In the Vancouver-Colorado NHL game last night, it was a rough game to say the least. Too many fights to keep track of. Vancouver is known as a tough team, and Colorado and Vancouver are becoming the newest big rivalry in Hockey.
But, the fights were to be expected. What wasn't expected was what Todd Bertuzzi did to Steve Moore. A little background... In a previous game, Moore delivered what was ruled to be a clean hit (by the NHL) on Marcus Naslund, Vancouver's star player. Naslund was out for 3 games with a concussion, and Vancouver thought it was a cheap shot. (Nevermind the fact that OUR star player, Peter Forsberg, has been out with injuries since that game as well, much longer than the 3 games Naslund was out.) After that game, one of the Vancouver players came out and said there was a bounty on Moore's head for that shot on Naslund. All of the players and even the coach got into the act, saying some pretty nasty things about Moore and the Avs.
So, late in the third period, with Colorado up 8-2, Todd Bertuzzi (a big player, at 6'5" and 245 lbs, and known to be tough), tried to call out Steve Moore again (Moore had already been in one fight in the first period), and Moore turned away and skated toward center ice. Bertuzzi followed, dropped his stick, sucker punched Moore in the back of the head from behind, and then jumped on his back driving his head into the ice. Of course, meelee insued and the Canuck's goalie even came out to the red line to call out the Avs goalie (who didn't take him up on his offer). In all of this, the trainers and emergency staff were rushing out to the ice to tend to Moore, who was unconscious and bleeding profusely. It took 10 minutes before he was taken off the ice on a stretcher, still unconscious. Bertuzzi has been suspended without pay indefinitely with a disciplinary hearing to come later this week with the NHL.
Full story: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200....ap/index.html
OK, so there's the background to the immediate situation.
Go back a while longer, to another Vancouver player (do we see a pattern here???), who intentionally hit Donald Brashier (a really nasty player - you love him if he's on your team, but HATE him if he's an opponent) with his stick to the face, eye area to be exact, and knocked him unconscious. He was not only suspended for the rest of that season (and has never played in the NHL since...), but was also found guilty on criminal charges of Assault with a Deadly Weapon.
A. Should Bertuzzi be criminally charged for his attack on Moore?
B. In any sport, when there is serious injury and an obvious premeditation to injure the player, should there be criminal charges pressed against them? Would this help or hinder the sports world?
(Sorry this is so long, I'm obviously very upset with the incident last night, and I think that Bertuzzi and Coach Mark Crawford should lose their jobs over this, at the very least. Crawford was LAUGHING after the hit on Moore!)
But, the fights were to be expected. What wasn't expected was what Todd Bertuzzi did to Steve Moore. A little background... In a previous game, Moore delivered what was ruled to be a clean hit (by the NHL) on Marcus Naslund, Vancouver's star player. Naslund was out for 3 games with a concussion, and Vancouver thought it was a cheap shot. (Nevermind the fact that OUR star player, Peter Forsberg, has been out with injuries since that game as well, much longer than the 3 games Naslund was out.) After that game, one of the Vancouver players came out and said there was a bounty on Moore's head for that shot on Naslund. All of the players and even the coach got into the act, saying some pretty nasty things about Moore and the Avs.
So, late in the third period, with Colorado up 8-2, Todd Bertuzzi (a big player, at 6'5" and 245 lbs, and known to be tough), tried to call out Steve Moore again (Moore had already been in one fight in the first period), and Moore turned away and skated toward center ice. Bertuzzi followed, dropped his stick, sucker punched Moore in the back of the head from behind, and then jumped on his back driving his head into the ice. Of course, meelee insued and the Canuck's goalie even came out to the red line to call out the Avs goalie (who didn't take him up on his offer). In all of this, the trainers and emergency staff were rushing out to the ice to tend to Moore, who was unconscious and bleeding profusely. It took 10 minutes before he was taken off the ice on a stretcher, still unconscious. Bertuzzi has been suspended without pay indefinitely with a disciplinary hearing to come later this week with the NHL.
Full story: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200....ap/index.html
OK, so there's the background to the immediate situation.
Go back a while longer, to another Vancouver player (do we see a pattern here???), who intentionally hit Donald Brashier (a really nasty player - you love him if he's on your team, but HATE him if he's an opponent) with his stick to the face, eye area to be exact, and knocked him unconscious. He was not only suspended for the rest of that season (and has never played in the NHL since...), but was also found guilty on criminal charges of Assault with a Deadly Weapon.A. Should Bertuzzi be criminally charged for his attack on Moore?
B. In any sport, when there is serious injury and an obvious premeditation to injure the player, should there be criminal charges pressed against them? Would this help or hinder the sports world?
(Sorry this is so long, I'm obviously very upset with the incident last night, and I think that Bertuzzi and Coach Mark Crawford should lose their jobs over this, at the very least. Crawford was LAUGHING after the hit on Moore!)
From what I understand, the NHL is investigating the whole Vancouver organization from the ground up, talking to players individually.
I'm not anti-world news but 3/4 of the news was sport focussed despite a massive change to our Medicare system about to be put through. 
This just doesn't make sense to me. Maybe it's because I'm not part of the Ice Hockey culture and I see sport as, well a game that is played without fighting. Something that is akin to the movement of Olympics in Ancient Greece.
)). Bertuzzi was given a double major for "intent to injure" after the hit on Moore, essentially removing him from the game since there was only 8 minutes left. There are almost never injuries from the fights. I think every team has an "enforcer", a tough guy who doesn't have the finesse of the real skill players but is a good fighter. These guys step in when the other team is making cheap shots on their star players, etc. The refs don't call every penalty, sometimes pretty blatently not making calls especially in the third period (they say they don't want penalties to determine the outcome of the game). It's just part of NHL hockey, even though it isn't part of Olympic hockey, and there are almost never fights in the playoffs. Although, from what the commentators have been saying, the number of fights have drastically reduced from even 5-10 years ago. In the 70s there would be bench clearing brawls where every player from both teams would be out there fighting someone (which has now been completely outlawed). No way 4 referees could control that!
