Todd Bertuzzi Suspension...How Long?

[PDL007]

I was watching that game last night. My first reaction was he will be gone for the remainder of the regular season and maybe more.

Moore's hit on Naslund was brutal but Legal. Naslund was falling and Moore hit his head.

Bertuzzi chased him all night and finally from behind hit him in the HEAD.

I've played hockey since I was 4 and this kind of behaviour should be punished by LAW. This was no accident or chasing of the puck. (miscalculating on a hit, player turning there back to you last second or a reaction chasing the puck is diffirent). Bertuzzi like McSorley acted with intent to injure. This should be punishable by Law and the player should be thrown out of the league. This may be harsh but so is not being able to do your job anymore or being paralized.

I pray that Bertuzzi be used as a benchmark. Throw him out and charge him with Aggravated Assualt.

He is a great player but that is no excuse for what he did.

This is not Hockey. Hockey is a fast aggressive game with physical contact not the freakin Glaidiator Games.

I wish Mr. Moore all the best for him and his Family.
Godspeed.

 

[Goober Mcfly]

to me - the important factor is the intent to injure. clean hits, and standing up like a man and fighting are one thing. hitting from behind in such a worm like fashion deserves derision and severe punishment.

Amen.

 

[LanceMcClure]

Just heard that Moore is out for the year. Its obvious now that at a minmum, so will Bertuzzi.

 

[Caveman2002]

Bertuzzi will get suspended for the rest of the year .. the only question is.. if the NHL wants to make a statment.. they may suspend him beyond that. I believe that the rest of the year is a certainty.

It was a gutless thing to do.. if he would have confronted him face to face first, then sucker punch him, it might have been a differrent reaction... but hitting him from behind and then driving him into the ice is a gutless thing to do.. I don't care what the motivation was...I was in a bar and saw a Vancouver fan cheer .. and for fans to either cheer this or try to accept it and justify a two to five game suspension just tells me how ignorant the fans are too... I'm a long time sports fan.. and my respect for him just dropped to the basement. I was a fan of his... now I just hope the tough guys in the league wait for this guy's suspension to end and then, one at a time .. take him on face to face all over the league.. he deserves to have the shit kicked out of him on a regular basis for this gutless move. You can bet your ass that if he ever wants to take a guy on again, he'll go about it a whole different way.. unless he's as stupid as he is gutless.

 

[Drunken Master]

* Eddie Shore on Ace Bailey - Bailey never played again
* Marty McSorley with the stick swinging on Donald Brashear
* Claude Lemieux's hit from behind on Kris Draper

Even Domi's elbow on Scott Neidermeyer was cheaper. I think the difference, other than in the Ace Bailey situation, is the severity of the resulting injury. The sucker punch was ugly enough - it's the broken neck that will make this a huge deal.

Okay, I agree with Eddie Shore - that was at least as cheap. But Brashear, Draper and Neidermeyer all came back. Moore might well come back too, but he very, very, easily could have ended up in a wheel-chair for life. All it takes is one tiny neck bone to cut the wrong nerve.

I remember when I saw Lemieux's hit I though he ought to be thrown out of the league. I feel the same about Bertuzzi. I don't know what was in his mind, but if we can infer his intent from his actions - and courts of law are asked to do this all the time - then he wanted nothing less than to end Moore's career. His career should be sacrficed as punishment.

 

[racemedic]

Well everyone is talking about Moore having a cracked 3rd vertbre and thankfully still has feeling in his arms and legs well that is not the only thing to thankfull for, Christopher Reeves broke his 3rd vertbre and is not breathing on his own. So luckly Moore is still alive

 

[scubadoo]

Aww cmon Taber if you play hockey you know full well Moore could have avoided Naslund easily, he choose not too, I wouldn't have either..the other team is the enemy regardless of stature. But trying to take out another teams star player or captain to me necessitates pay back...sorry I'm a tad vengeful.

Paul...you sound like someone who probably played hockey up to the end of bantam and went no futher based on your comments.

Considering the speed in which players play the game at today, Moore was already committed to the check when Naslund was going down. he hardly could have avoided it. I can remember a similar incident when I was playing Junior A hockey and a bugger from Pembroke cleaned my clock pretty good, however, I put myself in that position and rec'd a clean hit.

You'd probably augue that the play Jason Doig made on Lindros was an illegal hit. Rule #13 in the hockey player's handbook clearly states that if your staring at your skate laces for 1 mississippi, 2 mississippi, 3 mississippi, your probably not going to hit 4 mississippi becuase someone's gonna lay you out.

Bertuzzi clearly premedidated this attack. He chased Moore from one end of the ice to the other, punched him, then dropped on top of him breaking his neck. Humm....clean hit? I think not.

As to your point that Moore should have faught him, Moore already went toe to toe with Cooke in the first period. Why should be fight again?He's not Tie Domi or Rob Ray.

I was so pissed after hearing about Moore's broken neck that I emailed Colin Campbell to give him may take on the attack and what I felt was punishment. Colin replied that he too was appalled at the attack and would consider what I proposed. That proposal was rest of the regular season and rounds 1 & 2 off the playoffs.

Now, before you start saying I know nothing about hockey, consider that I played 4 years of Junior hockey and was drafted by the London Knights. Sadly, I didn't have what it took to be a star player, but I do have a cousin who won a Stanley Cup with Calgary. So I do have some pretty good sources when it comes to hockey.

*jumps down off of his soapbox*

 

[scubadoo]

Moore might well come back too, but he very, very, easily could have ended up in a wheel-chair for life. All it takes is one tiny neck bone to cut the wrong nerve.

I remember when I saw Lemieux's hit I though he ought to be thrown out of the league. I feel the same about Bertuzzi. I don't know what was in his mind, but if we can infer his intent from his actions - and courts of law are asked to do this all the time - then he wanted nothing less than to end Moore's career. His career should be sacrficed as punishment.

Jeff Beukeboom was sucker punched from behind by Matt Johnson a few years back. Beukeboom never did come back from the injuries that he suffered then. The suspenion handed out to Johnson ( who didn't pile-drive the guy into the ice ) was 12 games.

 

[lenharper]

Anyone who has spent time following the canucks know the kind of player Bertuzzi is. A hard open ice body check (Moore on Naslund) is one thing. an assault from behind is another. Bertuzzi should be suspended for the remainder of the regular season and (at minimum) the first round of the playoffs. Which, if the canucks are true to form, should effectively finish him for this season.

The thing is -- if you are going to deliberately injure someone, at least have the wherewithal to try and disguise it as a body check. Brian Marchment has been doing that for years and will leave the league with a better rep than Bertuzzi will.

And the thing of it is, it is meaningless. naslund was back playing hockey shortly after his "grevious assault" and life was going on fine and dandy. But what Betuzzi has done, well he has damaged his career and his future earning pontential tremendously. he used to appear on Vancouver TV regularly as a kind of "tough but fair" Wendell Clark type. I doubt very much you will be seeing those kind of advertisements in the future.

So he hurt himself, his team and a young hockey player who delivered the kind of hit(can you say Darcy Tucker) that we all want to see players on our favourite teams make on a nightly basis.

 

[n_v]

Bertuzzi ... chased Moore from one end of the ice to the other, punched him, then dropped on top of him breaking his neck.

Actually we really don't know if that is when it happened, or when the 6-8 guys who jumped on top did the damage.

 

[scubadoo]

Actually we really don't know if that is when it happened, or when the 6-8 guys who jumped on top did the damage.

You must be a lawyer!


I'll re-phrase that quote for you:

Bertuzzi ... chased Moore from one end of the ice to the other, punched him, then dropped on top of him. Thess act taken by is one of the significant factors that led to Moore breaking his neck.

 

[the_big_E]

that was just a totally dirty play he should be gone for the season including playoffs....it's just sickening to watch

 

[Goober Mcfly]

Pulling on sweater, roundhouse to the temple and slamming head into ice makes baby Jebus cry...

 

[Goober Mcfly]

...... JeBus..........?

Yeah.

 

[Kev]

I can see we don't have any Canuck fans out East.

The incident by Bertuzzi was stupid and unexcusable. But some of the things i'm reading i just shake my head.

Moore got hurt from hitting his head on the ice not from Bertuzzi's punch. There were three players all falling forward onto Moore that was the contrbuting factor to Moore's injury. It was the same reason why Naslund got hurt "he hit his head on the ice" not from the hit by Moore.

Bertuzzi should face discipline for his actions but 10, 15 games. Gone for the rest of the season. Are you guys on crack? If Moore's injury was directly related to Bertuzzi's punch i would say you would be correct. However it was not so.......

.....5 games is appropriate.

Although because this is his second offence he may get 10. Which would put him back in the line up just in time for the play offs. --- Kev

 

[Kev]

Well if Bertuzzi wouldn't have clocked him from behind, and then fallen on top of him, then Moore wouldn't have fallen face first on to the ice , would he ? That's like saying Brashaer got hurt because his head hit the ice not because McSorley hit him in the head with a stick

We are not talking about the McSorley/Brashear incident.

My point is ............the injury Moore suffered was an accident. Nothing more. It was unfortunate, but an accident. Bertuzzi should be punished for taking a cheap blind sided swing at Moore, not because Moore got hurt.

5 games

I don't fault Moore for hitting Naslund. As someone whos played hockey all my life i would have done the same. Moore could have turned away from Naslund, but then he wouldn't be doing his job. --- Kev

 

[kwong_1978]

IMO,

Bertuzzi: should be suspended for rest of the season including playoffs & 1/2 of next season or whenever the the NHL resume play. *How can you be so stupid? The law will also want a piece of this guy & I hope he gets what he rightfully deserved.*

Crawford: should be suspended for 2 games & fine maximum. *What a classless ass.*

 

[scubadoo]

I can see we don't have any Canuck fans out East.

This has nothing to do with whether or not I am a Canucks fan or not. Stick to the issue. The issue is how many games do you suspend a player for a deliberate premeditated attack on a defeneless player from behind?

The incident by Bertuzzi was stupid and unexcusable.

Yes it was inexcusable....meaning that there is no excuse for this action

Moore got hurt from hitting his head on the ice not from Bertuzzi's punch.

As in any legal case you'll find that the act of punching Moore ( which knocked him out, he was out before hitting the ice) was directly related to and contribute to the other injuries sustain. Cdn-Guy mentioned this in his post comparing this to Brashear. The stick swinging of McSorley directly had an effect on the other injuries sustained. If Bertuzzi didn't punch Moore from behind, he wouldn't have been knocked out and he wouldn't have falling down face first and broken his neck. Do I have to draw a picture for you.

Bertuzzi should face discipline for his actions but 10, 15 games. Gone for the rest of the season. Are you guys on crack? If Moore's injury was directly related to Bertuzzi's punch i would say you would be correct. ]

read what I've posted above. And no, I'm not on crack.

.....5 games is appropriate.

Although because this is his second offence he may get 10. Which would put him back in the line up just in time for the play offs. --- Kev

As Colin Campbell said himself..and I quote him directly " I am just as appalled as you are, I'll keep in mind what you have said".

15 to 20 games I'm sure

 

[Kev]

IMO,

Bertuzzi: should be suspended for rest of the season including playoffs & 1/2 of next season or whenever the the NHL resume play. *How can you be so stupid? The law will also want a piece of this guy & I hope he gets what he rightfully deserved.*

Crawford: should be suspended for 2 games & fine maximum. *What a classless ass.*

Your one funny dude.

I think what i'm really hearing here is Leaf fans afraid come playoff time that if the two teams meet and 'Tuzzis in the line up he'll run over Sundin and the rest of the Leafs team. --- Kev

 

[n_v]

Moore got hurt from hitting his head on the ice not from Bertuzzi's punch. There were three players all falling forward onto Moore that was the contrbuting factor to Moore's injury. It was the same reason why Naslund got hurt "he hit his head on the ice" not from the hit by Moore.

Bertuzzi should face discipline for his actions but 10, 15 games. Gone for the rest of the season. Are you guys on crack? If Moore's injury was directly related to Bertuzzi's punch i would say you would be correct. However it was not so.......

Hey Kev ... I just pushed you off a 20 storey building. It was not my push that hurt you but rather the conrete floor some 250 feet below when you hit it and splattered onto the ground. Blame the concrete for your misery, not me!!

</WTF>