Sean Avery spleen injury no laughing matter

For all those rejoicing in the news of Sean Avery's spleen injury, I've got two words for you.

Grow up.

Try, as hard as it may be for you, to remember this over the next few minutes.

It's just a game.

Shocking news out of the Big Apple Wednesday that Avery, who a majority of fans wouldn't mind seeing under the rear wheels of the team bus most nights - figuratively, of course - is done for the year with a lacerated spleen suffered in Game 3 of the Rangers' series with the Penguins.

Initial media reports erroneously stated that Avery had been rushed to hospital in cardiac arrest which, much like a lacerated spleen, is something you shouldn't wish on your worst enemy.

Or Sean Avery.

It's just a game.

Sean Avery is a hockey player. An agitating one, granted, and nothing short of a pompous jackass on the ice, but a hockey player nonetheless. Nothing more.

And as a player, I can't stand Sean Avery. I think the league would be better off without him - or, at least his antics - and his running feud with Martin Brodeur in the opening round may have helped the Rangers win a series but did nothing to help build up his fan club.

I've had my fun with Sean Avery, and, like most, have never hesitated to call him out for his sideshow routine.

But no one, myself included, should be taking joy in a season-ending, perhaps even a career-threatening, setback. No one deserves that.

It's just a game.

Upon hearing initial reports of the cardiac arrest, I felt a pang of guilt for my less-than-flattering opinion of him in this space. Someone, somewhere, dropped the ball with the heart attack talk, and could be looking for work this morning.

If a lacerated spleen could ever be a good thing, this was one of those times.

And if you were one of those morons laughing and high-fiving the news, maybe, just maybe, you take this game a little too seriously.

Because, no matter how you look at it, yes, it is just that - a game.