Sean Avery's Feelings Are Hurt

As you may know, the Rangers and restricted free agent Sean Avery are going to arbitration today to settle on the winger's salary for the 2007-08 season. But reading Rags' GM Glen Sather's arbitration brief, Avery may be wondering why the Blueshirts are even bothering.

In the brief, Sather refers to Avery as "a reasonably effective player as well as a detriment to the team."

Hyperbole? Sure. Though Avery certainly is prone to taking bad penalties, for a guy who had 20 points in 29 games for the Rangers and draws a ton of penalties as well, that's a bit of a slap in the face and a good example of how feelings can get hurt in what can be an ugly arbitration process.

So after the arbiter decides on terms and the two sides sign a new deal, Avery's supposed to forget the insult, put on his happy face and play his usual ultra-annoying brand of hockey?

You bet he is.

Here's a question: would any of you have a problem with your boss disparaging you semi-publicly and then paying you around $2 million for the next 10 months or so of work? I didn't think so.

A Very (Get It?) Special TRL

Sean Avery on MTV's Total Request Live. I believe "jump the shark" is the phrase you're looking for. And if Elisha Cuthbert is the picture you're looking for, it's at the bottom of that link.

Hidden Value

Versus posted the above stat when talking about today's trade which sent Sean Avery to the Rangers (as if you needed another reason to hate him). What they don't tell you (maybe because they assume you already know) is that Avery is also leading the League in minor penalties committed (and diving minors).*

Regardless, though it's unclear whether or not the stat above includes majors, it would seem as if Avery has drawn more penalties than he has committed, which would indeed speak highly to his value as an agitator.



* I believe I'm leading the blogosphere in parentheticals, by the way.

UPDATE: Since this is an Avery-related post, I guess I'm contractually obligated to link to a picture of his girlfriend and to show this video of his triple-gainer: