Avery Is Willing to Take Hits

The marks from Sean Avery’s remarks are apparent.

He has stitches above his left eye from what may have been a not-so-accidental high stick by Edmonton’s Jason Smith and a broken nose from what he called a “sucker punch” by Detroit’s Kirk Maltby.

Talk, apparently, is not always so cheap.

But even though the entire Edmonton team confronted the Kings’ forward after a game last week and those in the NHL offices are monitoring his every syllable, there is no stopping the rhetoric that gushes from Avery’s mouth.

French-Canadian players take cheap shots, Avery said after Phoenix’s Denis Gauthier leveled the Kings’ Jeremy Roenick last month. Former NHL Players’ Assn. director Bob Goodenow “brainwashed” players, Avery said last summer. And whether Avery said Edmonton’s Georges Laraque was a “monkey” last week is still up for debate; Avery denies the comment and Laraque, who is black, insists he heard the racial slur.

The Kings, from management to coach to players, all say Avery is working on taming this extra-extroverted personality.

Avery laughed at that idea, and said he has been working on it, but “I don’t think I’ve been doing a good job of that lately.”

“I don’t know, I like to say what I feel,” Avery said. “I’m an emotional guy and I don’t like to keep things in. I’m sure I’m going to regret saying something down the road at some point again. But work on it? Yeah, maybe I should work on it a little bit.”

The damage may have already been done and, unlike his broken nose, could be beyond mending.

Avery is an agitator, he admits freely, trying to annoy, frustrate and distract. That tack does not win friends, but it does influence some enemies.

Colorado’s Ian Laperriere called him out before an exhibition. The Ducks’ Jean-Sebastien Giguere called him a “moron.” And the Edmonton Oilers en masse came calling in the basement of Staples Center after their game last Tuesday -- angry about Laraque’s assertion that Avery called him a “monkey.”

Avery has denied making the remark, saying Laraque “fabricated it.” Laraque is just as adamant, saying, “I’m not deaf.” And Laraque’s teammates were ready for action, not words, when they approached Avery mob-like after that game.

“It was their entire team and four of us,” the Kings’ George Parros said. “There was a lot of barking going on. I wanted to make sure Sean was OK.”

But not even Avery seems to be able to fathom why he is the way he is.

“It is probably something that had to do with, well, maybe at birth,” Avery said. “I don’t know if my mom dropped me. There had to have been some wires crossed at some point.

“I have always been a smaller guy. Maybe that had something to do with it. I was just trying to fight through the size issue.”

In other words, there is about as much chance of Avery changing as there is his enemies forgiving and forgetting.

“I’m done talking about that guy,” said Laperriere, who tried to pick a fight with Avery during two exhibitions. “That’s what he wants, for people to talk about him.”

Avery shrugs away the criticism.

“I think if it was a Steve Yzerman, or a Wayne Gretzky or somebody with that respect saying things, I think it would probably be upsetting,” Avery said. “But lately, the clientele speaking out against me, I just brush it off and move on.”

The Kings, though, nervously hang on every Avery word.

Coach Andy Murray loves the player: “He’s got this reputation as a an agitator. I think he just plays hard.”

Murray seems a little uncomfortable about the talker: “I think he, uhm, that’s Sean. “He jaws with his teammates too, for fun. Uhm, would we like him to curtail it? Yes. Uhm, there have been a number of conversations. It’s, uhm, we have addressed it, yeah.”

What is lost in all the chatter is that Avery is playing better than he ever has in two-plus seasons in the NHL. He has provided solid overall play, which comes with dialogue.

“It’s horrible to play against him,” said Roenick, who has had the displeasure. “It’s like that gnat, that fly, that won’t go away. The most annoying thing in the world is having some guy in your face yapping at you, slashing you, running you. It gets you off your game.”

That’s the point, Avery said.

In the game last Tuesday, Avery goaded Edmonton’s Smith into taking simultaneous penalties. It cost Avery a gash over the left eye, but the Kings got a four-minute power play and scored a goal.

His comments, though, sometimes extend beyond the ice.

Avery angered much of the NHLPA when he roasted Goodenow and the union’s leadership in an interview with a newspaper columnist. It was Avery, not the columnist, who sought the interview.

He became even more of a marked man after his comments about Gauthier’s hit -- “I think it was typical of most French guys in our league with a visor on, running around and playing tough and not back anything up.” After those words, Avery might as well have replaced the Kings’ crown on his jersey with a bull’s eye.

The NHL, which has tried to market the cultural diversity of the league, called the Kings and ordered an apology.

“I’m not going to sugar coat it, that was a stupid thing to say,” said the Kings’ Luc Robitaille, a French-Canadian player who wears a visor. “But that’s our Sean, he says stupid things sometimes.”

And there is no way, apparently, to prevent it.

“Uh, I think we just know how he is,” Robitaille said. “He’s a disturber. He’s a big disturber.”

What became more disturbing was Avery’s alleged comment to Laraque last week. The NHL did not act, citing lack of evidence. But when asked if Avery was on the league’s radar, an NHL official said, “It’s a lot closer than that.”

Still, there is vigilante justice in the NHL, and Avery bears the marks.

At the end of the Detroit game last Thursday, Maltby rushed in and hit Avery, breaking his nose.

“I don’t need to send any tapes in or complain about it,” Avery said. “Malts got me with a good one at the end of the game. We play them a couple more times.”

*

TONIGHT

at Colorado, 6 PDT, FSN West

Site -- Pepsi Center.

Radio -- 1260.

Records -- Kings 4-2-0-0, Avalanche 2-2-0-1.

Record vs. Avalanche (2003-04) -- 1-1-0-2.

Update -- Luc Robitaille, out with a groin injury, skated with the team Tuesday and is expected to be a game-time decision. The Kings’ Derek Armstrong has a five-game point streak, with six assists in that time. The Avalanche is coming off a four-day break. Forward Milan Hejduk has been out since having arthroscopic surgery on his right knee last month, but Coach Joel Quenneville said Monday there was an “outside chance” Hejduk would play tonight. Mathieu Garon is expected to start in goal for the Kings, with Jason LaBarbera going against Dallas on Thursday.