Sean Avery In First Fight Since Rejoining New York Rangers In NHL

Sean Avery got into his first scrap since rejoining the New York Rangers when he dropped his gloves with Cal Clutterbuck of the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night.

It was Avery's eighth game playing for New York this year.

Clutterbuck leads the NHL in hits.

In 70 games with the Wild more than two years, Clutterbuck has eight goals, five assists, and 13 points, is -6, and has 68 penalty minutes. He is what is known as an “enforcer.”

Avery and Clutterbuck had words behind the Wild’s net and then dropped their gloves…their helmets, too…following the old code of the NHL and not the new trend recommended by the OHL.

At the London Hockey Concussion Summit 2009, an impressive panel of hockey players and medical experts made a recommendation that resulted in a new OHL rule designed to cut down on concussions: OHL players no longer take their helmets off for fights.

The London Concussion Summmit's experts included Eric Lindros, Jeff Beukeboom, Alyn McCauley, Marcus Moore, Jennifer Botterill and nine world-renowned experts on concussions.

Lindors, Beukeboom, McCauley, and Moore all played in the NHL and experienced concussions.

The London Summit suggested fighting should be eliminated from hockey at all levels of the game as it is one of the known causes of concussions, which have resulted in long-term concussions, even death.

The experts took the position that the increasing incidence of hockey concussions, ranging from brief periods of brain disturbance to permanent brain injury, is an alarming and dangerous trend.

According to The New York Times, since the Summit, Donald Brashear, a veteran NHL enforcer, has called for the league to adopt the OHL’s rule that fights be stopped when a player’s helmet comes off.

The OHL's new rule was created to reduce the chance of serious head injuries if one or both players fall to the ice.

It was the junior hockey league's response to the death of an Ontario senior league player, Don Sanderson, after hitting his head on the ice during a fight.

The new rule says, “If a player should remove his helmet or undo his chinstrap prior to or during an altercation, such player shall receive a game misconduct."

That rule was part of the debate on the role of fighting in hockey at the general managers' annual meeting in Florida earlier this month.

GMs did not vote to tighten chinstraps or to stop fights when helmets come off.

In the Rangers game, Colton Orr fought Alden Nolan shortly after the Avery-Clutterbuck bout. There were no injuries.

Avery recorded an assist at the start of the second period.

With a fight and an assist, all he needs is a goal to record a "Gordie Howe Hat Trick."