Sean Avery: Another look
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Highly recommended reading: Michael Farber’s excellent profile in this week’s Sports Illustrated on former Kings left winger Sean Avery of the Stars, cast from hockey’s ice rink of Eden after his boorish comments about former girlfriends.
The central thesis of the article rings true to anyone who has ever spent time around a hockey team. Avery’s chief offense? He was a ‘lousy teammate.’
It is, after all, about the guys in the room. I remember former Kings’ general manager Rogie Vachon would inevitably get to that phrase whenever they made a trade. Vachon would talk about the new player’s abilities -- his goal-scoring, play-making, work in the corners -- and conclude by saying, ‘And he’s good in the room.’
That was the highest praise, it seemed.
Words you never heard about Avery. Or read.
But one of the best quotes in the article came from Kings’ General Manager Dean Lombardi, who remembered what Brett Hull (now the Stars’ co-GM with Les Jackson) said about the Kings when they traded Avery to the Rangers:
‘Brett Hull criticized us when we traded Sean, saying our team was bad for Sean and bad for the game,’ Lombardi recalls. ‘Freedom of expression. How does [Hull] like it today? They spent $15 million to protect the right of free speech. Adams and Jefferson would be proud.’
-- Lisa Dillman
