Dallas Stars Send Sean Avery Packing!
December 14, 2008 by Jeanne Dupuis
Filed under Dallas Stars, Fan Fare, NHL, News, Players
The Dallas Stars have made a really wise decision – they’ve chosen to free themselves of Sean Avery. While reps for both the Stars and Avery say that the team continues to be supportive during “this critical time” for the player, they’ve elected to not put him back in the lineup after his six-game suspension is over.
I wasn’t surprised to hear co-GM, Brett Hull, weighing in on this. He’s been vocal about Avery in the past. Today, Hull said: “Sean needs to focus on his own well-being while the Stars hockey team must focus on playing hockey and competing for a playoff spot. Everyone understands that Sean will not return to the Dallas Stars. We all need to move forward.” He added that the goal is to allow Sean to “focus on resolving his personal issues” while the Dallas Stars can have “closure on this episode. The team needs to put its energies into winning.” Therefore, the team will honor Avery’s contract while he seeks treatment.
There’s a long list of grievances when it comes to Avery’s past behavior. Just to name a few things, he’s made racial comments against minorities and French Canadiens in the league, he’s gotten into fights with commentators and coaches, his weird hand-waving tactics in front of Martin Brodeur (New Jersey Devils) during the playoffs led to a rule change and he has criticized players like Jarome Iginla (captain, Calgary Flames) of not being “exciting enough.”
Of course, the incident that finally caught up with him was when he referred to his old girlfriend, Elisha Cuthbert (who is currently dating Flames d-man, Dion Phaneuf) as “sloppy seconds.”
I think this is good for the Stars who have been really struggling this season (they are currently 27th in the league). Hopefully, this will be a turning point for them because it’s just sad to see them doing so badly…
