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What are your thoughts on the punishment Bertuzzi should receive for his hit on Steve Moore the other day? The NHL is expected to make a ruling soon, but folks were talking about civil suits and possibly a criminal investigation.
Share your thoughts.
Well, there is a criminal investigation, the RCMP and BC's Solicitor General are looking into it to see if it falls under assault, beyond what is accepted in a hockey game. There is precedent for this in Canada, players who deliberately attempted to injure other players have been charged with assault.
I think Bertuzzi should and will get suspended for the rest of the regular season. It was pretty blatant attack, and considering the kid has a broken neck and is done for at least this season, it is only fair.
Hockey is inherently violent - you give people weapons (sticks) and tell them that things that would get them thrown in jail outside the rink gets them a 2 minute penalty in the game. That's why it is so sweet! Hockey rules
Being a Canucks fan, this sucks huge. I'm *really* disappointed in Bertuzzi for this and the way he's been playing lately. A friend of mine now has a $200 jersey that he won't wear :p
Bearing that in mind, I don't think there should be a criminal investigation. If there was one for every time someone got sucker punched/retaliated on there wouldn't be many hockey players left.
I don't think that Bertuzzi intended to hurt the guy, or anything of the sort, but that doesn't excuse what happened. And for that, I think he should be benched for the season, if not longer. And also fined with the amount depending on how serious/lasting the injuries end up being.
Does anyone remember if the guy was punished at all for giving Naslund the concussion two games prior?
-K
The guy that hit Naslund wasn't even penalized, I believe.
I've played hockey since I was eight, so I can tell you just from the amateur level that things get pretty intense out there sometimes. I've had coaches tell me to takes so and so's head off if he gets too rough. That doesn't mean you do it, but the mentaility was there. And some kids go out there just to see who they can maim. Some of these kids get drafted too =P
What happened with Bertuzzi was partial accident. I have no problem with him smacking the guy in the back of the head...players do that all the time. But the ensuing freefall pile drive into the ice has to be punished. I don't think Bertuzzi meant to do that, but what he meant to do doesn't matter. It happened. It's horrible...so something needs to be done.
As far as violence...hockey's a violent sport. I won't deny I've given some guys chops to the backs of the legs where I didn't care if I hamstrung them or not. I'm not proud of that, but when you play against assholes in a poorly refereed game, you have to defend yourself.
Bertuzzi was suspended for at least the rest of the regular season and the playoffs by the NHL on Thursday. Bertuzzi's "eligibility" for the 2004-05 NHL season will be determined by the commissioner.
He'll also forfeit at least $501,926.39 US in salary, money the Canucks will pay into the NHL Players' Emergency Assistance Fund.
I have mixed feelings about this. He broke a dude's neck, but I don't think it was intentional. I think any reaction from the NHL would be met with mixed feelings though.
As an ex hockey player myself i believe he should be banned from playing hockey ever again. If someone can't control there actions when on the ice i don't believe they should be in the sport. i played since i was 9 till i was 19 and i was able to control myself although i did get in fights they were always self defense and i did get called for hitting from behind once or twice it was only cause the kid turned at the last moment and it was his fault but anyway what he did is totaly unexcusable and he should be held responcible to help prevent such incedents in the future hockey has too much crap that goes on now adays with holding and all the game needs to be opened back up like it was in the old days with bobby oar where hockey was more about skills than who can be the bigger and cheeper jerk out there without getting caught breaking the rules
Canderic(Boston fan)
Yeah, hockey should be like the old days, when teams like Boston and Philadelphia were famous for being nothing more than hired thugs. </sarcasm>
Injuries in hockey are nothing new, even incidents like Bertuzzi's seem to happen once a year. Anyone remember McSorley whacking Brashear? The guy (Ted Green, I think) who has a plate in his head for getting hit with someone's stick - in the 60's? Suter's crosscheck to the face of Kariya?
You can't ever remove the inherent violence in this sport, it has always been around. But you can punish the violators who go too far - Bertuzzi's suspension is appropriate from the league, and if there are criminal charges brought up, well and good. People do need to be accountable for their actions, even in sports.
Hockey is a great sport, in my opinion the best one to see live (and that's coming from a die-hard, season ticket-holding football fan). It sucks that things like this renew the outcry about the sport being too violent, which I don't think it is.
The fact is that although I'm sure Bertuzzi didn't mean to fracture Moore's neck, he did go after him from behind. And that's what all the highlight reels are showing and what folks are reacting to.
Though Bertuzzi can technically skate next year, I think the commissioner will extend the suspension. The league has to take a super-harsh stance to help silence the outcry.
I only really started watching hockey a few years ago on a regular basis, so I don't have huge amounts to compare this against.
But everyone I've heard in the media seems to be talking about how absolutely brutal and savage this was and its the worst thing they've seen in hockey ever.
Do you guys really think this is the case? Or is it just the media jumping on Bertuzzi since he comes off so cold to them (who wouldn't be, really?) and riding this for as much as its worth.
Compare it to the slash that Matt Johnson gave to Matt Cooke for which he got a five game suspension. Or how about the hit that Steve Moore leveled on Naslund (not saying that this hit justified what Bertuzzi did)? It was absolutely brutal and deliberate. Last game I watched a Wilde's player was holding onto a Canucks player in a fight for the puck near the boards, and pounding on the back of his head.
Those are just a few recent examples.. my hockey trivia isn't good enough to go far back for more examples, though Jozep gave a few more. So is what Bertuzzi did really that bad, in comparison?
As far as the punishment goes, I think it should've been for the regular season only, dependent on if the guy makes a full recovery or not. I don't think the suspension should be extended at all, though and the $250,000 fine to the Canucks was ridiculous.
As a side note, one thing I think is missing from hockey.. sportsmanship. Football, you'll see someone on the other team help a guy off the ground. Soccer, I've seen a team give the ball away on a throw-in just because of a bad call/play on their part. You don't seem things like that in hockey very often at all.
-K
I finally got to see the hit today (I've been insanely busy lately and haven't had much time for ESPN), and I'm convinced that what happened was completely unintentional. The pile-on and the 20 foot slide across the ice looked like it did the major damage. The hit was wrong, and the long suspension has to be done because of the severity of the injuries...the whole situation is fucked up all the way around.
First of all, the media is ignorant to the point of being clinically retarded. Most of the "newscasters" who covered the incident don't even know what hockey is...don't know anyone but Wayne Gretzky maybe...and therefore have no call to be fanning their opinions to anyone. I hate the media, and I'm majoring in the damn field.
It's the fault of the ignorant and panicky that we have those stupid nets up in all the arenas now, because a puck bounced off of three different things and struck and killed a little girl spectator. Now, I feel for the girl and her family, I'm not heartless....but one spectator in all the history of the sport is nothing compared to the number of people who have been seriously injured by especially line drive foul balls in baseball....so should we put nets all around the diamond too? Or are we gonna wait until one of these power sluggers hits one into the stands hard enough to kill someone.
Now back to Bertuzzi....he got the punishment he deserved and I think his tearful apology was heartfelt....I disagree with the idea that there is no sportsmanship in hockey, both from a personal and professional level. When one of my teammates broke his leg in a mid-ice collision, both teams helped get him into the ambulence, and the guy who hit him visited him during his surgery. I've seen it before where everybody on the ice helps and respects people who are hurt or have had great success in their career. The gave Mike Richter close to a 30 minute show at the Garden, where everyonefrom all teams and the whole crowd gave him a standing ovation for some 10 minutes at least.
Part of the reason why it seems like there is no sportsmanship in professional hockey, is because of the pretty intense language barrier. Everyone chips in if someone is hurt or is someone succeeds cause you can communicate that with images....but try getting anything else to the nearly 20 different countries represented in the sport through language. Compared to football, where everyone is english speaking, and (usually) American. And baseball where the spanish players are usually looked on as poor sports at some time in their careers, just because they can't speak English.
First off, Bertuzzi got what he deserved. I think the punishment definitely fits the crime, so to speak. It was a complete chicken-shit move that he didn't have to pull. The guy is 6'5 230+ lbs, he doesn't have to do any sneaking, he can just square up with a guy and go to town. Now, that being said, the reason he didn't get to fairly square up with Moore was because Moore and the rest of the Avalanche were instructed by Granato, their coach, to not fight during the 3rd period, at all costs. This is something you can tell youth league players, not professionals. Granato was a pussy when he played, and he's obviously still one as a coach. So even if Moore wasn't going to fight Bertuzzi, he needed to suck that one up and just wait for his chance. Me personally, when I played and wanted to get back at someone, patience was my friend. There are plenty of ways to where you can draw a player into a hit, with a little cooperation from a teammate or two of yours. He could've laid him out and it would've been totally legal, all he had to do was buy some time.
Now on to the big picture. Bertuzzi screwed himself the least. He is going to miss 15 games this year, which is costing him the 500 grand in salary. He's already made 2-3 million in salary this year so far, not to mention endorsements. I'm not crying for him. The people who did get screwed majorly, were his team, and the fans. Without Bertuzzi, Vancouver is going to head into the playoffs and get trounced. He isn't just an enforcer, this is a guy who scored 45+ goals last year, and all it takes is a little playoff streak to get him back on that sort of pace. Powerplay? Forget about it. Vancouver would park him in front of the net and it would take 2 guys to -barely- get him out of the goalie's way. Vancouver is going to get rocked in the playoffs without him, he's their most valuable player by far. As for the fans, this was supposed to be a good playoff year for this team. People were already itching with playoff fever. Now they're going to be lucky to get 2 games in Vancouver, since I'm counting on them being swept, if not losing in 5.
And finally, about Khirmint's comment of sportsmanship, I couldn't disagree more. I believe out of the major 4 sports, Hockey holds the most sportsmanship, if not an extremely close second. You can't expect hockey players to help each other up. They have gloves and a stick in one hand. Try helping someone up one-handed while on skates. Much easier to just get up. Plus, hockey players don't want help up. It shows as a sign of weakness if you take long to get up or someone helps you. You don't want to show that. 2 examples within just the last two days, on Saturday I saw Thomas Holmstrom go into a corner with a guy trying to get a puck, the guy hit a rut in the ice and went in -very- awkwardly. Holmstrom knelt down a bit and checked the guy to make sure he was looking alright, then looked around to see where the puck had gone and got back into the play. Yesterday, Brett Hull goes crashing into Marty Turco, they end up in a pile in the net. Hull immediately leans over to check if Turco is ok and gives the guy a pat on the ass. Another example of the sportsmanship in hockey is the playoffs. You get through a grueling series where everyone has tried to kill each other and have exhausted themselves, then you have the post-series "handshake" which lasts 15-20 minutes. Find me another sports where the teams do more than slap hands and it's over in 2 minutes.