in no way merited the NHL’s reaction. Since we are now in the era of athletes needing to be controlled for the “greater good” then ok, fine him. Anything other than that is a huge overraction and only serves to harm the sport in the long run by continuing to muzzle people who might make the sport different and more engaging. Do I wish Avery could make the sport more interesting in different, more production ways, sure. However, I fear that this will be treated very much like the LPGA’s recent stance regarding English requirements as a second tier sport’s attempt at increasing its visibility but doing it in the worst and most hamfisted way possible.

I have to admit, I don’t really care about Avery’s comments, per se. Any mature, thinking individual is already light-years more intelligent than Avery, and to think that Phaneuf would take this personally—or, by extension, that anyone would take it personally with respect to girlfriends, daughters, wives, whatever—is a bit odd. (I realize, of course, that this isn’t the league’s argument.) But how is this detrimental to the league as a whole, exactly, and so how is it deserving of a suspension by the league? it’s a Nothing spouted by a moron. This is pure schoolyard antics; Avery’s prepared statement was the work of a man who is all image and no brain. He’s just not smart. Taking offense to what he said is akin to taking offense at a six-year-old who calls you a jerk.

Where I get caught up in all this is what’s been alluded to only tangentially: the reactions of his teammates. Leaving him out to dry as they did (justifiably), is obviously indicative of what his team as a whole thinks of him (and notably, in a team-oriented sport like few others).

It’s the Dallas management that should be most harshly criticized, in my view—not so much for this single incident, but for having so weak a grasp on the personality of their roster as a group and imagining either that Avery would change his ways, or that the team would welcome his constant brainless antics in their locker room as par for course. That speaks volumes, I think, for both the current situation and, more generally, for where this team sits in the standings.

Based on the comments from the Stars players and owner, I think this was the last straw for Avery in Dallas. It sounds very much like he’s been a major problem in the dressing room, and I think that team wants the hell away from him. As it is, the Stars have said they are sending him back to Dallas, so he won’t be playing in Edmonton tonight either.

The suspension was the right thing, and it should, in fact, be longer than one or two games. Trash talk is one thing, bringing someone’s personal life into it is completely unacceptable.

A one-game suspension — and a considerable fine — is enough to ensure nonsense like this never happens again.

Except all the media attention that it has given Avery hads guaranteed he’s going to do something like this again. He’s getting exactly what he wanted from this. The NHL played right into his hands.

Besides it’s beyond hypocritical for the NHL to suspend a guy for comments like these, which are crude but ultimately harmless, but allow guys to publicly vow vengeance on a player.

I think the emphasis on Dallas management is what needs to be addressed here. The league has made this more of a nightmare scenario by jumping in to take care of Avery themselves, but did they also do that because Dallas wasn’t going to handle things themselves?

I know, Hicks and Hull and everyone in Dallas is saying the right thing now – but what’s become evidently clear here is that they had no idea the kind of personality they were dealing with in Avery and if he’s as bad in the clubhouse as it’s being made out, they did zero work to scout him out and figure out if he would fit in well with everyone. Avery went unsigned for a decent amount of time in the offseason and you have to wonder if Hicks was motivated by the show Avery put on in New York and outbid himself to sign him up for four years and too much money. It’s not as if he hasn’t done that before as an owner, just ask A-Rod.

I think this is where criticism of whether the team or the league suspended him is very fair. If Dallas takes care of the situation internally this doesn’t blow up as big as it has and the league can rest easy knowing that their teams are punishing players for getting out of line. If the NHL follows that with their own investigation/interrogation of Avery after that, then fine, he’s brought that upon himself to get searched.

James, I know you care more for the bottom line here and that something was done and its being handled but with Commissioner Bettman stepping in like this it turns the matter more into a PR fiasco because the league is punishing him for talking out of his ass – if it’s the team sitting him down for conduct detrimental to the team, then everyone understands and respects the choice. Instead we’ve got a huge circus and the next showing of it comes in February.

A-Rod’s the best player in the majors, if not the history of baseball. He may be a phony, but he never says anything negative about anyone. Hicks paid market value for A-Rod – and he hit 156 home runs in three years as a shortstop while finishing 1st, 2nd and 6th in the MVP voting and winning two gold gloves.

Sean Avery, on the other hand, had led the league in two things thus far in his career: penalty minutes and ignorant comments. The Avery signing reflects a far different mismanagement streak on Tom Hicks’ part.

As per: http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2008/12/03/avery_treatment/

I’m not quite sure what benefit is to be had by making a public statement like that. It certainly won’t help relations between Hull, Avery, and the Stars.

I would not be shocked if Avery has already played his last game with Dallas.

Burke was convicted of assaulting his wife in 1998. My memory may be failing me, but I don’t remember any punitive action on the part of the league.

Not that there shouldn’t have been. And I don’t mind suspending Avery for whatever reason can be contrived. And the more I hear about this incident, the more it seems that the league had warned Avery personally on multiple occasions.

But if there’s an actual change in league policy, it should probably be spelled out in advance for everyone to see. As I said in the earlier thread, I’m pretty confident that some players talk like this frequently, including when journalists can hear them.

As an aside, perhaps the best thing about the Stars’ poor season is that, combined with the Rangers’ success, it puts an end to the myth of Avery as some sort of intangible difference-maker.