Nobody in the NHL is surprised to see Sean Avery in the middle of another controversy. The man’s whole purpose in life is to wreak havoc.

“I don’t know . . . you just have laugh,” Blues forward Brad Boyes told “The Sports Edge” on KFNS. “Sometimes there is comedy to what he does. Sometimes he takes it too far.”

What is surprising, though, is that the Dallas Stars sanctioned his behavior until this week.

“Especially Dallas, the amount of veterans they have  . . . I’m surprised they let that stuff happen,” Boyes said.

Avery’s latest episode – alluding to Dion Phaneuf’s relationship with one of his ex-girlfriends, Elisha Cuthbert – was meant to stir the pot before the Stars played the Flames. But NHL commissioner Gary Bettman isn’t a fan of such stage-setting, so he suspended Avery.

Sean has since apologized, but many NHL insiders were expecting Dallas to move him down the trail.The Stars don’t need this drama.

Teammates like Mike Modano, Marty Turco and injured captain Brenden Morrow aren’t big fans of his antics. Stars co-GM Brett Hull might have to admit that adding this guy was a mistake.

Flames GM Darryl Sutter, meanwhile, ripped reporters for being enablers:

“You know what? Put it to bed. You guys cover hockey. It’s supposed to be the sports page. If you guys want to cover that stuff, go ahead. It’s been pretty disgusting for three days, actually. The Dallas Stars come to town . . . two of the best spokesmen in the league, other than a couple of our guys, are Mike Modano and Marty Turco, and I didn’t see their picture or hear a story about them. So you guys aren’t really covering hockey.”

Earlier this season, the Blue were miffed by remarks Avery made toward his old coach, Andy Murray. HockeyBuzz.com Andy Strickland weighed in on the Sean’s quest for attention.

Boyes hasn’t had many run-ins with Avery, who played in Los Angeles when Brad broke in with the Bruins and was with the Rangers when Brad came to St. Louis. He has mostly been on the other side of the league. He can recall just one punch in the back of the head from Avery.

But Cam Janssen had gotten to know him well.

“Cam can take care of him,” Boyes said. “Cam is a pretty funny guy. He’s pretty witty. He gets Sean off his game a little bit.”

AROUND THE RINKS: Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford doesn’t exactly think outside the box when it comes to making coaching changes. Five years ago, he replaced Paul Maurice with Peter Laviolette. And this week he replaced Laviolette with Maurice. The only twist was putting assistant GM Ron Francis, the former NHL great, behind the bench as one of Maurice’s assistant coaches. Let’s see if this wakes up one of the league’s most disappointing teams . . . Flyers fans were sad to see Daniel Briere re-injure his groin muscle. Now he could be sidelined well into January. The risk of reinjury is why the Blues are being deliberate with T.J. Oshie, who is on the cusp of returning from his high ankle sprain, and Paul Kariya, who could be shelved for some time with his hip injury.