Avery Has 3-Hour Hearing With NHL Commissioner

Dallas Stars forward Sean Avery leaves a meeting with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman Thursday, Dec....

Dallas Stars forward Sean Avery leaves a meeting with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman Thursday, Dec. 4, 2008 in New York. The NHL suspended Avery indefinitely on Tuesday, Dec. 2 for making a crude reference to former girlfriends while talking with reporters. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

(AP)

Sean Avery surged past camera crews and reporters Thursday, choosing to save his comments this time for NHL commissioner Gary Bettman during a three-hour disciplinary hearing. The Dallas Stars forward was suspended indefinitely on Tuesday just hours after he used a crude expression to describe former girlfriends now dating others while speaking to reporters.

Hockey's most notorious pest came to league headquarters in midtown Manhattan to give his version of the latest events that landed him in big trouble. Now it's up to Bettman to determine just how long Avery will be kept off the ice.

The NHL said that announcement would be made Friday.

"I haven't made a decision yet," Bettman said Thursday during his weekly radio show broadcast on NHL.com. "I want to take the opportunity to spend a little time thinking about what transpired at the hearing and everything that I was told and that needs to be considered.

"I want to reflect on it."

Dressed in a gray suit and wearing big, dark designer sunglasses, Avery didn't say a word as he made his way from a car to the league office and back.

He was joined at the hearing by his agent Pat Morris, Stars general manager Brett Hull and players' association player affairs director Glenn Healy.

NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell was also in attendance, but Bettman is handling Avery's punishment.

"He was remorseful in what he did. It's about all you can do," Hull said. "I hope that we can put this all behind us and we can make sure that the league and the Stars and the NHLPA do everything to make sure that I don't have to stand here or anyone else has to stand here and talk about stupid things like this anymore and make sure they don't happen."

Although this is Avery's first suspension in his seven-season NHL career, he often has courted controversy with his comments or unorthodox behavior on the ice.

Stars owner Tom Hicks was quick to support Bettman's decision to suspend Avery, and Avery's teammates have not rallied around him. Even after he serves whatever suspension Bettman levies, there is no guarantee he will be welcomed back into the dressing room he joined this season.