Posted on 09/11/2005 1:11:28 PM PDT by RWR8189
EVERY TIME the National Hockey League makes headlines with a particularly ghastly bit of on-ice thuggery, a chorus of tut-tutters laments the "violent culture" that besmirches an otherwise magnificent sport. In most cases, these handwringers come off as ignorant fusspots: folks who never played hockey--and, to borrow from the famous Al Michaels quip, wouldn't know a blue line from a clothesline--yet apparently feel qualified to deliver a verdict on the game's flaws. Genuine hockey fans, whatever their own thoughts on NHL goonery, don't have much truck with these people.
So it pains me--really pains me--to admit when the handwringers get one right. But such is the case when it comes to Todd Bertuzzi, the Vancouver Canucks winger who sucker-punched, pile-drived, and nearly killed Colorado Avalanche center Steve Moore in March 2004. No, Bertuzzi didn't get off scot-free: He was suspended for the rest of 2003-2004 season--13 regular-season games, plus the playoffs. And while everyone missed the 2004-05 campaign, due to a lockout, the NHL also barred Bertuzzi from playing in the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, the past two world championships, and any European league. All told, he received a 17-month banishment--the longest in NHL history--and lost over $500,000 in salary: a nice piece of change, but only a thin slice of $5.2 million, his projected remuneration for 2005-2006.
Was that punishment enough? Yes, says NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, who recently gave Bertuzzi the green light to return. "I find that the appropriate discipline to be imposed for Mr. Bertuzzi's conduct on March 8, 2004, is the suspension that has been served to date," Bettman explained in a statement last month. So that's that. Time for bygones to be bygones. Bertuzzi has already laced 'em up for training camp with the Canadian Olympic team in Vancouver, where thousands of cheering fans offered him a convivial "Welcome back." Said Wayne Gretzky, Team Canada's executive director, "He has been punished and served his time."
Asked by reporters about his reinstatement, Bertuzzi waxed metaphysical. "I'm a firm believer in second chances," he said. "If we're going to go through life not giving anyone second chances, then what kind of life are we going to have around here?" Deep thoughts. He also added a few morsels of contrition: "People make mistakes in life. Unfortunately, I was under the microscope and on TV when my mistake happened."
Those dastardly TV broadcasts. Without television, we might have been spared the terrifying images of the 6-3, 245-pound Bertuzzi whacking the 6-2, 205-pound Moore in the back of the head and then driving his face into the ice. People might not have understood the sheer brutality of his misdeed. But, alas for Bertuzzi, anyone tuning in to SportsCenter for days and weeks afterward witnessed the horrific replay.
As you might be guessing by now, I haven't exactly broken out the noisemakers and silly hats to celebrate Bertuzzi's vaunted comeback. I would rather see him remain in the dock until, well, at least until Steve Moore is physically able to play again. Of course, that day may never come. Moore can count himself lucky he isn't paralyzed. Heck, he's lucky he isn't dead.
For that matter, what if Moore had died? What then? That Bertuzzi wasn't guilty of murder speaks only to Moore's remarkable good fortune. As it was, Bertuzzi left the Avalanche center with a broken neck, a concussion, facial cuts, and recurrent periods of dizziness. He may also have robbed Moore of his livelihood. Moore's hockey future is iffy at best, and presupposes clearance by the Avalanche medical staff. Even if he does skate again, he'll always be one check away from a career-ending (and perhaps brain-damaging) head injury.
Small wonder Moore is piqued about Bertuzzi's reinstatement. Shortly after Bettman's decision, he spoke with Terry Frei of the Denver Post. "I was surprised to get the news," Moore said. "I am getting better, but I have a long way to go. It's difficult to see that [Bertuzzi's] able to play again when I still have a long way to go, and not just in hockey, but with my health." Does he ever watch clips of the punch? "I try not to," Moore told the Post. "A lot of times, especially when I first saw it, it was like, 'Thank God I'm still alive and able to walk.'" He has a civil suit pending in Denver District Court against Bertuzzi, the Canucks, coach Marc Crawford, and others.
Though Bertuzzi proffered a tearful apology at a press conference on March 10, 2004, Moore claimed he has yet to hear from Bertuzzi personally. "But I'm not waiting by the phone." In Bertuzzi's weepy remarks, which came two days after the incident, he insisted that he "had no intention of hurting" Moore. Oh? To repeat: Bertuzzi grabbed Moore from behind, punched him in the back of the head, and then drove Moore face-first into the ice, landing on top of him with the bulk of his weight focused around Moore's neck. What did Bertuzzi think would happen? The I-never-meant-any-harm defense beggars belief.
Bertuzzi apologists may reply that the episode cannot be understood outside of hockey's unwritten rules of on-ice vigilante justice. After all, less than a month earlier Moore had thrown a questionable hit on Canucks captain Markus Naslund, leaving Naslund with a concussion and gashes on his forehead and nose that required over a dozen stitches to close. Moore appeared to have caught Naslund with his elbow, whether purposefully or not. So, the argument goes, Bertuzzi was simply meting out "payback."
But that's nonsense. Payback would've entailed confronting Moore and challenging him to drop the gloves--the way many NHL rows are settled. (Indeed, a big reason the league still tolerates regulated fighting is to obviate uncontrollable violence like Bertuzzi's hit on Moore.) Instead, Bertuzzi chose to blindside Moore with the ultimate cheap shot. There was nothing "tough" or "gritty" about his attack. How to best describe it? I believe the operative word rhymes with "chicken split."
No, Bertuzzi's assault wasn't the righteous vengeance of a tough-guy enforcer. It was more like the psychotic outburst of a gutless punk. His reinstatement shames the NHL, and shows a callous disregard for Steve Moore's ongoing nightmare.
Duncan Currie is a reporter at The Weekly Standard.
Shelley is the man.
I got to meet him at a bar 2 years ago. Nice guy. wouldn't want to mess with him :)
October 22nd I have tickets to see the Wings vs. the BlueJackets.
He forfeited the chance to make 500,000. The rest was earned as an active player. Thats more than enough penalty for an assault.
I agree.
One of the great memories of my younger days though was Kenny "The Rat" Lindsmen starting the altercation, then Al Secord finnishing things while the Rat escaped unharmed.
It used to drive me nuts.
Cheap shots happen in all sports, and sometimes the refs don't notice. Condemning the entire sport because of one cheapshot is the true mindlessness.
Hockey has plenty of tales of what sports is all about. How about a guy coming back with a broken ankle after instructing the medic to just tape it tight and scoring the Cup winning goal, how about the handshake at the end of every playoff series, how about playing in the playoffs with the only compensation being the possibility of winning a championship? Aren't those fine shining examples of what sports is about.
There's thugs in every sport, get over it or aknowledge the universal reality.
Bertuzzi didn't get paid any of his salary during the suspension. But the suspension only covered a few weeks when players were drawing paychecks (playoffs are played for free, then there was the strike). Bertuzzi got punished, it's over time to get back on the ice, cheaper shots have been punished less.
Oh, well that's different! I personally think the penalty was appropriate enough BTW.
Hockey will never recover from the year off. No national TV exposure, and, frankly, the sport simply wasn't missed all that much.
Bertuzzi will have to be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his career, as there are those who would love to take a pound of flesh out of his miserable hide.
I like the idea of him not being able to play until Moore is able to, but the NHL is too gutless to enforce a penalty like that.
I love the game, but I hope the NHL dies a slow death.
Sure it will and sure it was. Hockey fans are amoung the most rabid in the world of sports, we'll all be back and now they have the US TV contract on a channel with a vested interest in the sport and growing the audience (something ESPN never tried to do). After every sports work stoppage lots of people say the sport will never recover, and yet they all do.
No sport has ever, or will ever, establish a tit-for-tat punishment on cheap shots, too many wierd possibilities.
Sorry to disappoint you but given the numbers on the OLN contract (about 20% more per year than the deal ESPN walked away from) the NHL seems to be coming out of the work stoppage better than the went into it.
LOL!! Like keeping a goon off the ice until the man he cheap-shotted is able to play again?
Bertuzzi is a miserable human being, having never once called Moore to apologize.
Bettman is gutless for not keeping him off the ice for another year.
Let me assure you, there are many fewer hockey fans after this layoff, especially with the ridiculous ticket prices. I will never attend another Dallas Stars game in person again.
Or keeping a beanballing pitcher off the field until the guy he beaned can play again. You just can't do it, what happens if the guy being punished is more valuable to his team than the injured player is to his? You could keep your injured guy off the field forever just to keep the guy being punished away (figure this would happen a lot late in the season if the two teams are competing for the same playoff spot). What if the injured guy was old and decides to retire rather than even try to come back from his injury? What if they announce the injured guy will be back for the next game but he re-agravates his injury in practice before the game? What if he gets a completely different injury in practice? Just too many wierd possibilities, tit-for-tat punishments just won't work, they sound emotionally satisfying but the reality is different.
Yup Bertuzzi's a pig, but he did his time. Certainly he isn't the first pig in the NHL and probably not the last.
Let me assure you the numbers will be FINE. They're already getting more TV money than they did for 03-04. The majority of hockey fans are rabid nuts who still found ways to watch plenty of hockey inspite of the NHL strike. If the numbers drop in Dallas all that does is prove the critics of the NHL's move south were right, apparently there aren't enough real fans of the sport down there to support the game.
Hockey: A fight that every once in a while a game breaks out.
Ohh my what a brilliant fact based and compelling argument.
Stockpirate: a guy who got caught talking out of his ass on a topic he is completely ignorant of and can't quite muster up the necessary level of adulthood to face his own faults.
You were wrong, admit it and you'll salvage a modicum of respect, continue to resort to childish insults and all you do is tell everybody on this thread to never bother to read your posts again.
My comment was wrong, but not hockey, I wanted to like the game but they fight way too much, and most of it is senseless.
As I stated, sorry, I was just having a bad day.
This mindless thug enjoys playing the game every weekend.
Why don't you take a short walk off a long FR pier? Or better yet just keep your BS to yourself.
They don't fight very much, NHL average is down to just over 1 fight a game, college has fewer fights than that, European hockey they don't fight at all, and the bench clearing brawl is almost entirely a thing of the past in North American hockey (might still get a few in the minors in the NHL there hasn't been one in 15 years). Although one things many hockey fans and commentators have noticed is that as you lessen the fighting you tend to get more cheap shots, fighting is a form of self policing in hockey (hence why fighters are often called "enforcers", they enforce the penalties the ref missed), also a way to rally the troops and excite the fans.
Apology accepted, it's all good.
see post 39
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