TORONTO – I’ve been told some of the language Sean Avery has spat at opponents at different times throughout his career, and believe me, it’s vulgar, unsavory and out of order.
Know that they’re right out of the movie, “Slapshot,” and then use your imagination (or DVR).
But the language Avery slung at Darcy Tucker that provoked a skirmish on the ice prior to Saturday’s match in Toronto, was most certainly not worthy of supplementary discipline, even in the increasingly antiseptic NHL.
It is beyond belief that VP Colin Campbell would have summoned Avery to his office for a disciplinary hearing here yesterday, even if the winger was merely fined for “unprofessional conduct” and not suspended at the end of the day.
The Rangers were fined $25,000, the Maple Leafs $10,000. Avery will have to pay $2,500, Tucker $1,000.
Let’s allow Avery to make this clear. The tempestuous agitator did not refer to Jason Blake’s recent diagnosis of cancer, as a Toronto radio personality publicly charged on Monday.
“That is completely false,” Avery told The Post in an exclusive interview at a downtown hotel here following the hearing with Campbell. “I’ve had two grandfathers die of cancer. It’s disgusting that anyone would attempt to slur me in that way. It hurts. At this point, though, I’ve been advised by my attorneys not to say anything more about it.”
Avery arrived at the NHLPA office at 10:45 a.m. with agent Pat Morris, Ranger PR executive John Rosasco and an additional attorney. They emerged a half-hour later, then made the short trip to the NHL office adjacent to the Leafs’ home rink.
How appropriate.
But we digress.
The hearing, which included GM Glen Sather, lasted approximately an hour. When it ended, Avery was contrite in speaking to The Post while following Campbell’s orders not to divulge the content of the meeting.
“I think there’s no need for me to engage the opposition in warm-ups,” said Avery, who nearly started a pregame brawl against the Devils at the Garden on Nov. 3. “There’s no question about it.”
There is question, however, why Avery was summoned while the league ignored Toronto’s Wade Belak’s observation on Sunday that, “If [Avery] keeps this up, someone is going to kill him.”
Campbell is the disciplinarian who did not discipline Vancouver’s Brad May when the Canuck winger vowed retribution against Steve Moore after he took out Markus Naslund in 2004.
“There’s definitely a bounty on his head,” May said following the Feb. 16 match. “It’s going to be fun when we get him.”
It was so much fun, wasn’t it, on March 8, 2004, when Todd Bertuzzi did in fact get Moore?
Campbell is the disciplinarian who did not discipline Ottawa’s Brian McGrattan this September when he vowed retribution against Steve Downie after the Flyers’ rookie concussed Dean McAmmond in a preseason game.
“He’ll get what’s coming to him the next time we play,” McGratton pledged. “That’s for sure.”
Sticks and stones break bones but somehow Campbell deemed Avery’s words more harmful to the league’s image than threats of breaking bones or using sticks.
This doesn’t absolve Avery of his responsibility to remain within the bounds of decency. But Sather could have told him that, himself.
“I’m employed by the New York Rangers and National Hockey League and I have to adhere to what they want me to do,” he said. “I get that.”
We all get that. It’s impossible, however, to get just why the Maple Leaf-centric NHL Toronto office found the need to haul him up here for a hearing.