#1 Sean Avery
You know you’re doing your job as an agitator extremely well when the NHL creates a rule just because of you.
The “Avery Rule” was created by the league in 2008 in response to the Ranger winger’s taking goaltender screening to another level. It happened in third game of New York’s playoff series against New Jersey and goalie Martin Brodeur.
With the Rangers enjoying a five-on-three power play, Avery parked himself at the top of the crease, turned his back to the play to be face-to-face with Brodeur, and waved his hands (and his stick) in front of the goalie’s face.
“Standing the normal way to screen a goalie is ineffective because all he needs to do is look around me,” Avery said in his book, Ice Capades A Memoir of Fast Living and Tough Hockey. “I don’t have eyes in the back of my head to see which way he’s looking. I also can’t protect myself from his whacks to the back of my legs.”
Avery wasn’t penalized on the play and even scored with 30 seconds remaining on the two-man advantage to snap a 1-1 tie. The Devils won that game in overtime, but it was their only victory of the series, sandwiched by two Rangers’ wins.
The day after Game Three, the NHL announced “an unsportsmanlike conduct minor penalty” would be assessed to an “offensive player who positions himself facing the opposition goaltender and engages in actions such as waving his arms or stick in front of the goaltender’s face.”
“I was actually flattered,” Avery recalled.
Brodeur was so enraged he refused to shake Avery’s hand after the series. When asked by MSG Network’s John Giannone why No. 30 didn’t shake his hand, Avery said he didn’t know while calling the netminder “Fatso” and a “whiner.”
Avery turned chirping into an art form.
He’d spew verbal darts at opponents before the game, during it, and after it. Avery was so good at what he did, in 2008 he was voted the most hated player in hockey in a players’ poll conducted by The Hockey News.
Avery’s been accused of making comments about Jason Blake’s battle with cancer and was dismissed by the Dallas Stars after making derogatory remarks to reporters in Calgary about his ex-girl friend, Elisha Cuthbert, who was dating Flames’ defenseman Dion Phaneuf.
Avery denied commenting to Blake about his cancer fight, and has apologized repeatedly for the comment about Cuthbert. In his book, Avery includes a picture of himself with Cuthbert with a caption that reads: “I’m generally proud of my taunts and insults, but there is one I would definitely take back if I could.”
Rest assured, Avery has no regrets over his battles against Brodeur. In his book, he calls Brodeur a “homewrecking dirtbag” and recalls standing at the top of the crease “telling (Brodeur) what a disgrace he is for falling in love with his sister-in-law,” referring to Brodeur leaving his wife for her brother’s spouse.
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Unfortunately for Avery, his antics usually wore thin among his teammates and coaches.
John Tortorella worked as an analyst for TSN before becoming Rangers head coach and torched the winger during one segment, saying, “Enough is enough. (Avery has) embarrassed himself, he’s embarrassed the organization, he’s embarrassed the league and he’s embarrassed his teammates, who have to look out for him. Send him home. He doesn’t belong in the NHL.”
Tortorella’s tune changed when he had to coach Avery. They co-existed for a bit, however, when “Torts” was fired by the Rangers, Avery told the New York Post’s Larry Brooks, “I had a huge smile on my face, no question about it.”
And, following his suspension by the NHL for his comments about Cuthbert, Avery was dismissed by the Stars when head coach Dave Tippett and team captain Mike Modano told management they would not welcome him back.
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