NHL
Avery hit with suspension
Forward punished for crude remarks
CALGARY, Alberta — Dallas Stars forward Sean Avery has been suspended indefinitely after a comment he made at the morning skate Tuesday was deemed “detrimental” to the NHL.
Avery called the assembled media together to make a statement and then sent a public dig at Flames defenseman Dion Phaneuf, who is dating Avery’s old girlfriend, actress Elisha Cuthbert.
“I am really happy to be back in Calgary, I love Canada,” Avery said after waiting for the cameras and microphones to get into place. “I just want to comment on how it’s become like a common thing in the NHL for guys to fall in love with my [former girlfriends]. I don’t know what that’s about. Enjoy the game tonight.”
Avery used a vulgar term to describe his former girlfriends.
He then walked off and declined to comment further. The league reacted quickly, suspending Avery for Tuesday night’s game and ordering him to a meeting in New York with Commissioner Gary Bettman. Avery was scheduled to fly back to Dallas this morning. The league has not yet scheduled the meeting.
Stars owner Tom Hicks said in a statement that he supported the league’s decision.
“Had the league not have suspended him, the Dallas Stars would have,” Hicks said. “This organization will not tolerate such behavior, especially from a member of our hockey team. We hold our team to a higher standard and will continue to do so.”
Avery has a long reputation of being “The Most Hated Man in Hockey,” and he regularly makes agitating comments to opponents on the ice. However, the premeditation of his statement and the misogynistic nature of the comment placed the organization and the league in an “embarrassing” place, officials said.
The league said the statement violated NHL bylaw 17 and article six of the NHL constitution for conduct “detrimental to the league and the game of hockey.”
“I think the words [he used] and his disrespect for an opponent,” Stars coach Dave Tippett said when asked what about the statement was so damaging. “There’s lots of trash talking that goes on on the ice, but to announce something like that for everyone to hear, that just crosses the line.”
Stars co-general managers Brett Hull and Les Jackson each stated that they were disappointed in Avery’s decision-making. Hull, who was housemates with Avery when the two were teammates with the Detroit Red Wings, said the organization knew what they were getting when they signed Avery to a four-year, free agent contract in the summer for $15.5 million. He said at the time he thought the Stars were too vanilla and needed the emotion that Avery brought. However, he said he has talked to Avery countless times about focusing his energy and emotion in the right way.
“This goes beyond hockey and beyond the game on the ice, and that’s what bothers me,” Hull said.
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