The Bertuzzi Hit — A Different Perspective

Todd Bertuzzi of the Vancouver Canucks was just handed a suspension which has the potential to be the longest one the National Hockey League has ever issued. He was suspended for the balance of the regular season (13 games) and the entire playoffs (anywhere from 4 games to 28 games depending on the performance of the Canucks). And it may not end there. At the beginning of training camp Bertuzzi will have to apply for reinstatement to Commissioner Gary Bettman, who may or may not extend the suspension. Even assuming that he is reinstated right away, that's still a potential of 41 games.

You may ask "What did Bertuzzi do to deserve such a harsh penalty?" The popular interpretation of events goes something like this: Bertuzzi was mad at Colorado Avalanche player Steven Moore for a cheap shot elbow delivered to Vancouver Canuck captain Markus Naslund a couple of weeks earlier, which caused Naslund to miss 3 games. He wanted to get even. He stalked Moore for 15 seconds before sucker punching him in the head and driving his face into the ice, knocking him unconscious and breaking his neck in the process.

This has many people calling for Bertuzzi's head on a silver platter. Well, maybe not, but there are many fans and reporters alike arguing that Bertuzzi should never play in the NHL again. However there is a lot more to this story than what is written above.

First, I want to address the issue of Bertuzzi intentionally driving Moore's head into the ice. I don't think this is true. From what I see, Moore was knocked out by the punch, collapsing without Bertuzzi's help. Momentum, and the fact that Bertuzzi was holding Moore's jersey, brought him down on top of him. Not to mention the fact that immediately afterwards, Andrei Nikolishin of Colorado leaped onto the pile. I'm sure that didn't make things any better.

Secondly, let's look at the "stalking." Bertuzzi followed Moore around, tugging at his jersey. Moore knew darn well that he was there. Bertuzzi would have been trying to get Moore to drop the gloves. When Moore kept ignoring him, not wanting to fight, Bertuzzi got frustrated, hauled off, and punched him.

This is not the first time we've seen a sucker punch. Others have resulted in suspensions. In 1999, Tie Domi received an eight game suspension for sucker punching Ulf Samuelsson, which knocked him out and gave him a concussion. Now I've never liked Samuelsson after what he did to Cam Neely, but still — eight games. In 1998, Matt Johnson received a 12 game suspension for punching Jeff Beukeboom in the back of the head in a retaliatory move, giving him a concussion and ending his career. In looking at these examples, a 13 game suspension for Bertuzzi is reasonable. That covers the rest of the regular season, but not the playoffs. But he was suspended for the playoffs. Since Bertuzzi is one of the best players in the league, this will end up hurting the Canucks and the fans more than anybody. Their chances of doing well in the playoffs have taken a major blow.

To put things in perspective, the previous longest suspension in league history was given to Marty McSorley in 2000. McSorley swung his stick and smacked Donald Brashear (also of the Canucks) in the head with it. It was arguably the most brutal attack the league had even seen. For that McSorley got 23 games. Bertuzzi is facing more. So punching a guy in the face earns you a longer suspension than swinging your stick and hitting someone in the head. Apparently that makes sense to Colin Campbell (NHL VP), but not to me. Also, you can look at a guy like Bryan Marchment. This guy is, as Greg Sansone from The Score so eloquently put it, "the poster boy for repeat offenders." He is the cheapest of the cheap for running players from behind and kneeing. But he's never gotten a suspension close to this.

It's obvious that the league is looking to make an example of Bertuzzi. They foolishly believe that if they give one of their star players a suspension longer than any other in the history of the game that players will stop retaliating and dispensing "frontier justice," to use the popular expression for this type of behaviour. Well the NHL should stop pointing all the fingers at the players and start point them at itself. I'm taking this back to the referees. When Moore hit Naslund, he didn't even receive a minor penalty. He could have been called for several things, like elbowing or interference. But he wasn't called for anything. After that game, Bertuzzi said, "I think that's a joke. It's unfortunate the game was where it was at because it would have been a different situation for sure. . . That's for the refs to police and they didn't do it." I dare say that if one of the two referees had called even a minor penalty on Moore, none of this would have ever happened.

Why is it that two referees do a worse job officiating a game than one? The two-referee system was supposed to be a solution to these types of missed calls, but instead things have gotten worse. That leaves it up to the players to settle things on their own, which is not right. Bettman needs to make sure that his officials actually make calls. If the players are getting penalized for their infractions, other players won't go after them with cheap shots.

Was Bertuzzi right to do what he did? Of course not. There's no place for that kind of thing in hockey. He deserves being suspended for the rest of the regular season. No more. No less. I feel it's unfair to make this kind of example out of Todd Bertuzzi. The league needs to examine itself as opposed to dishing out suspension after suspension. How about calling penalties instead?