I've always suspected that a lot of people who didn't like Avery--didn't like him not just because of his persona on the ice but because of his non conformity not only as a player but as an individual person off the ice. He wasn't someone they would think was a good example for young children to follow as if others for instance Chris Drury (who had a blah personality but was Captain America) were. Avery didn't strike them as respectable--an ordinary type who would marry a just as respectable woman, have two or three children with her, buy a house in the suburbs--kind of like Martin Brodeur--go to church every Sunday and never have any run ins with the law (for playing music too loud or some such ****) and live a pretty much ho hum existence outside of the rink.
To me Avery was a player who stirred a lot of turds on the ice--he'd piss other teams off so much that he'd sometimes almost singlehandedly would turn a game into a real war and the thing was when that happened the Rangers almost always won. He made a lot of games a little bit more than just ho hum affairs. He was also a pretty good player--though towards the end of his career his defensive play kind of went south. I always thought though that his remarks on hockey and life in general were rather refreshing considering the often blasé cliches you'd generally get from the rest of the team. A player actually implying that there might be other things in life as important to him as hockey--WTF!
