Last night in the third period of the rivalry match-up between the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils, we saw the X-Factor we’re used to seeing between the two — Sean Avery.
This time, however, Avery wasn’t just interested in pissing off Martin “Fatso” Brodeur. Mr. Avery had his eye on newly acquired Devil Ilya Kovalchuk. Avery apparently said something to Ilya that really, really hits a nerve in the video below, goading Kovalchuk into mixing it up. Sometimes, I’d really like to know the things he says. Kovalchuk clearly has no intentions of smoothing things over with Avery, who has tangled with the pest before. Both were given double-minor roughing penalties, which was a huge break for the Devils considering who physically instigated the altercation.
It should be noted that this isn’t the first, second, or third time that Sean Avery has agitated Kovalchuk to put the superstar on the verge of throwin’ bombs. Kovalchuk’s playoff series three years ago was a complete disaster, as Sean Avery was inside the Russian phenom’s head every game for sixty minutes. Things should get interesting during this stretch run, as Sean Avery has become notorious for his disruption of two hockey greats in Kovalchuk and Brodeur, and now that they are on the same team things could be twice as dicey in this big time rivalry.
Think about how effective this really was. The Rangers had a two goal lead late in the third, but the tilt was still heavily in doubt and New Jersey was just coming off an incredible performance the night prior in which they scored three goals in just three minutes to steal a game against Toronto. Avery figured to put that to sleep by getting in Kovy’s ear, and both were headed to the boxes for the remainder of the game.
What do you think Sean Avery said to Kovalchuk? Let us know in the comments below.
Consider this as well: Avery, reportedly, mocked the former Leaf Jason Blake during the pregame skate because he had cancer.
Derek can be reached at derek@peteprose.com
Derek Boucher is a native of Toronto, Canada. He covers baseball, hockey, basketball and MMA for Pete Prose.
E-mail him at derek@peteprose.com 
Where’s avery’s purse?
lol Kovalchuk kicked his ass
For some reason Russians can get a negative image as soft players…due to them being on the same side of the Earth as Europe or possibly due to the Semin fight not long ago…but they have no problem mixing it up.
People love to hate on Avery.
What he does, he does best. For those who want to say IK kicked his ass all I seen was 2 refs holding avery down while Kov threw some punches.