Avery comments & suspension

[Dabura 12,232]

It's a completely asinine statement to say she is important to the league.

No, it's not. You think they just let her blog on nhl.com for the hell of it? They let her blog because she's a draw for the league. More than that, she's a stunningly attractive draw who genuinely loves the sport and who appeals to some of the key demographic groups the league is trying to win over.

Saying Elisha Cuthbert is of absolutely no importance to the league is the very definition of provincial thinking.

[Guest GordieSid&Ted]

No. Again, work on your reading comprehension.

Mors said athletes should never be suspended for what they say. I said that's a crock, and used an NHL player calling another NHL player a "n*****" as food for thought. Mors then tried to draw a comparison to this particular incident with Avery, not really sure why. I played along and basically said, "It's funny you should say that, as Avery's comment actually was, in fact, a pretty pointed one." Note that this is not the same as saying, "Avery basically called a black guy a n*****." Nor is it the same as saying, "I personally find the term, 'sloppy seconds,' offensive and I'm going to let this fact cloud my judgment."

Maybe you should read (as in, carefully read all the way through, not glance over and look for hot-button words and phrases) the posts I've made in this thread. I've explained the ins and outs of this particular incident several times already, and I don't really care to do so again.

I did read. I just can't comprehend. Oh, that and you are transparent as glass so I know your delicate sensibilities are definitely clouding your judgement.

.............it's called a joke Dab. We disagree, so be it.

[Guest GordieSid&Ted]

No, it's not. You think they just let her blog on nhl.com for the hell of it? They let her blog because she's a draw for the league. More than that, she's a stunningly attractive draw who genuinely loves the sport and who appeals to some of the key demographic groups the league is trying to win over.

Saying Elisha Cuthbert is of absolutely no importance to the league is the very definition of provincial thinking.

She has a blog? Who knew. Yeah, she's integral to the success of the league.

Snepsts thinks that if Avery has to be the draw to get new fans in the NHL is doomed.

To that, I say if Elisha (I like to bang hockey players) Cuthbert has to be the one (or any actor/actress) to bring in fans we're also doomed.

The players and their personalities are the ones that should be the face of the NHL. Not some B grade actress. Although I have to admit she did a movie with Camilla Belle where she had sex with her dad....eeewww but regardless they're both hot.

[Mors 201]

No, it's not. You think they just let her blog on nhl.com for the hell of it? They let her blog because she's a draw for the league. More than that, she's a stunningly attractive draw who genuinely loves the sport and who appeals to some of the key demographic groups the league is trying to win over.

Saying Elisha Cuthbert is of absolutely no importance to the league is the very definition of provincial thinking.

Are you sure you're not just a fan of hers personally? Apparently her draw wasn't important enough for the NHL to keep her involved in the community, as it appears her direct involvement ENDED in December 2005.

There goes the league.

[Guest GordieSid&Ted]

Freedom of speech has nothing to do with it. He's an employee of the Dallas Stars and NHL. When he's speaking as a representative of those organizations, like he was in the lockerroom when he asked if cameras were present, they're relatively free to control his speech however they see fit. Especially since pro hockey is entertainment, so an integral part of the job is interacting with the media.

And it's really not a slippery slope. We're talking about one guy who has repeatedly made an ass of himself in the league. He called the media over to insult a player's girlfriend. The league has had enough. Avery thinks he is bigger than the game, and the league is reminding him that he isn't.

Again, everyone seems to resort to the extreme opposite example to justify their argument. Like there's no room between Avery's badly rehearsed "sloppy seconds" line and the boring canned answers that all hockey players give. The league could use a few more characters. I think they miss mouths like Roenick and JR. AO is a great example. Avery is not.

As I said before, this league needs to do a much better job of marketing itself, but if Avery is the best answer, the NHL is fricked.

I dunno Harold, seems like it could be a slippery slope to me. Now you can't say something bad about somebody's girlfriend. What next. Can't make fun of the car they drive or the dog they own or that they like to hunt or that they can't shoot a puck.

I wonder which Stars veteran player made the comments about Avery not being bright enough to do certain drills. Wow, directly attacking another player's intelligence. How is that not suspendable? Oh, because it was done anonymously?

Obviously there should be things you cannot say to the media. IMHO, this isn't one of them and opens the door to force all players to carefully watch what they say lest they be arbitrarily supsended for god knows how long for perhaps slighting another player's choice of automobile or girlfriend. That's exactly what the NHL needs. More robotic players with zero personality, only willing to toss out canned responses devoid of any intrigue or redeeming entertainment value.

The humble pie version of the NHL ain't cutting it and I don't see how this suspension is going to make it any easier for players to have a voice. Who is going to voice their frustration about the game or the commish or an opponent or try to goad or take jabs at another team/player in the media to get a rivalry going or get an opponent off their game. Who is going to risk saying anything anymore?

NHL = National Hockey Lobotomy League.

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

She has a blog? Who knew. Yeah, she's integral to the success of the league.

Snepsts thinks that if Avery has to be the draw to get new fans in the NHL is doomed.

To that, I say if Elisha (I like to bang hockey players) Cuthbert has to be the one (or any actor/actress) to bring in fans we're also doomed.

The players and their personalities are the ones that should be the face of the NHL. Not some B grade actress. Although I have to admit she did a movie with Camilla Belle where she had sex with her dad....eeewww but regardless they're both hot.

To be clear, I think this suspension had nothing to do with Elisha Cuthbert specfically or that is some attempt to defend her honor because she's somehow a part of the league's marketing plan.

[Dabura 12,232]

I say if Elisha (I like to bang hockey players) Cuthbert has to be the one (or any actor/actress) to bring in fans we're also doomed.

I'm not saying she "has to be" one of them -- just that she is, and it's a pretty good relationship. Like Harold and I have said several times before, there's a middle ground here, and it's frustrating that a lot of people don't seem to realize that. Just because I'm slamming Avery doesn't mean I think the NHL should become the National Lady Byng League. Just because I'm pointing out Cuthbert's value to the NHL's marketing department doesn't mean I'm a feminist who think she's going to lead the way to the Promised Land. She does good work for the league. The fact that you didn't know she was blogging during the playoffs doesn't make this any less true.

In short: grow up.

[Guest GordieSid&Ted]

To be clear, I think this suspension had nothing to do with Elisha Cuthbert specfically or that is some attempt to defend her honor because she's somehow a part of the league's marketing plan.

I agree. And to take it a step further, I dont' think Avery's comments had nothing to do with Elisha Cuthbert. It he didn't mention her name. He didn't even mention Phaneuf's name. We can infer from his comments and the fact that he was playing the Flames that this barb was wholly intended to rile up Dion Phaneuf and had nothing to do with Elisha Cuthbert directly.

[Guest GordieSid&Ted]

I'm not saying she "has to be" one of them -- just that she is, and it's a pretty good relationship. Like Harold and I have said several times before, there's a middle ground here, and it's frustrating that a lot of people don't seem to realize that. Just because I'm slamming Avery doesn't mean I think the NHL should become the National Lady Byng League. Just because I'm pointing out Cuthbert's value to the NHL's marketing department doesn't mean I'm a feminist who think she's going to lead the way to the Promised Land. She does good work for the league. The fact that you didn't know she was blogging during the playoffs doesn't make this any less true.

In short: grow up.

I'm gonna go ahead and delete my last. I don't need to get personal and get reprimanded by the mods because I have a difference of opinion.

Edited December 4, 2008 by GordieSid&Ted

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

I dunno Harold, seems like it could be a slippery slope to me. Now you can't say something bad about somebody's girlfriend. What next. Can't make fun of the car they drive or the dog they own or that they like to hunt or that they can't shoot a puck.

You can say all that stuff. On the ice.

You guys are ignoring the context of what was said and who said it. It's about more than the words "sloppy seconds."

I wonder which Stars veteran player made the comments about Avery not being bright enough to do certain drills. Wow, directly attacking another player's intelligence. How is that not suspendable? Oh, because it was done anonymously?

I can't say for sure, but it's probably because he was actually talking about another pro hockey player and teammate when being interviewed about the incident. Still pretty weak to do it anonymously though. The Dallas Stars team chemistry must be such a mess right now.

Obviously there should be things you cannot say to the media. IMHO, this isn't one of them and opens the door to force all players to carefully watch what they say lest they be arbitrarily supsended for god knows how long for perhaps slighting another player's choice of automobile or girlfriend. That's exactly what the NHL needs. More robotic players with zero personality, only willing to toss out canned responses devoid of any intrigue or redeeming entertainment value.

Honestly I think the league overreacted. There should've been a fine and they should've let the Stars deal with this. But I think it has as much or more to do with the yapping mouth it came out of as it does the specifics of what was said.

And again, there's more than two possibilities here. It doesn't just have to be idiots like Avery or boring ass stock answers.

You guys are making this the rallying cry of all that is wrong with the *earmuffs* pussification of the NHL. This is the league shutting down one a-hole who's had it coming for a looong time.

The humble pie version of the NHL ain't cutting it and I don't see how this suspension is going to make it any easier for players to have a voice. Who is going to voice their frustration about the game or the commish or an opponent or try to goad or take jabs at another team/player in the media to get a rivalry going or get an opponent off their game. Who is going to risk saying anything anymore?

NHL = National Hockey Lobotomy League.

First of all, I doubt the league would've suspended a player for criticizing Bettman specifically because it would seem like clamping down on dissent and ruling with an iron fist.

Second, Chelios is still in the league.

EDITED for typos do to lack of coffee. And how have you guys been getting that little edit box thingy? am I missing something??

Edited December 4, 2008 by haroldsnepsts

[esteef 2,679]

I guess there's nothing left for us to do but vote him into the All Star Game!

Get your scripts ready!

esteef!

[Guest Shoreline]

Wow, he has turned his team fully against him quickly this time:

http://tsn.ca/columnists/james_duthie/?id=258309

Maybe they will send him to the minors and hope a team might claim him on re-entry? Hull could lose his job over this.

If this is what gets the Stars off their ass, I'd say Avery did quite a fantastic job of pissing off the organization enough into doing something right. He could be the most expensive fan to sit at home and watch the team win without him.

[MaynardJKeenan 1]

I'm gonna go ahead and delete my last. I don't need to get personal and get reprimanded by the mods because I have a difference of opinion.

Good call. Just to let you know, I'm agreeing w/ 99% of what your saying.

[ManLuv4Clears 7]

I can't believe I'm coming on here and reading that Elisha Cuthbert is some how an intregal piece to the NHL's marketing agenda. I had never heard of her before "Old School" and frankly haven't heard about her or paid attention to her sense. You can throw any avid NHL fan I know into that pool as well. If any of you are fans of her's, that's great and it's your progative. However if the NHL has to utilize her for survival of the sport, it's in more trouble than we all could have imagined..... where has this thread gone?????

[GMRwings1983 8,804]

I honestly don't know why so many people here are being so boneheadedly provincial about this incident. It's not difficult to see this as being more than "Elisha Cuthbert's feelings are hurt; Avery is suspended indefinitely." And I've explained why a number of times already. I've also explained why Cuthbert is important to this league. If Sean Avery is going to be praised for putting people in the seats, she should be praised for doing the same -- and doing it without insulting tons of people in the process.

The league is trying to court a substantial number of new fans and get them to stay with the sport (i.e. be more than bandwagon fans who only show up for one game because they read a blurb in a tabloid). Things like this may spike interest for a week, but in the long run they will do more harm than good.

As for your argument about my "n*****" example being different than this particular incident because it "involves one player referring directly to another player":

1. Avery was pretty clearly targeting Phanuef.

2. What if the person in my example says, "I hate n*****s"? Does the league pat him on the back because "At least he's not referring directly to another player"?

This just in:

Elisha Cuthbert has officially declared that she will never again watch the sport that she grew up watching and one in which her current boyfriend plays, because these insensitive comments by Avery prove that hockey is for untalented thugs who do nothing but make such demeaning comments.

Furthermore, due to Cuthbert's denouncement of the NHL, the league appears to be headed for another lockout. Likewise, Cuthbert's friends in Hollywood have decided that they are not going to support the NHL, as they were planning on doing before this incident occurred.

Get real with this s**t, Dabura.

[esteef 2,679]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/stor...&id=3741997

"Former Tampa Bay Lightning coach John Tortorella, now an analyst on TSN of Canada, called Avery's comments "ridiculous" and said the NHL should "send him home," but Tortorella was renowned for a wide variety of verbal outbursts during his NHL career. Just last season, he told a New York columnist to "get the f--- out of here" in a postgame scrum in an incident televised everywhere. Funny, I can't remember the suspension. Or the apology.

So, you can insult an opponent's girlfriend in the lowest possible terms on the ice within earshot of the most expensive seats where little Johnny is sitting with his dad, but if little Johnny hears something nasty while watching "SportsCenter," that's a different universe entirely.

Still, up here in the Great White North, "Hockey Night in Canada" star Don Cherry has a long history of making unflattering comments toward French Canadians and Europeans of various ancestry, but no one from NHL headquarters has ever laid a hand on him."

Thoughts?

esteef

[Guest Shoreline]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/stor...&id=3741997

"Former Tampa Bay Lightning coach John Tortorella, now an analyst on TSN of Canada, called Avery's comments "ridiculous" and said the NHL should "send him home," but Tortorella was renowned for a wide variety of verbal outbursts during his NHL career. Just last season, he told a New York columnist to "get the f--- out of here" in a postgame scrum in an incident televised everywhere. Funny, I can't remember the suspension. Or the apology.

So, you can insult an opponent's girlfriend in the lowest possible terms on the ice within earshot of the most expensive seats where little Johnny is sitting with his dad, but if little Johnny hears something nasty while watching "SportsCenter," that's a different universe entirely.

Still, up here in the Great White North, "Hockey Night in Canada" star Don Cherry has a long history of making unflattering comments toward French Canadians and Europeans of various ancestry, but no one from NHL headquarters has ever laid a hand on him."

Thoughts?

Comments made on the ice as John made are common in both players and coaches. Those comments he made to the ref like "GTFOOH" is normal and obviously allowed, with the chances of incurring a penalty for one team if excessive. Bad example.

Don Cherry is not a player. Nor is he a coach. His boss is the CBC, not a team that's a member of the NHL, nor the PA that represents the players.

A player under contract, in a locker room, spouting off to the media about someone's personal life, isn't acceptable. The only reasonable argument you've made is regarding hits and suspensions for those. This one isn't reasonable in the slightest bit, and both your argument and in some bits the article's sounds like one of Grapes' rants.

Edited December 4, 2008 by Shoreline

[egroen 384]

Yes, but did Tortorella have a history of suspensions already from the league?

Oh wait... neither does Avery.

[OsGOD 3]

I honestly don't know why so many people here are being so boneheadedly provincial about this incident. It's not difficult to see this as being more than "Elisha Cuthbert's feelings are hurt; Avery is suspended indefinitely." And I've explained why a number of times already. I've also explained why Cuthbert is important to this league. If Sean Avery is going to be praised for putting people in the seats, she should be praised for doing the same -- and doing it without insulting tons of people in the process.

The league is trying to court a substantial number of new fans and get them to stay with the sport (i.e. be more than bandwagon fans who only show up for one game because they read a blurb in a tabloid). Things like this may spike interest for a week, but in the long run they will do more harm than good.

The only reason i even found out She was Aves sloppy 20th's was because of MTV Cribs... i really could care less if she was invovled with a hockey player or not to make me like/watch the game... Seriously the fans she brings to the sport of hockey are more into looking for **** and ass cheap thrills.... I mean seriously she is an actress with no roll in the hockey world what so ever... Unless they show clips of her in the bikini scene from Girl Next Door on the jumbo tron.

I have heard worst language from 12year olds in the stands at games than a player calling out someone (being nice actually to the lady) and saying sloppy seconds.

This whole ordeal is ludacris

Edited December 4, 2008 by OsGOD

[ManLuv4Clears 7]

Comments made on the ice as John made are common in both players and coaches. Those comments he made to the ref like "GTFOOH" is normal and obviously allowed, with the chances of incurring a penalty for one team if excessive. Bad example.

Don Cherry is not a player. Nor is he a coach. His boss is the CBC, not a team that's a member of the NHL, nor the PA that represents the players.

A player under contract, in a locker room, spouting off to the media about someone's personal life, isn't acceptable. The only reasonable argument you've made is regarding hits and suspensions for those. This one isn't reasonable in the slightest bit, and both your argument and in some bits the article's sounds like one of Grapes' rants.

Esteef is referring to comments he made in a post game press conference when there were live cameras on him. Good example in my mind, almost hypocritical in a sense because he was able to shout obscenities towards someone and now he comes back and acts like Sean has committed a sin.

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

The only reason i even found out She was Aves sloppy 20th's was because of MTV Cribs... i really could care less if she was invovled with a hockey player or not to make me like/watch the game... Seriously the fans she brings to the sport of hockey are moreso looking for **** and ass.... I mean serious she is an actress with no roll in the hockey world what so ever... Unless they show clips of her in the bikini scene from Girl Next Door on the jumbo tron.

I have heard worst language from 12year olds in the stands at games than a player calling out someone (being nice actually to the lady) and saying sloppy seconds.

This whole ordeal is ludacris

Ludacris =

ludicrous = amusing or laughable through obvious absurdity, incongruity, exaggeration, or eccentricity

Edited December 4, 2008 by haroldsnepsts

[OsGOD 3]

Ludacris =

ludicrous = amusing or laughable through obvious absurdity, incongruity, exaggeration, or eccentricity

i was typin' fast my bad.

Not sure if Ludacris would be happy with me linking him to a white cracker with a filthy potty mouth Sorry Luds we still kool? Ight?

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

i was typin' fast my bad.

Not sure if Ludacris would be happy with me linking him to a white cracker with a filthy potty mouth Sorry Luds we still kool? Ight?

No worries. It's an asshat move on my part, but is a pet peeve of mine I guess. Lately I see ludacris used more than ludicrous.

Just you crazy kids and your MTV destroying the English language! *shaking my cane at you*

Edited December 4, 2008 by haroldsnepsts

[ManLuv4Clears 7]

The only reason i even found out She was Aves sloppy 20th's was because of MTV Cribs... i really could care less if she was invovled with a hockey player or not to make me like/watch the game... Seriously the fans she brings to the sport of hockey are more into looking for **** and ass cheap thrills.... I mean seriously she is an actress with no roll in the hockey world what so ever... Unless they show clips of her in the bikini scene from Girl Next Door on the jumbo tron.

I have heard worst language from 12year olds in the stands at games than a player calling out someone (being nice actually to the lady) and saying sloppy seconds.

This whole ordeal is ludacris

Yes, and those dozen or so 12-Year-Olds will sorely be missed as fans if Elisha is some how not associated with the NHL in the future. /sarcasm

[OsGOD 3]

No worries. It's an asshat move on my part, but is a pet peeve of mine I guess. Lately I see ludacris used more than ludicrous.

Just you crazy kids and your MTV destroying the English language! *shaking my cane at you*

lmao... yeah i am ashamed i even saw aves on Cribs.. i mean s*** thats was popular when i was in Highschool about 14 years ago

i was trying to think of somethign sarcastic to say in reply... but you had me laughing to hard with the pic lol