Devils goalie Martin Brodeur laughed off Sean Avery's unusual attempt to distract him during Sunday night's Game 3 of the Eastern Conference first-round series at the Garden, but the NHL certainly did not.

After seeing Avery plant himself in front of Brodeur and wave his hands and stick in the goalie's face as the Devils tried to defend a 5-on-3 that eventually resulted in a goal by Avery, NHL director of hockey operations Colin Campbell made it clear yesterday that such faceguarding will be penalized from now on.

"An unsportsmanlike conduct minor penalty will be interpreted and applied, effective immediately, to a situation when an offensive player positions himself facing the opposition goaltender and engages in actions such as waving his arms or stick in front of the goaltender's face, for the purpose of improperly interfering with and/or distracting the goaltender as opposed to positioning himself to try to make a play," Campbell said in statement.

Avery, who has a long history of run-ins with Brodeur, camped out in front of the crease and put on a show reminiscient of a grade schooler playing an "I'm not touching you" game. Rangers forward Chris Drury told Avery to keep his stick down, trying to prevent a disallowed goal because of the high stick, but Avery wound up scoring on a regular shot and no penalty was ever called.

Wednesday night's Game 4 at the Garden, with the Rangers leading the best-of-seven game series 2-1, will be played with the officials watching for a repeat of such shenanigans.

Devils coach Brent Sutter said he didn't "lose any sleep over Sean Avery," especially after the Devils went on to a 4-3 overtime win, but called the play "something you would see in the bush leagues."

Brodeur's teammates also were not amused.

"It was childish," John Madden said. "We are trying to sell this game and you see stuff like that going on. I don't agree with it at all."

Avery seems like a childish guy, but I think his antics are kind of funny. If it helps get the NHL on Sportscenter and exposes new fans to the game, I'm all for it as long as he isn't breaking any rules. Its just a silly little game and he's trying to instigate a penalty from the other team, which is his role on the Rangers. If the Devils don't like it, they should get a player to just bodycheck him onto the ice.