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.