Wisniewski Blows It by Doing His Best Sean Avery Imitation

"Yes, I kiss my mother with this mouth." *Shudder*

By now, everyone in the hockey world knows that Sean Avery is a menace. Granted, at this point he’s become more a menace to himself than anybody else, but he is one nonetheless. If there is little to no debate on that, there can be none on New York Islanders defenseman James Wisniewski being just as bad.

Again, everyone has seen the video of Sean Avery conducting that supposedly on-the-fly and in no way whatsoever premeditated interview sequence in which he called ex-girlfriend Elisha Cuthbert his sloppy seconds in an effort to get underneath the skin of his soon-to-be opponent Dion Phaneuf, then of the Calgary Maple Leafs... Flames, sorry. 

For the record, it kind of worked, with Phaneuf getting no points on the night in question and posting a +/- rating of -3. However, the move was classless and definitely did not constitute the image the NHL wants to perpetuate of itself. I’m not even sure a three-ring circus would want Avery in charge of its public-relations campaigns either, lest management wants its sideshow to take on a life of its own.

Taking Avery’s antics, not just that one incident but his whole body of work, into account it’s clear that he’s as much a clown as the next bozo, which, as fate would have it... have you met Mr. Wisnieswki, ladies and gentlemen? Now, I won’t go into describing the act in question, because its vulgarity is just as tasteless as anything Avery can come up with or say, but it is posted below for your entertainment with the sole disclaimer being that it’s very sexual in nature.

It’s definitely not a coincidence that the act in question was directed at Avery (who else would be more likely to provoke that type of gesture in the first place?) at the tail-end of the first period of Monday’s New York Rangers-Islanders game. Still, the league needs to take a hard look (I would say “difficult” instead to try and avoid any and all inevitable immature laughter, but you really can’t do that in this context) at the video evidence and suspend him for at least six games, just as Avery was in December 2008 for his comments, as they ran counter to the family-friendly brand the NHL always seems to be trying to create for itself. Of course, one would think that taking fighting out of the game would be step number one, but that’s a different matter altogether.

There are some differences between the two incidents, of course, but the fact that Wisniewski’s gesture took place in the “heat of the moment” of game action should not be used as an excuse, mostly because there was a stoppage of play and it wasn’t in the heat of the moment to begin with, but also because that would be a stupid excuse considering 90% of all NHL suspensions are handed down due to acts committed as a result of actual split-second decisions.

The only other real difference would be the following: Avery wasn’t a repeat offender when he got banned two years ago... Wisniewski is after he nailed Chicago Blackhawks defenseman – and former teammate - Brent Seabrook last season... geez, if that’s what he does to friends, I’d hate to see what he does to his enemies. Based on his obvious intentions Monday night and assuming Avery is an enemy, maybe he’s got a few things backwards.

Surprisingly, though, the eight-game suspension that resulted from that hit on Seabrook wasn’t even Wisniewski’s first suspension either. If the NHL is doing its job, it won’t be his last.