Actually calling nemesis Sean Avery by name, last name, Martin Brodeur told The Post that “The Pest,” shut up so far, won’t put up tonight.
“What’s he going to do? He’s not going to fight anybody,” Brodeur said yesterday. “That’s the type of player he is, like Claude Lemieux. Everybody wanted to take his head off.
“I’m not doing anything, that’s for sure. I can’t fight to save my life.”
Devils fans who attend tonight’s game against the Stars in Newark might like to see someone take on Sean Avery, whose antics and trash-talking helped the Rangers oust the Devils in last spring’s first round.
Brodeur has pointedly referred to Avery as “him,” since last spring, but uttered that name to The Post yesterday.
“Who, Avery?” Brodeur asked. “You don’t know how many people ask me about him. And they don’t call him by name.”
Avery would not answer questions yesterday, and Devils coach Brent Sutter said, “I’m not even talking about Sean Avery today.”
Among Avery’s antics was his famed, and now banned, stick-waving in Brodeur’s face.
“I’d seen it before,” Dallas coach Dave Tippett said. “I wasn’t much of a fan of it then, and I’m not a fan of it, still.”
The emergency recall of slugger Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond, with Brian Rolston (ankle) and Bobby Holik (broken finger) out for weeks, suggests the possibility of payback by someone who wasn’t around for last spring’s shenanigans.
“That’s from last year. If the guy is looking for trouble, then I’m his man. But there’s no cause for me to be looking around for that,” Leblond said.
Avery’s departure to Dallas might take a bit of the edge off this reunion.
“We have to deal with it for only a couple of games this year. It’s definitely an improvement from last year, when we had to deal with it for 13 games,” Brodeur said. “Sometimes you expect certain things and it doesn’t happen, sometimes you expect something and it’s even worse. Who knows what’s going to happen?
“If he played for someone else, it wouldn’t have made that big an impact. I saw he sticked [Scott Gomez] in the face once. He’s the type of player, if he’s on your team, everyone loves him, I guess. Although I’m not too sure of that.”
This will be the Devils’ “Hockey Fights Cancer Awareness Night” with themed merchandise on sale. . . . The Devils’ shuttle from Newark’s Broad Street train station is back in service, using Country Club coaches. . . . Andy Greene is expected to remain in the lineup, with Sheldon Brookbank, their lone right-handed defenseman, still awaiting his season debut. . . . Holik underwent surgery to repair his pinkie broken in Saturday’s 4-3 shootout triumph in Washington. . . . In a rarity, the Stars skated yesterday on the Devils’ practice rink, which has been largely unavailable to opponents for a decade-plus, both in Newark and at South Mountain before that.