Bodog Beat

Sean Avery is a bit of an idiot, which is probably why New York Rangers fans love him. Sunday in a game against the New Jersey Devils, Avery came up with a new way to screen the goalie: stand in front of the net and wave your hands around like you just don't care.

"I've never seen that before. I couldn't see anything," Martin Brodeur, the goalie Avery "screened," told the Bergen Record. "If his goal was to screen me, he did his job. . . . It's still somewhat interference. You shouldn't have to play hockey with a stick an inch in front of your face."

Of course, Avery never liked Brodeur anyway. This is what he told the New York Post recently: "There are some guys I like as people and don't bother with, and there are a lot I don't. Marty? I don't think it's a secret that I'm not a very big fan of his. It's just one of those relationships that's not very pleasant. It's kind of like a bad first date. It started from the first game, and has gone from there."

As you can see in the video above, a few Canadians are up in arms about the Avery incident. Well, not so much arms…their army is quite small…but you get the point.

At any rate, the NHL was quick to react to the Avery controvery and today clarified that an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty will be called "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."

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