The Sean Avery - Martin Brodeur Rivalry

Tension Rises During Rangers/Devils Series

The Sean Avery - Martin Brodeur rivalry continues as Avery's antics got the royal snub on Friday night when the teams lined up to shake each other's hands.

It's quite ironic, really. I was standing in the New York Rangers' locker room after the Rangers defeated the New Jersey Devils 5-3 on Friday night, ending the series between the division rivals in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Sean Avery was talking about the Martin Brodeur - Sean Avery rivalry and how he and the players were not paying too much attention to all the media hype surrounding it, he started to go on about how classless Brodeur was, and then brought up how Brodeur did not shake his hand after the game. "I guess he forgot to shake my hand," Avery told us.

But then he went on to say that he would have been the bigger person, and said that if the opportunity would have presented itself, "I would have."

That snub that Avery has been talking about all over the press since Friday night was a mutual snub!

Now, I wouldn't be saying that if there wasn't proof. But there is.

Avery Snubbed Brodeur

All of the pictures that were taken down by the ice were from one angle, which supports Avery's claims. From the angle I was shooting from all the way upstairs, it proves that both players had snubbed each other.

Brodeur does not deny that he did not shake Avery's hand. He's admitted to it. But what Avery fails to mention to the press was that he did not attempt to shake Brodeur's hand either. The snub was mutual. The opportunity had presented itself and he was not the bigger man (like he had said he would have been).

Avery has taken this whole 'snub' to the nth degree in the press and they are eating it up. It still would have been the same if he had owned up and said they both had "forgotten" to shake each other's hands. Instead, he put the blame purely on Brodeur and took the victim route to gain sympathy from the press.

By Avery's own definition, he is as classless as Brodeur. What is unique about this term "classless" is that the entire media has been calling Avery's antics towards Brodeur as being completely 'un-classy.' Avery has done everything in this playoff series from: smacking Brodeur across the face with the blade of his stick when the officials weren't looking; standing in front of Brodeur's crease, poking fun at his divorce from five years ago; and waving his arms in front of Brodeur to distract him from the game (which is a tasteless move in the NHL and is now known amongst hockey fans as the "Avery Rule" that was passed down preventing players from committing a similar act in front of a goaltender).