The Wrong, Right of the Sean Avery Suspension

After taking a night to sleep on it, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman decided that the best way to defend the honor of actress Elisha Cuthbert and Calgary Flames defenseman Dion Phaneuf from the dastardly Sean Avery, was to suspend the erstwhile Dallas Stars winger for six games, retroactive to last Tuesday.

That means that Avery will be eligible to return to the ice on December 16 against the Phoenix Coyotes, which means that the Dallas Stars now have 11 whole days to decide what they're going to do with him. If my guess is right, they'll do their best to make sure that Avery is banished from their locker room forever, making him the scapegoat for plenty of the team's problems -- problems, incidentally, that Avery isn't responsible for.

Be that as it may, it's hard for hardcore hockey fans not to be genuinely disturbed by the league's actions. As many others have pointed out in recent days, when it came to Avery, the league acted more swiftly to punish his words than it seems to these days when it comes to the commission of actual physical violence on the ice. In November, Los Angeles Kings forward John Zeiler delivered a devastating hit from behind to Colorado Avalanche defenseman Adam Foote. For his trouble, Zeiler got a three-game suspension. Meanwhile, Foote has yet to return to the ice.

I can only guess that insulting an ex-girlfriend in front of bank of television cameras is twice as damaging to the game's reputation as deliberately injuring another player on the ice. Reasoning like that is simply nonsensical to hockey fans, until you remember that we now seem to live in a world where what you say can be considered to be more deserving of punishment than any act of physical violence you might commit.

Then again, in terms of Avery the person, it's easy to see that he's a man in sore need of a time out. Yesterday at FanHouse, I published an interview with a Nashville Predators fan who had a confrontation with Avery during a game on October 11, and the results weren't pretty. After my conversation with Sandie Griffith -- a person I found entirely credible -- it was impossible for me not to conclude that Avery has some problems he needs to take care of off of the ice.

So count me down as having little if any problem with Avery's suspension. Just still know that I'm still shaking my head in disbelief that the league is more concerned policing a potty mouth than a someone on the ice who plays the game with reckless disregard for the safety of his opponents.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.