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The Avery Amendment
by Alanah McGinley on 04/14/08 at 04:05 PM ET
Comments (15)
No doubt I’m in the minority, but I’m a bit bored by all the high-and-mighty posturing when it comes to Sean Avery’s antics yesterday. If you ask me, I think it was freakin’ brilliant.
Sure, it wasn’t sportsmanlike and it wasn’t classy. It also looked utterly ridiculous and is dead easy to ridicule. And yet, as Martin Brodeur pointed out after the game last night, it was also a very effective bit of gamesmanship:
“Nobody should have to play hockey with a stick an inch from your face. But it wasn’t a bad play. While he was doing it, I couldn’t see anything. The two misses were just luck, I couldn’t see a thing.”
All Avery did—and for the sake of winning—was exploit a weakness that exists in the management of any sport: the complications of human, on-the-fly, interpretation.
He gave it a shot and he got away with it. And you can’t blame the refs; I would’ve been too slack-jacked watching that display to remember the rule book, either.
The NHL acknowledged this today by announcing their explicit interpretation of Rule 75, in order to prevent the scenario from ever being repeated. Here is The Avery Amendment:
“An unsportsmanlike conduct minor penalty (Rule 75) will be interpreted and applied, effective immediately, to a situation when an offensive player positions himself facing the opposition goaltender and engages in actions such as waving his arms or stick in front of the goaltender’s face, for the purpose of improperly interfering with and/or distracting the goaltender as opposed to positioning himself to try to make a play.”
So, the NHL has bought themselves some breathing space on this issue, making a public statement intended for the refs, to call anyone else pulling the same stunt. And the players will probably be mindful.
For now.
But what next? What if Avery didn’t wave his stick around like he did last night; if he just stood outside the crease, facing Brodeur, staying in his line of sight and making goofy faces at him?
What would the refs call him for then—bad breath?
The first thing that crossed my mind after watching Avery’s little production last night was the “fat goalie theory” of hockey. You know… that idea that if you can just sign some 800+lb man to stand in front of the net, you’ll win 82 games a year and collect of a new Stanley Cup ring every June.
But no one will ever do it. Why? Well, it’s utterly ridiculous, for one thing. And unsportsmanlike, certainly. No GM would want that association.
But then there’s Sean Avery. You can’t help but wonder how far he’s willing to go to create any advantage for his team.
So I figure the NHL better hope like hell that Sean Avery never gets offered a GM gig anywhere one day. I’m pretty sure the Fat Goalie theory is right up his alley. He’ll sign some guy, then sit back with a smirk on his face as the NHL tries to find a politically correct way of keeping fat guys from playing in the NHL.
I’m not saying I ‘approve’ of the incident last night, but then it’s not my business to. And it is Avery’s job to find a way to win.
He may look like a nutjob at times, but you’ve got to give him points for dedication. 
Filed in: nhl general | Canucks and Beyond | Permalink
Tags: sean+avery,
Comments
“Sure, it wasn’t sportsmanlike and it wasn’t classy” - There’s a rule for that, unsportsmanlike conduct, so what you’re saying is it was illegal and now it certainly is.
Posted by Dale Stewart from Moosejaw on 04/14/08 at 03:13 PM ET
Did it really need a clarification? It reminds me of what some senator said about pornography years ago..."I don’t know how to define it, but I know it when I see it”. I don’t know how to define unsportsmanlike conduct, but clearly that was it! Next time they discuss the instigator rule, that action should be referenced because it would have been more than reasonable for someone to knock that jerk out.
Posted by dip from philly on 04/14/08 at 03:27 PM ET
Well, I suppose I wasn’t clear in the post, but I do agree that he should’ve been penalized in the first place, Dale. It was certainly unsportsmanlike. But ‘gamesmanship’ is also about breaking the rules sometimes (ie. fighting, not that I’m comparing the actual infractions) and he just managed to get away with it this time.
But I’m not going to vilify him for it either, for finding a way to exploit a situation. He counted on the fact that the refs would be a bit dumbstruck by his behavior. But, as you point out, he won’t ever get away with it again. Though I expect he’ll think of something else one day…
Posted by Alanah McGinley from British Columbia on 04/14/08 at 03:33 PM ET
@ Dale: I think Alanah here, is saying there is a bit of continuum. I mean, just how we use the word ‘hit’...there’s a sense in which it is neutral - morally - to hit someone with something (when we handhsake, our hands ‘hit’). But, there becomes a point where it is immoral (unprovoked slapping, say) and finally illegal (hitting someone witha fist, hard and unprovoked, say).
Anyway, unsportsmanlike - as a word - seems to work like that as well. Sure, Avery’s actions were ‘unsportsmanlike’ in some sense (just the same sense, maybe a bit stronger, that hitting an oncoming player who has the puck with an open ice check is) but were they unsportsmanlike to the point where we would like to legislate his actions out of proper practice? Well, obviously I think we should not.
Avery’s move was creative, brilliant, and effective. I’m not saying the bugger shouldnt pay for playing in such ways, but that is up to opposing teams, not the officials (in my view).
I think the real reasons the NHL has responded this way aren’t as noble (ie: that it is unsportsmanlike, that it is winning trumping sportsmanhood, etc...) I think they run something like:
1) It was Avery, we hate him
2) It was Brodeur, we do everything he says
3) We change the rules with absolute power.
Posted by underthechestnuttree from LaSalle, Ontario, Canada on 04/14/08 at 03:34 PM ET
This is a tough discussion for anyone to clarify their position, and I’ve been trying to do it with friends all day. But I do agree with Alanah (at least I think I do how I read it!)
It was unsporting and gives the league a blemish on the cheek to go with the rest of the bad ref’ing this year. Upsportsmanship conduct is hard to define though. Isn’t Scott Stevens a bit upsporting drilling a guy to Jupiter for having his head down? How about Marleau’s teammate repeatedly crosscheckign Sarich into the ice after that monster hit on Marleau? In the end, it wasn’t illegal at the time. Now it is.
You won’t see Avery doing it again. Now he’ll find the next rule to bend to win. And then hopefully someone will call Stevens up and Avery will get some free facial reconstruction that he’s earned over his career!
Posted by Ryan on 04/14/08 at 03:57 PM ET
It was obviously a bush league move and yet I give him a little credit for attempting it since it was never specifically outlawed. Even the Devils seemed amused by it (although that could have changed if they had lost the game). Also amendment is misspelled in this article (no double m at the beginning). The grammar police is always vigilant…
Posted by Mike on 04/14/08 at 04:56 PM ET
Damn. Where are the grammar police before I hit the “publish” button?!
Thanks, Mike. Fixed it.
Posted by Alanah McGinley from British Columbia on 04/14/08 at 04:58 PM ET
Screening a goalie with your back towards the net is one thing. Moving your hands, stick, and body to block a goaltenders face, no matter where he moves, is....another. Its not just unsportsmanlike conduct, hes created the need for a new rule, one in which hockey has never even had to think about. Whats next, all 4 players make a wall around their goalie during a power play?
Posted by CE from nj on 04/14/08 at 05:25 PM ET
*PK
Posted by CE from nj on 04/14/08 at 05:26 PM ET
They practically do that (make a solid wall) already. There is hardly any space.
“Bush league” describes it perfectly. He looked completely and utterly stupid, but it was worth a shot. It doesn’t bother me nearly as much as blatant shots to the head argued that they were unavoidable because of physics. This was relatively harmless.
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 04/14/08 at 05:35 PM ET
First - I thought it was brilliant, immature perhaps, but brilliant.
Second - I don’t think it is unsportmanlike to do that, again I find it immature, but as long as you don’t make contact with the goalie I don’t have a problem with it.
Third - The fact that the NHL is bothering to make a rule like this is also immature. What’s next, penalties for dekes or other sudden movements that might distract the goalie?
Fourth - Where were the defensemen? Why was Avery allowed time and space to do that?
Posted by stuck at work from mid Michigan on 04/14/08 at 08:09 PM ET
Why didn’t the Devils just send someone over there and knock his ass out of the way? Isn’t that the way the game is played?
Whatever happened to ‘the code’?
Posted by GZ Expat on 04/15/08 at 07:13 AM ET
Lets make this simple. From now on every shift there will be a player face guarding the goalie just as avery did. Whos going to say this is brilliant, worth a shot, not worth a rule change?
Posted by CE from NJ on 04/15/08 at 05:05 PM ET
Screening a goalie with your back towards the net is one thing. Moving your hands, stick, and body to block a goaltenders face, no matter where he moves, is....another.
Um, players do that every game. They just don’t do it while facing the goalie.
As for why the Devils defensemen didn’t clear him out...the Rangers were on a 5-on-3. Devoting too much time to Avery doesn’t make sense in that situation.
Posted by K24 from NYC on 04/15/08 at 08:47 PM ET
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About Canucks & Beyond
Alanah McGinley has been blogging hockey since 2003, sharing opinions, rants and not-so-deep thoughts with anyone who will listen. In addition to writing Canucks & Beyond and helping manage Kukla’s Korner, Alanah is one of the founders and co-hosts of The Crazy Canucks Podcast, as featured at Canucks.com.
She has contributed pieces to FoxSports.com and the New York Times Slapshot blog, as well as other stray destinations in cyberspace.
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Isn’t Avery already GM in Anaheim?
Oh, wait....That’s Brian Burke.
Posted by w2j2 on 04/14/08 at 03:11 PM ET