Sean Avery and Jarkko Ruutu. Hockey's Biggest Villains

When asked to identify the most disliked players in the NHL, one name jumps immediately to mind. Everyone else is a distant second.

There can be no question that Sean Avery is the most hated man in the sport. From his consistent trash-talking both on the ice and in the locker room, to the ridiculous antics he engages in to try and get under the skin of an opponent, Avery pushes well beyond the boundaries of poor sportsmanship, forsaking even common human decency to gain whatever edge he can.

So relentless is Avery, that following the recent playoff series against rival New Jersey, Devils' goaltender, Martin Brodeur, always affable, and well respected throughout the league, refused to shake his hand. Avery, whose Rangers won the series, could have taken the high road when asked about the incident in a post game interview, but instead took the opportunity to belittle Brodeur, hanging the absurdly childish moniker, fatso on the Devils' goalie.

Perhaps the most irritating thing about Avery is that he is a good hockey player. He can score, pass, hit and fight, comfortable in any role that the situation demands. Despite this skill set he expends most of his energy needling the opposition. It is hard to imagine this guy has any friends throughout the league. Even his own teammates must tire of him sometimes.

Beyond Avery there are several players who are pretenders to the throne of most hated. Every team seems to have one of these pests in their lineup, and all are effective to varying degrees, but the only one that can claim to be in the same league as Avery is Pittsburgh's Jarkko Ruutu.

Ruutu must have grown up idolizing Finnish countryman Esa Tikkanen, for many of their methods are eerily similar. Ruutu doesn't possess the same offensive flair as Tikkanen had, but the feisty Finn has the same sharp tongue, and the same comically innocent expression whenever he gets sent to the penalty box.

Whatever Ruutu says and does on the ice must be effective. Early this season he was the target on a stomp by New York Islander tough guy, Chris Simon. The stomp resulted in the longest suspension in NHL history, and Ruutu was lucky not to suffer a severe injury in the incident. He must have done something pretty vile to elicit that sort of response, even from a player as volatile as Simon.

The team agitator will always have a role in this sport, and players like Avery and Ruutu, love 'em or hate 'em, are here to stay. Hopefully we'll never see the day when one of these pests are so successful in their role they goad another player into seriously injuring them.