Apparently the decision was unanimous. No one on the Dallas Stars organization wanted the loud-mouth back, including teammates Mike Modano and Marty Turco.

“Their voice was heard loud and clear,” Dallas Stars' co-general manager Brett Hull said.

Only 23 games into a four-year, $15.5 million deal, Avery is on his fourth team in seven seasons. First, he was with Detroit, then he was traded to Los Angeles and then moved to the New York Rangers, who chose not to re-sign him when his contract expired. It was Brett Hull who fought hard to get Stars' owner Tom Hicks to sign Avery as a free agent.

“I thought Sean could bring a little bit of a change in our locker room and on the ice which I thought was missing,” Hull said. “Obviously, it went overboard and didn’t work out.”

If Avery is traded (and that's a big if), Avery could remain in the NHL. But it's looking like he'll be sent down to the minors and left to watch his career fizzle and fade.

MOVING RIGHT ALONG…because we're more than happy to put this crap behind us…

There's some real talent in the NHL, with some great teams in action tonight. Get all your NHL hockey odds at the Bodog Sportsbook.

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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