As much as us Rangers' fans are questioning Glen Sather's judgment with some of his recent signings, I could only imagine what the typical Dallas Stars' fan or team brass is thinking about the 4 million a year being doled out to consummate bad boy Sean Avery.
So far throughout the first 2 months of his 4 year contract in Dallas it has been all controversy and very little on the upside, where the opposite was true for the most part during his stint in ole New York. Avery has not found his stride or place so far in Dallas and the team as a whole has been struggling. Could that have been Avery's mindset when he pondered what he might say as the television cameras rolled? Who knows what goes on in that Ralph Lauren mind of his, but either way if reaction was what he was looking for, he surely received it in spades.
So whether or not if you found what Avery said was offensive isn't really my point. Personally I found what he said slightly amusing and not the least bit offensive. But, hey that's me. My point is that with a sport that is struggling so much to find a niche in the minds of the American public, take what you can get.
You may come back and say to me that the NHL doesn't need a bad image, to which I retort when it comes to the American public... a bad image is a whole lot better than absolutely no image at all.
Take a gander at what gets ratings in this country; reality TV, sleazy talk shows, 24 hour news channels and the UFC. We are a voyeuristic, degraded society whether you yourself cater to it or not, drama sells. Remember back in junior high school, you'd hear about two blokes wanting to fight at the bridge after school. The news travels like wild fire, people are whispering by the lockers, everyone is watching the clock slowly tick away. 2 o'clock hits and the entire student body are huddled together around the small bridge awaiting the two combatants to pummel each other into a goo. As a whole we haven’t changed, now we sit from our leather sofas remote in hand awaiting the next drama to unfold for our entertainment.
When the NHL decided to suspend Sean Avery for meaningless comments he made in an interview, a big opportunity was lost to actually generate some interest and buzz about a game. The very second Sean Avery was moved from the line up for last night's game against Dion Phanenuf and the Calgary Flames all national interest in said game was gone. The casual American public needs story lines and drama to be interested. Now I wish I could sit here and state that the public should watch for the beauty of the game, and gosh darn it they should, but this is reality.
You need to know your buyers when you try to sell something. Gary Bettman and the rest of the NHL brass seem to have no idea to what the typical American audience is actually genuinely looking for. Sometimes you need to have that Reggie Dunlop ideology and make the people crazy and clamor for something.
If the league really feels the need to punish Sean Avery for those oh-so not nice, hurtful, callous comments, then slap him with a huge fine and go after his Gucci wallet, but let the conflict resolve where it needs to, right on the ice in the game of the week. Instead, Gary Bettman wants to coddle the public and keep them safe, to me it's like he's saying, "What would the public think with such crass comments coming from a hockey player!" Well, Gary I got news for you, right now Joe Public isn't thinking much of anything concerning hockey.
---
Getting back to the Rangers; they will take on the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight. In a not so shocking development Tom Renney has changed the lines again, well of course not including the 4th line.
The Naslund-Gomez-Zherdev line is getting another go as the top line. This combination, which what most people assumed would be the top line before the season started, didn't really bear much fruit at the very beginning of the season.
Can Zherdev and Gomez co-exist in the same ice space? That will be the key to this line working; both players are prone to carrying and moving the puck. If they can work together without overlapping each other and get the puck over to Markus Naslund's red hot laser guided wrist shot, this could work.
Send me an e-mail 
Join the Discussion:
»