NHL reacts to Avery’s antics

[rinkrat]

Leave it to New York Rangers’ agitator Sean Avery to get the NHL to adjust one of its rules.

During a 5-on-3 power play in Sunday’s playoff game against the New Jersey Devils, Avery stood with his back to the play and waived his arms in front of New Jersey goaltender Martin Brodeur in an attempt to distract him.

The NHL announced Monday that in the future it would interpret such an action as goaltender interference and award an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to the offending player. NHL vice president of operations Colin Campbell issued a statement on the matter:

“An unsportsmanlike 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.”

NHL reacts to Avery's antics - NHL - Yahoo! Sports

[CarriedBySix]

And so, the Avery Rule was born.

[shadowalk]

Avery 1 league 0, this is really funny. Sean seems to have agitated the whole league. LMAO!

[nayagamj]

...as if i needed another reason to hate avery.

[KingsQueen949]

I LOVE Avery!!! Especially 20 seconds later when he scored on Marty! You KNOW if they didn't make a ruling on this PRONTO, he would have done it again next game. I did a spit-take while watching the game.....BRILLIANT! Even Manny Legace thought it was pretty funny. Probably wouldn't be if he did it to him...but can you imagine if it was Hasek???

[Pucker25]

All Avery has to do is turn around and face the play and he can keep it up. They'd be hard pressed to changes the rules to prevent him from doing the same thing facing away from Brodeur. While it was a douche move, it was within the rules (at the time) and apparently very effective. I can't wait to see what Avery does in the next game.

[FishMonger]

The NHL finally reacts quickly to something, and it's THIS! Goram hogs. What is up with their priorities these days?

Pronger stomp: Let's give it a few days to see how people react to us not doing anything.
Avery acting like a monkey: WE MUST ACT NOW!

Seriously, Avery is an agitator, he's probably a d-bag in real life, but the NHL is just winking and licking glass on this one.

[JMFJ3]

I think its stupid they made a rule just for this...who cares if he's trying to keep Brodeur from seeing the puck? Screening the goalie is part of the game, Avery just came up with a more creative way to do it. The league changes **** all the time just for Brodeur...Brodeur whined about Ovechkin wearing the mirrored visor, saying its not fair cause he couldnt see Ovie's eyes to see where he was shooting...and what happens next, the league says mirrored visors are illegal...

[FlyinKIng]

Thats sooo funny, anybody have video of it?

[16scores]

Originally Posted by FlyinKIng

Thats sooo funny, anybody have video of it?

Here you go:

YouTube - Sean Avery screening Martin Brodeur