Revisiting: Avery and Brodeur, the Beginning

Tonight, the New York Rangers will play host to the New Jersey Devils in a pivotal Eastern Conference matchup that could have playoff implications down the stretch. Not only has the Devils/Rangers rivalry been one of the more hotly contested this decade,  it has been further renewed because of the absolutely hilarious ongoing feud between Public Enemy No. 1 Sean Avery and Hall of Fame lock Martin Brodeur.

The Brodeur/Avery feud burst onto the scene just a couple of years ago, when Sean Avery made a couple of fairly distasteful comments concerning the netminder. Brodeur never really responded, mostly because he’s always been above blatant bait tactics. However, a late season game in 2007 turned out to be the tipping point, when Avery and Brodeur collided after the Devils goalie made a nice save on Sean.

Avery tried to let up right before the crease area, but was somewhat carried into Brodeur by his momentum. Unfortunately(or fortunately), Brodeur took offense to Avery’s run, partly due to Sean’s distinguished past. Brodeur pushed back, and Avery retaliated by doing the almost unthinkable – delivering a hard shot into Brodeur’s upper midsection, sending the perennial Vezina candidate to the ice.

There’s two things you don’t do in Hockey: You don’t (allegedly) fix games, and you don’t take runs at the best goalie in NHL history. Since the brouhaha three years ago, the two have elevated their hatred for one another exponentially. Avery’s infamous screening on Brodeur became notriously known as the Avery Rule, has called Brodeur fatso a numerous amount of times, and called Martin Brodeur a sore loser after Brodeur declined to shake his hand after a postseason loss. Brodeur, not afraid to offer his own sentiments regarding Avery, said “..I don’t like him. No doubt about it. I don’t think anybody who plays  against him likes him.”

Martin Brodeur can rest his laurels on the fact that he’s arguably the best goalie in NHL history, and lets his resume doing the talking. But the reason why this rivalry has garnered so much publicity and national attention is the fact that Avery has incredibly managed to at least somewhat distract Martin Brodeur and throw him off his nearly impeccable game. The Rangers are 10-2-1 in the last thirteen games played against New Jersey at home, and have won six of the past eight between the two.

Here’s the play that set all of this off, and hopefully more fireworks will be set off as the two clash tonight at 7:00 PM Eastern on Versus and TSN.