Avery's Face-Guard: League Statement Coming
It certainly was comical, Sean Avery guarding Martin Brodeur during a Rangers 5-on-3 in Game 3 as if he were an NBA forward, waving his stick, sliding side-to-side, preventing the Devils keeper from seeing the puck and prompting a few jabs.
But was it legal? In replays, Chris Drury appeared to tell Avery "Stick down". And after Avery's goal, Devils coach Brent Sutter said a referee told him that the face-to-face mambo would not be permitted again.
A league spokesman confirmed earlier today that the powers-that-be were discussing the issue and a statement would be provided before Game 4 on Wednesday.
During the San Jose-Calgary game, Commissioner Gary Bettman, who was on hand, told reporters:
"It's something we're going to address in the realm of probably goaltender interference or unsportsmanlike conduct. We'll put the clubs on notice before we make that interpretation.
The ingenuity and creativity of things we've never seen before never ceases to amaze us but we'll deal with it."
I don't think it falls under the umbrella of goaltender interference. There was no contact.
A minor for unsportsmanlike conduct? Probably. Not ten minutes, but also not something that you'd like to see every team attempt.
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Comments (16)
why take out from the game something so amusing and entertaining?
It's been discussed all day on XM radio.
How can Avery not making contact be called for a penalty while Brodeur smacking him with his stick not be?
People have said that Draper, Holmstrom, Tkachuk and Smyth all do it, but that no one makes a big deal because their name isn't Avery.
Steve, see if you can get Renney to mention anything about the awful officiating. Don't blame the refs for the loss, I know, but it's hard to win when Rozsival gets called for a high sticking penalty with his stick on the ice that leads to a Devil's power play goal.
hmmmm what time are they issuing a statement for goaltender acting??? poor officiating??? coaches snapping sticks and throwing them onto the ice and berating the officials a la madden....amazing Lou cries and all the TOOLS listen and kowtow to him and his devils..... joke
Seriously this is all as comical as the play was.
It was great, the place loved it, it was creative and it worked. Avery is in Brodeurs head. Evidence being his goal a game so far this series.
What I find even more comical is that they (refs,commish) can say straight out there is no rule against it. But, yet they can pull a new call out of their @sses before Avery hits the ice again.
Is it a good play? Maybe not.
Did it work? Hell yea.
Will Avery or anyone else do it all the time? Probably not.
What did Avery do wrong except wear a jersey with his name on the back? NOT A D@MN THING!!!
Now that is ridiculous!
So if he does it again and just talks trash is it goaltender interference?
What if he puts his hands up and sings london bridge is falling down, is that a penalty?
What if he plays air guitar with his stick and the stick block poor Marty's eyes sight, is that a penalty?
If you are going to play with making rules up on the fly because of Avery you better make them pretty clear!
Kudos to Avery, it was entertaining, it ate at Brodeur, it worked and it was never seen before.
All that went on in hockey yesterday and everybody from XM to the papers are in love with who else but, AVERY! AVERY! AVERY!
This league is turning into the ice capades.. bunch of nancies!
Avery does this to Marty and Marty only because Marty is a whiner and deserves it. Avery has respect for other goalies. You'll never see Avery do this to any other goalie.
Pavel...I agree, the NHL reminds me of figure skating with pads on.
there's no rule against it now, but next year it will be the avery rule if a player pulls that. i like it but of course his enemies don't. give him credit for trying to do anything to help his team win. very creative stuff. air guitar would be hilarious ! or farting in marty's face would be good too. all no contact distractions
I don't care who did it ... it's gay ... and not the way I want to win.
Avery's is playing awesome ... but don't pull that stupid sh-t again...you know what Drury was telling him: 'dude, you're embarassing the sh-t out of me - stop'
i wish i could give feedback to the league to how i feel about this, and many other situations......
but i forgot this is the sport with the biggest gap between the league and its fans....
the avery thing is BS..you know you've made it in the NHL when they make a new rule up because of your actions, which you know its gonna be 2 minutes now at least. i was always told growing up, that players planted they azz in front of the net and "SCREENED" the goalie any way he could. so for people to complain about this is BS, specifcally sutter. im sure during the "core of four" years he'd a done anything for an "advantage" such as "getting into the opposing goalies head", which all avery was doing..evidently it worked cuz he scored not 20 seconds after it all went down..if this was done by anyone past or present, it wouldnt even be an issue..but because its avery, everyone has a problom with it and it pisses me off. apparently drury and shanahan did, which is funny cuz we scored as a result of it (got marty off his game)..which btw, they havent done yet of any variety. so maybe they should try something "creative" like sean did and see if that works...what a crock of chit this is, GRRR!..
..i heard its "bushleauge" tactics by avery, thats such BS cause its playoff hockey...bush leauge to me is colin white attacking him for no reason in the corner (after the callahan collision w/ brodeur) when he playing w/ a full face shield basically, which all the sudden makes him one fearless son of a bytch!..i recall in game 1 aswell when he started running at everyone, attempting elbows trying to take heads off when it was 3-1...the guys a flat out puss.
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on to the game. the giveaways and PK killed them terribly last night, betts and drury were awful all game i thought. also, hank looked a bit nervous to me at times. i know he made 5 or 6 awesome saves, i just got a sense that he was fighting the puck alot. same with the defense, they werent handling the puck well and the goals that went off them are signs of that. the kids continue to impress me game in game out, specifcally callahan/dubinsky. i think staal will be fine after the OT goal, he seems like a tough minded kid and will get over it. the OT in general was just awful, they didnt have the puck for any time in it it seemed, they played a bit scared i thought. the officials were awful yet again, so thats even i beleive as we got the benifit in game 2. i agree w/ the toots penalty it is a rule..the rosie one i have no idea, i didnt see anything on the replay.
game 4 is a must win i think, i have no doubt they will win it. the worst thing about last night is the devs have alot of confidence now and all the momentum which is gigantic
"I don't care who did it ... it's gay ... and not the way I want to win."
anon,
can you think of any other way that has worked in the last 15 years?
id like to think that avery is a little bit of a reason as to why marty isnt marty right now...it certainly aint drury or shanny
Just because it has not been done before does not make it wrong.
It shows who runs the league and there office is in newark. Colin cambel has no balls just like when he was ranger caoch. The league is becoming a joke.
I think the league made a good call on this one. The stick should be used for playing the puck.....PERIOD!!!!
Imagine if someone interprets that stick play as an intent to injure?
The league absolutely had to step in here. That continues then there will be a really ugly incident resulting.
That's my take on it. Do that to the wrong goalie or at the wrong time and he's going to swing at you.
Imagine a batter doing that to a catcher?
Who ever bob is is dumb. seriously. anyone who would ever thing to do anything like this should be kicked out. punk.