You could say that Stefan Della Rovere played his “pest” role to perfection during last nights 7-4 victory for the Canadian junior team. A pair of ugly incidents (both of which could be fairly labeled ‘cheap shots’) could have, and more realistically should have, seen the 18-year-old seventh round Capitals draft pick rack up 30 penalty minutes and a pair of game misconducts. Instead Della Rovere managed to escape the period having been whistled for only one infraction, a minor penalty that gave the United States a two minute powerplay and saw Della Rovere banished for an additional ten for a misconduct.

Della Rovere started the game off innocently enough, coming aggressive but not too aggressive save for one instance in which he hit an American player in open ice several seconds after a stoppage in play, though it was unclear whether Della Rovere had heard the whistle go, something that could be forgiven from a player playing in front of a raucous sell out crowd.

Della Rovere’s first cheap shot came after Canadian star John Tavares had notched his second goal in just over forty seconds, to pull the Canadian team to within one at 3-2. As the Canadian team made their way past the American bench (during which Della Rovere was mockingly extending his fist as if to engage the American players in a celebration) to celebrate with their teammates one or two of the Canadians ran into American winger James van Riemsdyk, who had his back to the jubilant Canadians. The result wasn’t all that surprising: the Canadians bunched into one another and several lost their footing, including one who appeared a take a stick up high (update: reader 246 points out that the Canadian player was clipped by an American seated on the bench, something I had missed in the telecast and in the intial recaps). Della Rovere in turn quickly and subtly punched van Riemsdyk from the blind side before continuing to the Canadian bench as if nothing had happened. The result? An ice pack to the face of van Riemsdyk , who lay prone on the ice for several minutes before getting up, and no penalty minutes for what should have been a game misconduct.

In the later stages of the first, Della Rovere struck again. After defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk had leveled a clean, but perfectly legal, hit on Tavares behind the American net Della Rovere waited for the puck to come within the vicinity of Shattenkirk before running the Avalanche draft pick from behind into the boards. It was the prototypical example of a dirty hit from behind: the player had his back turned the entire time, he was several feet from the boards in a dangerous position and, to top it off, wasn’t even in possession of the puck. On his second game misconduct-worthy play of the night, Della Rovere recieved two minutes for checking from behind and a ten minute misconduct (as a brief aside, given its dangerous nature shouldn’t checking from behind be an automatic game misconduct like spearing or butt-ending?)

Through the first period two words kept coming to mind during Della Rovere’s antics, and they weren’t particularly welcome ones:

Sean Avery.

I wasn’t the only one with that reaction. One of the NHL Network commentators called Della Rovere’s punch on van Riemsdyk a “cheap shot”. The check from behind was described by The Globe and Mail as “antagonism somewhere between Claude Lemieux and Sean Avery”, while the NHL Network’s commentator said of the play, “when you talk about players not having respect for each other, that’s the kind of play you’re talking about”. Canadian bench boss Pat Quinn took notice, benching Della Rovere for the third period.

So is Della Rovere a younger version of Sean Avery? Maybe. His overaggressive play seemed partially steeped in selfishness: the United States scored their first goal in part because Della Rovere was out of position trying to make a big hit, his mock celebration with the American bench was the kind of unsportsmanlike play that embarrasses teammates and fires up the opposition, and Della Rovere made efforts to (literally) hide behind officials and teammates after his two blatant cheap shots and post-whistle open ice hit while simultaneously affecting an Avery-eqsue “who me?” expression. Pat Quinn’s decision to keep Della Rovere on the bench during the third period suggests that he too was worried that Della Rovere might hurt his team.

On the other hand Della Rovere exhibited humility, a trait not often associated with Avery, after the game, saying, “My emotion ran, obviously, a little too high. My New Year’s resolution is to stop taking bad penalties.” It’s also very unlikely a player as selfish or, well, downright stupid as Avery would be named the captain of an OHL team. Plus I’ve never heard Della Rovere say he appreciates a well made purse.

For now, as a Capitals fan at least, I’m ready to give Della Rovere the benefit of the doubt when it comes to whether or not he’s a quality role player or an agitator who makes you wish for the repeal of the instigator rule. In any case, Della Rovere won’t be in the NHL before 2011-12. Here’s hoping he grows up enough to avoid embarrassing the Caps by then.

note: Team USA plays January 2nd in an elimination game against Slovakia at 3:30. The game will be broadcast on the NHL Network.