I thought about writing this for my hockey blog, but the story is much more about a personal story than a sports opinion piece.
How many more times will headlines read "Sean Avery Returns to the NHL"? I read Jeremy Roenick's piece on the talented yet beleaguered and embattled hockey player today, and I do agree the best place for Sean Avery to be is on the ice. When he is playing the game, Sean Avery has potential to be one of the best around; however, add controversy, poor deportment, off-ice issues involving health and wellness, Sean Avery stands alone as the NHL's troubled foster child. Well into his second stint with his fourth NHL team in one decade, Sean Avery returns to the Rangers' starting lineup after a deplorable performance by the Blueshirts in their defeat to the Maple Leafs in their home opener at the Garden last week.
I can't compare Avery's track record to the lengthy suspension list of Chris Pronger because the way NHL officials referee and adjudicate gameplay and care about the general welfare of its players was different from the time Chris Pronger played for the Hartford Whalers, to the years Sean Avery spent with the Los Angeles Kings in the mid 2000s, and up to now when Avery laces the skates for the Rangers against the Anaheim Ducks tomorrow night. A lockout and a change of the guard in terms of league discipline, as noted by the hiring of former NHL player Brendan Shanahan as vice-president of player discipline in the off-season, occurred during that time. So did Sean Avery, according to the rules established by the NHL, team doctors, and the go-ahead of Rangers coach John Tortorella, earn the right to play for the Rangers in their next game? YES. However, does he deserve it? No.
As a youth sponsor and mentor at my church and the neighbouring community, I see lots of kids pass through the doors into the drop-in center located in the basement of the church. In the last six years or so of being a sponsor, I had run-ins with 'problem kids' or 'troublemakers'; sadly, there was always one teenager that never gets it together, settles down, obeys the rules, and becomes a good kid. It is a familiar story within almost every neighbourhood in the Greater Toronto Area, and it is unfortunate how many of those 'troublemakers' wind up dead, or wishing they made the most of their opportunity before things went spiralling out of control.
To tell the truth, I was one of those kids. Of course, I knew what was right and what was wrong, and while I wasn't a boy scout, I tried to stay out of trouble and in the good books. Nevertheless, those that really knew who I was during those days, either at school or in my church, knew I was a 'fake' or a 'phony'. I didn't want anyone to know what demons I hid inside, and being a loner was the 'perfect escape' from the overweight and shoddy dresser I was in high school. By the grace of God, I caught on in one of the last possible moments what my life was leading toward, and decided to turn around. I didn't deserve that moment to change, instead I had every opportunity granted to me, for some weird and wonderful reason. Now, as a twenty-nine year old napkin writer, the goal is to continue making good on that sovereign decision to bring me around, in spite of the occasional daily screw-ups, and then transmit the sovereignty and grace of The Decision-Maker to the next generation of kids who walk into the drop-in center.
If we are honest with each other, which may mean entering a secluded room with no cameras or windows for a one-on-one conversation, then each of us would say no one deserves anything we have or can obtain. The only solution to the Avery problem, or an issue with any person for that matter, is when that person sits down and takes account for everything that happened and everything that could happen if he/she does not change. There can only be so much grace, before you are just "handed over" to the demons.
Sean Avery will play tomorrow night at the Madison Square Garden for the New York Rangers against the Ducks of Anaheim. I hope he will make the most of THE opportunity, but I'm not talking about hockey.
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