Avery Antics

I’ve been gone for awhile. Nothing since Trade Deadline? Unacceptable! I’ve been in the middle of a move to Calgary, so I’ll consider it to be research. This town is full of hockey PR potential. I’ll look to that another time.

Sean Avery. The man in my cross hairs today. Hockey has seen some disgraceful acts since my last post – Jonathan Roy fight. Now we have Sean Avery doing what he does best by showing the worst side of hockey. His little dance in front of Martin Brodeur was some negative PR for hockey and the NHL. Search for Avery and Brodeur in YouTube and I’m sure you’ll find the incident if you haven’t already seen it.

I expect that type of attitude and unsportsmanlike behaviour in some sports, but not hockey. In hockey, you put out a good hit and if someone doesn’t like it, then there is a scrap or fight. When done properly this doesn’t hurt the image of hockey. Avery makes a career out of hurting hockey’s image. Avery wasn’t acting like a hockey player. In hockey, Avery should have been setting a normal screen – back to Brodeur, looking for a tip. That is what people expect when they watch hockey.

A lot of people would think I’m going overboard, but this is all about image. Do PR professionals in the hockey world want to have people think about a player dancing around trying to trick a goalie? No, they don’t. I tried that trick when I was a kid playing pond hockey, but it didn’t last long. “That’s not fair!” is what everyone would say, and they were right. PR professionals want the image of hockey to be that of a tactical, skillful, professional sport that can bind a nation because of spirit of the sport.

Avery has never displayed the spirit of the game, so I guess we couldn’t expect any more. At least the NHL has now made his little dance an unsportsmanlike penalty. Notice that it’s called unsportsmanlike.