After referees missed Colorado center Steve Moore throwing Vancouver's Markus Naslund an elbow on Feb. 16 that caused Naslund to miss three games with a concussion, the league did nothing to penalize Moore. Literally adding insult to injury, the NHL warned Vancouver not to retaliate.
Enter Todd Bertuzzi, Vancouver's 6-foot-3 monster of a right-winger who weighs as much as 245 pounds with his equipment on. He and Naslund make up the league's best one-two punch, scoring a combined 49 goals this season.
But, at the end of the Canucks' 9-2 loss against Colorado on Monday, Bertuzzi threw down his stick and, glove still on, skated up behind Moore and sucker-punched him in the side of the head.
It was a dirty hit, which was on par with Moore's elbow, and if the league had punished Moore in the first place, it never would have happened.
But what happened after that makes the story this year's biggest hockey fiasco.
Bertuzzi more or less got on Moore's back and fell on him. What Bertuzzi couldn't have known is that his one punch knocked Moore out and that he was driving an unconscious man's head into the ice.
Face it, Bertuzzi may not know his own strength, but nobody expects to knock a guy unconscious by hitting him in the helmet with a gloved hand. Moore's concussion and his two broken vertebrae weren't what Bertuzzi was going for -- he just wanted to send him a message about that Naslund hit.
Immediately, everyone started recalling images of Marty McSorley hitting Donald Brashear with a stick. What didn't seem to matter to anyone was that McSorley deliberately hit the guy in the face with the blade of his stick. Even worse, Avalanche Coach Tony Granato won't quit whining about Bertuzzi's hit when, in his day, Granato once gave a guy the old stick to the face. Real classy, Tony. Isn't that kind of hit a little more severe than a hit with a gloved hand?
The NHL didn't seem to think so when they suspended Bertuzzi for the rest of the regular season and the playoffs. Effectively, they're suspending him a ridiculously long time for being big.
If anybody else hits Moore, Moore turns around and hits him back. If 5-foot-11, 155-pound sportswriter Jeff Hoodzow hits a guy during an intramural basketball game, he might face some minor punishments. But since I'm 6-foot-4, 300 pounds does that mean I should get kicked out of school for doing the same? It's unfair to hold large guys to higher standards.
Even worse, suspending Bertuzzi for the playoffs means Vancouver will not make it out of the first round, taking a potential Stanley Cup team out of the mix. God forbid the NHL should give the Cup to a team not named Detroit, Colorado or New Jersey.
The league should have suspended Bertuzzi for the regular season. Missing those 17 games would cost him half a million dollars. Add on the $250,000 the NHL fined his franchise, and I think Bertuzzi learns his lesson.
But benching Bertuzzi for the playoffs is extreme, and it hurts hockey by taking a good team out of the mix. Enjoy your Stanley Cup, Granato.
Reach the reporter at tim.agne@asu.edu.
