The Avery Rule is a Slippery Slope

by: Joe McDonald | Publisher and Editor-in-Chief | Tuesday, April 15, 2008



Only in the NHL.

No other major sports league would dare change the rules of the game in the middle of a playoff series. Not in baseball, not in the NFL or even in the NBA. But there was Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHL director of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell, changing the rule book as 16 teams are still alive in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Hockey’s Holy See had to drop its decree after Sean Avery spent the better part of a 5-on-3 screening Martin Brodeur with his back to the play by waving his arms and stick in the goalie’s face during the second period of Game 3 of Rangers/Devils series.

The Ranger forward first used his stick to block Brodeur’s vision, but Chris Drury came over to warn Avery about the possibility of a penalty, so then the agitator used his arms.

Eventually he scored on the power play, but not because of the screen.

Even so, Avery’s antics got the Devils up in arms after their 4-3 overtime win and gave the hockey world something to talk about on Monday morning.

“I was trying to look around him and it was almost impossible because the stick was so close to my face,” Brodeur said after the game. “I’ve played for 15 years and have been watching hockey for 34 years and never seen anything like that. But if it’s within the rules, it’s not a bad play.”

“I did have a conversation with the official about it,” Devils coach Brent Sutter added. “He told me the next time it happens it will be a penalty. I was told after he scored so I am not very comfortable with it.”

Apparently Bettman was not comfortable with it either and told reporters in Calgary a decision would be coming up about a new interpretation of the rules.

Campbell then followed with the new ruling: “An unsportsmanlike conduct minor penalty will be interpreted and applied, effective immediately, to a situation when an offensive player positions himself facing the opposition goaltender and engages in actions such as waving his arms or stick in front of the goaltender’s face, for the purpose of improperly interfering with and/or distracting the goaltender as opposed to positioning himself to try to make a play,”

Say what you want about Avery’s actions, because bush league or not, the league should not have done anything about this right now, since it opens up a Pandora’s Box of on the fly rule changes it could arbitrarily put in when the commissioner please. It would be like baseball allowing the Yankees to move the fences out on the stadium when the Red Sox come into town, just to prevent David Ortiz from hitting home runs. Or having seen the NFL institute the ‘tuck rule” the week after it happened back in 2002.

It’s silly to change any rule until after the season, even though Bettman and Campbell are calling this a reinterpretation.

And there was no reason for the NHL to change the rules right now. Because Avery’s back was to the play, he risked serious injury just by being in the line of fire, which might be the reason why no one else has every tried this. One errant friendly fire and the forward could have been lost for the series or even longer. Outside of Avery, who else in the league would have run that risk?

Maybe that was why it didn’t work. The two shots the Rangers got off during “screen gate” went wide, with the Blueshirts possibly trying to shoot around their teammate.

A call to Glen Sather might have worked better or even letting things play out, since things seem to even out in the end. Instead the NHL chose to grandstand and issue a new decree, opening the door allowing for other possible rule changes on the fly as the need happens, creating a slippery slope in the process.

So next time when the Canadian press gets up in arms about a play they don’t like, Bettman can just change the rules.

Only in the NHL.