Red Wings, Bertuzzi, in town

It is perhaps the ugliest on-ice incident that the NHL has ever seen. In fact, becasue of the severity of the whole thing, it was not only dealt with by the league in the form of an indefinite suspension that lasted a full season (the lockout season), but the British Columbia Ministry of the Attorney General also got involved and charged the aggressor with assault causing bodily harm. The play consisted of a blind-sided sucker punch to the head, followed by a tackle from behind. The results and injuries to Steve Moore, the unfortunate Colorado Avalanche player who was on the receiving end, were three fractured vertebrae in his neck, a grade three concussion, vertebral ligament damage, stretching of the brachial plexus nerves, and facial cuts. To this day, Moore has never been medically cleared to play. The player who dished out this punishment was Vancouver Canucks forward Todd Bertuzzi, who along with his suspension, lost close to $1 million in salary and endorsements. Although Bertuzzi's suspension coincided with the 2004-2005 lockout season, the IIHF was on board with the NHL, which meant that he could not play in Europe during the NHL's canceled season. Bertuzzi was given one year of probation by the Canadian court after reaching a plea agreement, and he is still entangled in a couple of civil suites over the incident.

Now the point of this re-hash is not to center on this particular black-mark to the NHL...but I find it interesting how and why professional athletes are able to bounce back from incidents that would ordinarily end someones career. In the real world, the display mentioned above most certainly would have ended with jail time and a new line of work for most. But time and time again, what happens on the ice, field, or court, seems to play out with a set of rules that differ from the general public. Now not all pro's 'skate' after finding trouble and I am not suggesting that courts and lawyers be involved in what happens during games. But I find our priorities and how we hold our players and games interesting. Our society places some professional athletes on a higher level than other athletes and certainly higher than your average joe. Just because someone can skate fast, throw far, or shoot with pinpoint accuracy, they are not necessarily given a pass (although they sometimes are), but are looked upon different when there is controversy and trouble that surrounds them, simply because of who they are. It is a forgive and forget mentality. Now I have no problem with the forgive part and there comes a point in time when you have served your time and paid for your discretion's...but I cannot forget. And I cannot cheer and revel in someones accomplishments when their history tells a story such as the one that was written by Burtuzzi during that game in March of 2004.

I am not going to debate the sincerity of Bertuzzi's very public apology to Moore and his family, Brian Burke (the Canucks GM), Canucks owner John McCaw, Jr., the Canucks organization, his teammates, and the fans. I happen to believe his apology and think he was truly sorry for his bone-headed play. But that does not mean he should have been allowed back on the ice. Todd is probably a great guy and I feel sorry for what happened, to him and especially Moore, but I would not have allowed him back in the NHL, period. It was a very unfortunate incident but my punishment would have been a life-time ban.

At a loss over the loss

You have to love Mike Greenlay, the Minnesota Wild's television analyst. He certainly comes up with some great one-liners and phrases that can keep me entertained for months that go well beyond the hockey season. And last nights 'Clutterbuck factor' was another example of how his humor is often times dead-on. Cal Clutterbuck was once again putting up some big hits numbers when, in the second period, he ran into the elbow of Todd Bertuzzi. It would have been a nice hit, but because the elbow was extended specifically for Clutterbuck, Bertuzzi was given a penalty. Well in the end, the 6 hits that Clutterbuck threw did not jolt the Flames enough as Calgary left with a 3-2 ot victory...but the phrase does ring true. And however bad the loss is and was, at least I have another Greenlay phrase to add to my memory bank.

Ice that puck

A bad trend has crept into the Wild's game this season and that is the inability to get the puck out of the D-zone with a clean break-out play. And last night, in a game that could have been decided by the Flames in the first period, Calgary held the pressure on for a good part of the opening period. Although the shot-totals favored the Wild 11-7 in that period, from my vantage point, that was no indication of who had the upper-hand. The Flames clearly carried the play and Minnesota was fortunate to escape with only a 1-0 deficit. In fact, things got so bad in the defensive zone for the Wild that they took 4 icing whistles in the first, two coming on virtually the same shift. Now I have not kept track of the icing stats this season, but it seems to me that whipping the puck down the rink cannot be a good sign, especially from a team fighting for a playoff spot.

Shoot that puck

Ever since the Wild came to be, they have not been a team that often out-shoots their opponent. And so far, this has not seemed to hinder them all that much because they have always been a good team at capitalizing on the few chances that they do get. But going through a whole period with only a single shot on net is really puzzling to me. I cannot figure out how, by some lucky bounce or an errant pass, more than one puck does not hit the opposing goaltender. The simple fact is that if you don't shoot, you are not going to score. Minnesota is currently 2-tenths of a shot out of last place in the league in average shots per game. The team is in the middle of the pack when it comes to shots allowed, but it is clear that this team needs to simply shoot. It's amazes me how you can watch one team throw garbage at the goal and before you know it, that garbage has turned into a goal, as was the case on 2 of the 3 Calgary goals last night.

Lemaire is still the man

I have done a lot of speculation on Lemaire coming back for another season. In fact, I have flat out said that I don't think he will be back, and I still believe that. But that does not mean I want him gone. I actually happen to believe that he is one of the best, if not the best, coaches in the NHL. And I would be thrilled to have him stick around for as long as he likes. Truth be known, he is getting all he can out of his players. The problem is that he is getting all he can out of his players...he just does not have the right players. If you are honest about our lineup, you can see that we have a lot of 'nice' and 'good' players on the roster. But we certainly do not have the mix needed to make any run in the post season.