one commenter said that to his knowledge, “sloppy seconds” refers to gang banging.

This seems to be the disconnect… I’ve heard the tearm bandied about before, no it’s not one I’d use, but to be fair to Avery, I’ve never associated it with gang banging, and if that association is why Bettman is coming down so hard, well… that’s unfortunate. Because Avery is of the same generation as my husband’s friends (the ones who use the term) and none of them are aware of that connotation either.

So the reprimand by the league and a 1 game suspension, plus fine, seems more than enough discipline to me. It’s just not as big a deal as the League seems to be making it.

Great quote from your coach, and a great one from ours.

Is what I said on Puck Daddy. Read here or:

So I have been thinking about the Avery Issue. While I think his comments were hilariously inappropriate, what has been most interesting is the blogger reaction. I have noticed a good lot of responses from the writing folk and talking head folk look at the sex issue. Words like sexism and feminism are being batted around. And I won’t lie, for me for, for the most part, a dude writing about chick issues is just weird.

    One blogger said Avery was suspended for misogyny, which shows just how this issue has grown. I am not entirely sure it was misogyny per se. But I would advise those wishing to speak for female fans to consider their words. As we are all not to be lumped together under the feminist umbrella.

    We all could be feminists sure. But have you ever been around a bunch of feminists? They can’t agree on [expletive]. I dropped a women’s study class after two days because it’s too much. It’s just a charged topic. Not even my female blogger core has the same viewpoint on S-Avery.

    So is the issue at hand the man whore vs. the slut? I mean, Cuthbert and Avery have been around the block. Last I knew, a sloppy second could apply to a male or female. But now it’s being called sexist because Avery said it.

    I am just getting flashes of when female hockey fans are put into their own bubble and people just get too angry for anything to be accomplished or settled. I just think dudes need to slow their roll before deciding to comment on behalf of women. For the most part they have done a great job (you and Mirtle especially) and it’s clear there is more to the issue.

    I think about stuff despite writing about fake boyfriends.

    Clearly the internets are serious business.

You should be quoting your new GM’s reaction.

My favorite part is where Burke is telling a metaphor of bringing a poisonous snake into your house, and then the moral is that you can’t take spots off of a leopard. Stop switching animals mid-story, you kook!

The first is that he used a term that is offensive and demeaning to women. The second, and maybe the more important one, is that he spoke about somebody’s real-life relations. It’s as if Avery doesn’t know the difference between cartoon violence and violence. Hockey is hockey, and sometimes people do terrible things to each other in the ice, but never should they “go after” a relative or personal acquaintance. That’s really below the belt. As PPP said, “if someone called my sister that I’d probably break their jaw”. I think that’s a fair reaction, but being a public figure, what can Phanef do?

Wilson gets it: I don’t know if you can or should even go there, when you start including girlfriends and wives.

Hey, PPP, remember Schneider’s remarks about Sundin? Do you think that he set the precedent that Avery was following when he got away with his little “mistake”? If that had been an intentional quip he should be suspended as well.

I quit this thread.

but my workday has come to an end, and I must leave.

as the proud papa of a little girl, i understand where ron is coming from.

however, i’m not at all avery said something like this, and i’m not at all shocked he waited to say it to the media. i’m not at all shocked the league is reacting this way, as they are protecting their product.

what i am shocked at, is the amount of attention we as fans are giving it. As Earl Sleek alludes to way back at the beginning of this thread, i’m sure it’s not the first time we’ve heard it.

know what’s disgusting? Pacman Jones being allowed to play foot ball ever again after crippling a man. Kobe Bryant being allowed to play basketball after raping someone. Todd Bertuzzi being allowed to play hockey again after almost murdering another man.

Those things get me in a kerfuffle. Avery, meh…

It was inappropriate especially if it’s in the context of what urbandictionary defines sloppy seconds to be instead of a crude way of saying “my ex” but this is ridiculous. The way it’s being covered it feels like Avery went out on a date-rape rampage or something.

And I may get flack for this but I think the NHL needed something controversial like this, to get some more attention. I don’t give a crap what the “old school” guests on OTR think – a TON of people were going to watch the Flames-Stars game (because let’s be honest, most of the people on the east coast could care less about that game otherwise). The NHL is way to vanilla compared to other sports, and unnecessarily so – it’s almost like the NHL has a mandate where you are supposed to heap praise on an opponent for 10 seconds before saying anything negative about them.

I enjoyed the stick-waving incident because it was innovative and I agree with Avery that Iginla is a boring player (as are around 70% of the other players in the league – atleast from what I can tell), although I will admit that he is a great great player and the leafs would be lucky to have anyone close to his skill and talent on the squad.

Two points (and sorry for the length of this comment):

1. None of us have any idea what warnings or conditions had been issued to Avery prior to this incident. For all we know, the NHL was operating on a three strikes policy and Avery decided to take his final swing and a miss in Calgary (then again, the NHL’s reaction could be completely arbitrary and random).

2. Had Avery said this on the ice, on the bench or behind closed doors it wouldn’t matter. But he didn’t. He willfully and explicitly saved it for a media scrum drawing unfavorable attention to his teammates, peers, his franchise and the league. That’s the context that matters – not on ice violence, not on-ice trash talk, not previous disciplinary actions, and not the private things said between men.

And within that context there is a long history of senior executives resigning or being fired for saying inappropriate things to the media: see Eason Jordan, Samanth Power, Geraldine Ferraro, Rush Limbaugh at ESPN, Lesley Hughes, Dr. James Watson, etc. at the very least, Avery is in good company.

Personally, I have no problem with Avery being suspended pending his hearing and facing the maximum fine allowable under the CBA, but I don’t think he should be suspended further nor should his livelihood be jeopardized.

For those of you who dont’ see the harm in any of this, I suggest you email the PR/Communications director at your place of work tomorrow and ask them what would happen if you positioned yourself as a corporate spokesperson, summoned the media and made derogatory/ misogynistic remarks on the record that created wide ranging negative headlines for your company. I’d love to know what your compay’s take on such a scenario would be. My guess is, most companies wouldn’t react with a “who cares.”

This Sean Avery incident illustrates how mediocre of a job the NHL does in promoting a) what makes the game great – fans, speed, symbol as winter’s ultimate sport, and b) the players themselves. And that has to be what’s most disconcerting about this brouhaha. When does the NHL get the most play from in the US media, which is essentially the most important, if not certainly the most visible, medium in the world? Right now it’s whenever a player goes off on another like Bertuzzi or Simon, or an out of the ordinary hockey incident – and it’s usually ridiculous or negative (long shot goal, all out brawl, Avery).

To me, this whole incident is pretty damning to the NHL on how they promote the game. Everything the league is doing right now is adding to the ridiculousness. If the NHL fined him and even suspended him for a day or two without much fanfare, it would be incident over. Instead, we get this drawn out affair where the NHL is looking like an old geezer complaining about how kids these days listen to their rap music and show too much of their ankles when they go out. If any non-NHL fan looks at this, I wonder how many people actually now sympathize with Sean Avery. Wouldn’t that just defeat the whole purpose of this inquisition?

If Avery’s comments are just the very thing the NHL doesn’t want to see continued in terms of how they gain attention to the rest of the world, then good on them. But NHL, do a better job in your own marketing so incidents like these don’t have to be dealt with and covered in such a draconian and over the top manner.