The Loud Man

The French-guys-with-visors comment, aimed at Gauthier, struck unintended targets, especially �ric B�langer, Avery's linemate. After Avery made his remark, says B�langer, now with Carolina, he "called to apologize. He asked, 'Bellie, did I go too far?' I said, 'Sean, I'm French and I wear a visor. Does that mean I'm chickens---?'"

"He's a disrespectful person," says Colorado winger Ian Laperri�re, another ex-linemate. "Can't say I like him. Never did. Never will." Once, during a game in L.A., Shanahan skated to Avery at the Kings bench and loudly said, "Lose my number. Don't call me again. I'm tired of listening to you bitch about how much you hate your coaches and teammates." Avery laughs at the story. He says Shanahan was yapping because Avery had zinged him with how "power" should be removed from the power forward label attached to Shanahan. Indeed, the two still talk and text message. Says Shanahan, "In terms of marketing, packaging, entertainment, he's one of the few [ NHL] guys who gets it. Not always. But he's on to something."

Avery, with sideshow inclinations and center-ring skills, is at a crossroads. "I don't regret anything, but if I have an opinion now, I go home and talk to people who it's not going to affect and get it off my chest that way," Avery says. "At times I still feel the urge [to say something that will make] people tell me, 'Why the hell did you say that?' But I just imagine [doing] it now."

Yet the NHL's squeaky wheel still seethes with ambition and yes, he concedes, anger. As he tells a story about his first trip to the principal's office--in first or second grade, he was yelling in a kid's ear because he refused to believe the child was deaf--he spots Jonny Murray, a linesman who had worked the game against the Avalanche the previous night. Avery is steamed about the penalties that sank the Kings, especially an interference call on center Craig Conroy and Conroy's subsequent unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty. As he leaves for the team bus, brushing past Murray's table, Avery dismisses thoughts of unloading on the official. "I hope," he says, a smile dancing across his mouth, "[ Conroy] does, though."