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| Getty Images |
In this morning's Edmonton Journal, Jim Matheson reported that Ladislav Smid suffered a concussion as a result of his scrap with Sean Avery on Sunday and that he would be placed on injured reserve (IR) with no timetable for his return.
I am sure that this news will only further fuel the Avery hate around the league because in many instances in these events the depth of the injury fuels how much the outrage is, though with Avery the outrage was pretty strong to begin with because it's Avery. Pretty soon it will just be Avery being Avery as if a version of Manny Ramirez on ice has broken out.
The official quote from Smid on the situation was
"I asked him (Avery) to go (fight) three times," ... "and he said 'next shift.' It was cheap what he did, but I made a mistake. I should be ready for him."Those who support Avery will take that as Smid using CYA to make an excuse for why he got beat and those who cannot stand Avery will claim it as proof of malice and intent to injure.
In other Avery/Smid news, some very interesting comments from Brendan Shanahan
"I remember asking a guy to fight in junior. He didn't say yes or no- just punched me in the nose. Pulled my neck muscles. Lesson learned."Those comments seem to suggest more blame on Smid's part because at some point he asked for the fight and no matter what he should have been ready from that point on for the fight to happen no matter what Avery did or did not say. My feelings on the subject have been well documented about the incident itself, Christensen's comments on it, fan reaction to Christensen along with inside the comment sections.
In other Avery news: The vote for Avery to the All-Star game is going on lots of places, information here.
