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Hockey reaches a new low...


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They have been running the clip over and over on Espn, damn! :angry: I have seen nasty hits before(Which the NHL and espn love to show us a million times over) but this one, jumping on a guys back, forcing him to dive head first to the ice....bastard should be retired, not just suspended for what little is left of the hockey season....

Associated Press

TORONTO -- It will be awhile before Steve Moore gets back on the ice for the Colorado Avalanche. Todd Bertuzzi of the Vancouver Canucks might have to wait just as long.

Clement: Cowardly Act

Bertuzzi

Todd Bertuzzi deserves to be suspended for 20 games for his attack on Steve Moore. It was a cowardly, premeditated act against a smaller player that did plenty of damage. Even worse is that Bertuzzi went after Moore from behind. A suspension lasting 20 games would potentially cost Bertuzzi seven playoff games and send a message to the rest of the league that this type of behavior is not allowable.

But it should be pointed out that, were it not for the NHL's instigator rule, this situation would likely have resolved itself back on Feb. 16 after Moore knocked Canucks captain Markus Naslund out for three games with a concussion. Any player deemed the instigator in a fight earns an extra two-minute minor penalty and an additional 10-minute misconduct. But without the threat of additional penalties the Canucks would have been able to police the situation immediately, send a message and be done with it.

As it is, though, the instigator rule is allowing certain players to skate around using their sticks as weapons without fear of retribution from the other side. I have yet to meet a player or coach who likes the rule. Abolishing it would be a good thing for the game because teams would then have the ability to regulate themselves before the league has to step in.

-- ESPN's Bill Clement

Moore will miss the rest of the season with a broken neck, the result of a sucker punch from Bertuzzi. Moore also sustained a concussion and deep facial cuts, and he will remain hospitalized in Vancouver indefinitely.

Bertuzzi, an All-Star forward for the Canucks, was suspended indefinitely pending a hearing at the NHL office in Toronto on Wednesday. The hearing, which had been scheduled for the morning, was delayed until the afternoon to give both sides more time to prepare, said Gary Meagher, an NHL spokesman.

B.C. Solicitor General Rich Coleman and Vancouver police are investigating, the second time in four years police have looked into an on-ice hit at an NHL game in the city.

"It doesn't matter what the score was, what the time was, what the place was, what the history was, there's no room in our game for that," Colorado coach Tony Granato said.

Bertuzzi slugged Moore in the side of the head late in Monday night's 9-2 Colorado victory. He hit Moore from behind and drove his head into the ice. Moore landed face-first -- with 245-pound Bertuzzi on top of him -- and lay in a pool of blood for several minutes before he was removed from the ice on a stretcher.

"All I'm concerned with is he regain his health," said Pierre Lacroix, Avalanche president and general manager. "All legal matters and all medical matters, I don't want to think about."

Bertuzzi's punch appeared to be retaliation for an open-ice hit Moore delivered to Canucks captain Markus Naslund last month, knocking him out for three games. Vancouver players had vowed to get even with Moore for that hit, which was not penalized.

The Canucks did not go after Moore in last week's rematch in Denver, a 5-5 tie attended by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

Naslund said he didn't believe Bertuzzi planned to hurt Moore.

"He tried to do something he thought was right for his team, to challenge someone," Naslund said. "He wanted to make a point that you don t go out and hit our players."

Bertuzzi's punch and its aftermath sent shock waves through the league, with players condemning his actions and calling for tough penalties.

"As NHL players, we get fired up and sometimes do stupid things on the ice, but nobody wants to see injuries to the extent of Moore's," Detroit Red Wings veteran Brendan Shanahan said.

Even the NHL's so-called goons were appalled.

"It doesn't matter what your name is, this is not right," said the Calgary Flames' Krzysztof Oliwa, a well-traveled fighter. "This is not hockey; this is being cheap."

Wayne Gretzky said it was an example of something that can happen in a sport that often turns violent.

"It's a very emotional game, and you can quickly lose your temper and lose your focus," the Hall of Famer said in Lakeland, Fla., where he was watching the Toronto Blue Jays-Detroit Tigers game.

"What happened was wrong, and I am sure that nobody feels worse about it than Todd."

When Moore's condition improves, he will be transferred to Craig Hospital in Denver and evaluated by neurosurgeons, the Avalanche said.

"Steve knows he has the support of the entire Avalanche family and hockey fans throughout the world, and we hope that he recovers as soon as possible," Avalanche president and general manager Pierre Lacroix said.

Vancouver general manager Brian Burke said that Bertuzzi was "too distraught" to attend Tuesday's news conference but that the Canucks right wing tried to contact Moore at the hospital.

"That to me shows the sincerity more than any statement that we could issue," said Burke, who will fly to Toronto to be with Bertuzzi at his hearing Wednesday.

"He's remorseful, and relieved that Mr. Moore's injuries at this point appear, that a full recovery should be possible," Burke added.

Bertuzzi was an All-Star last season, when he was fifth in the league in scoring. This year, he was an All-Star again and has 60 points, 23rd in the league.

"If most people knew how upset Todd was by the result of what happened they would have a different view on things," said teammate Trevor Linden, also president of the NHL Players' Association.

In February 2000, tough guy Marty McSorley, then with the Boston Bruins, was charged for hitting then-Vancouver Canuck Donald Brashear with his stick.

Brashear was knocked unconscious and missed 20 games with a concussion.

McSorley was convicted of assault with a weapon, but he received an 18-month conditional discharge, meaning no jail time and no criminal record after probation.

However, his one-year suspension from the NHL ended his 17-year career.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=1754963

Edited by BERIGAN
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<rant>

What the hell do you mean, "Hockey reaches a new low"??? Give me a break! Professional boxing, which has become no more serious than wrestling without the masks gets treated with seriousness on this site. Steroid gobbling freaks have taken over baseball. It's normal for football players to be crippled for life after hanging up the spikes (life being to about the midfiftes for them...), and yet we see an announcement that "hockey reaches a new low". What a load of crap.

Yeah, this asshole deserves to be suspended for 20 years; screw the 20 games. Dale Hunter ought to be driving a taxi. And the NHL needs to get serious about curbing this kind of shit. But to dump on the whole sport because of this prick is ridiculous.

</rant>

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It's easy to dump on the sport because they allow the players to act like children with no self control and no fear of punishment. Can you imagine if the refs allowed basketball players to throw punches at each other and beat the shit out of each other until one hit the floor and all you had to do was sit on the bench for two minutes and then you were back in the game? It's bullshit.

Yes hockey is an emotional game. So is every other sport. The NHL needs to ban fighting completely. Throw a punch, you're fined and suspended, just like in the NBA.

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Spoiled brats? Odd, that's one of the reasons I like hockey; it's the only pro sport left that isn't dominated by spoiled brats. Hockey players don't act like the world owes them whatever they want just because they can play a sport the way basketball and baseball stars do. If you asked a hockey player for a political opinion in an interview, they'd probably look at you like you were stoned, rather than think they have something meaningful to say just because they can run fast or hit a ball.

I really can't defend the fighting, but lets be real; people are rarely hurt badly in a hockey fight. It's cheapshot shenanigans like the one discussed here that make the sport look bad, and hurt people. Personally, at the very least, I would suspend any player who hurts another player in any way that involves a rules violation, and they would have to sit out until the injured player returned to the ice. Then they would get their suspension.

One more point:

Comparing hockey fighting to a fight in any other sport (except baseball; those idiots wouldn't know how to fight if their lives depended on it!) is unfair. Come on, Jim, people don't drop to the floor because they've been beaten senseless; look at their feet! In case no one has noticed, these people are trying to fight on skates! They drop to the ice because you just can't do it. :g

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I never said they act like spoiled brats, I said they act like children. Children do not know how to control their emotions. All athletes get emotional in every sport and I don't think it's acceptable for professional athletes to throw punches at each other (unless the sport is a martial art or boxing, obviously).

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I never said they act like spoiled brats, I said they act like children. Children do not know how to control their emotions. All athletes get emotional in every sport and I don't think it's acceptable for professional athletes to throw punches at each other (unless the sport is a martial art or boxing, obviously).

They should all be issued firearms. A good clean kill (preferably while the victim is sitting on the bench or coming in from the locker room) is much to be preferred to this neck-breaking stuff and spilling blood right there out on the stark white ice.

A sort of MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction) situation will eventually settle in (like the cold war) keeping actual deaths to a tolerable minimum; or it'll be Hatfields and McCoys; either way, we, the viewers, are the winners.

--eric

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As far as I'm concerned, the last time I saw superb hockey was the Canada/Russia series. It was clean, skillful exciting hockey. Not one fight, but plenty of hockey.

I grew up with hockey. My three brothers all played it. My father was a rabid fan. But, what's happened in the last thirty years is sad. There are fans who watch hockey because they expect there to be fights. The game is aggressive to begin with and brawls are an element that has no place in an already rough game.

The players are expected to be body-checking and skating to elude the opposite team's players, in order to score goals.

The unnecessary bully tactics seem to have begun around the mid-seventies and that, to me is when hockey stopped being an interesting game and started being a street brawl on skates.

I no longer watch hockey, but did see the incident being described here, on the regular news and was not surprised.

Edited by patricia
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they would have to sit out until the injured player returned to the ice. Then they would get their suspension.

This part I think would be effective ... what if Moore doesn't happen to recover and never plays again ... Bertuzzi would be banned for life!

That might make players think twice.

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I played ice hockey for 15 years, so I can relate to the statements that are being made about the emotion that's intrinsic to the game. I know it sounds silly, but if you haven't played it, then you really don't understand. However, that doesn't mean there aren't lines...and lines that shouldn't be crossed. Bertuzzi is a hard nosed player...I've seem him play at least 10 times...but he's not known to be a goon or a cement head. The fact of the matter is, he lost his head...he crossed the line and now he's paying the freight. While I think the suspension meted out by the NHL is fair (and probably more severe than I thought it would be) I think a better approach would have been to tie his return to Moore's. Suspend Bertuzzi for the lesser of one year of when Moore is able to play again.

I love this game and I hate to see it besmirched by actions like those of a Todd Bertuzzi, a Marty McSorley or a Claude Lemieux. The League is doing the right thing by drawing down on this kind of behavior. With the game struggling like it is and the spectre of the CBA and a possible work stoppage on the horizon, they simply couldn't afford not to drop the shoe.

Up over and out.

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I played ice hockey for 15 years, so I can relate to the statements that are being made about the emotion that's intrinsic to the game. I know it sounds silly, but if you haven't played it, then you really don't understand.

Admittedly, I've never played the game, but I don't see how hockey could be more emotional than the NFL, which doesn't allow fighting.

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Chrome -

There's just something about having a stick in your hands and the speed of the game that makes for a different dynamic. Not to mention the fact that in football, you're hitting someone on just about every play. I think that may tend to dampen aggressive tendencies that might otherwise manifest themselves in the absence of near constant contact.

Up over and out.

Edited by Dave James
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So therefor people shouldn't be expected to act like adults and other professional athletes and keep their emotions in check? Because they're skating around really fast and carrying a big stick?

Seems like that's the biggest reason why they shouldn't be allowed to fight at all. Too easy to get caught up in the moment and do something stupid.

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Chrome -

There's just something about having a stick in your hands and the speed of the game that makes for a different dynamic. Not to mention the fact that in football, you're hitting someone on just about every play. I think that may tend to dampen aggressive tendencies that might otherwise manifest themselves in the absence of near constant contact.

Up over and out.

But why then is there so much difference in the amount of mindless violence between the regular season and the playoffs, or between American and European hockey?

Not that the game is ever completely free of folks overreatcting to the violence that is inherent in the game, but it seems that when the stakes are high, on-ice assaults become less common, regardless of stick-carrying or skating speed.

So let's raise the stakes a bit and see how well hockey players can contain themselves.

The only reason hockey wouldn't do this is that they feel that fights and assaults are what they are really selling--pro wrestling with real blood, more or less.

I think its more than past time the NHL, and North American hockey at large, took a hard and serious look at this.

The game has a lot of potential to expand if it can put the "wrestling on skates" image behind it.

--eric

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If you asked a hockey player for a political opinion in an interview, they'd probably look at you like you were stoned, rather than think they have something meaningful to say just because they can run fast or hit a ball. 

An emotional Bertuzzi apologized to Moore.

"These comments are for Steve. I had no intention of hurting you," Bertuzzi said Wednesday night, reading a statement before the Canucks played the Wild.

So they do get "stoned" before they play this game? :blink:

Edited by Man with the Golden Arm
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In my own admittedly limited viewing experience, I find fighting in hockey to be moronic, not much of a notch up from wrestling's idiotic displays. As Patricia noted in an earlier post, Olympic hockey is a lot more fun to watch. You can have hard checking, but when the game stops for fighting it's gotten out of control. Hockey players are enormously talented athletes, but the fighting aspect prevents the proper exhibition of speed & skill that could be displayed. Gretzky was very outspoken on this issue in favor of banning fighting. B-3r's point about expecting players to act like adults is a very good point.

Edited by PHILLYQ
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I like hockey for the amazing ways the puck can be scored or passed.

All the same, as a person who does not iceskate, I've always found it a little difficult to get into and less accessable than hoops or baseball or football or golf or many other sports I like better.

Without the fighting, hockey would take up less time on Sportscenter--so I'm all for it. :P

I felt bad for the guilty hockey player as I watched him cry last night. Once, I lost my temper playing basketball and hurt my friend with a hard foul--I can relate to Bertuzzi's embarassment, anguish, and regret. Apologies don't go far with an assault of this sort.

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I'm not at all adverse to banning fighting altogether. I agree that it detracts from the sport in a major way. Like Patricia said, there's a beauty in the European style of play that you rarely see on this side of the pond. Unfortunately, fighting has been always woven into the fabric of the game, for better or for worse. You can't even begin to discuss hockey history without discussing the great and memorable fights and fighters...Fontinato/Laycoe; Howe/Fontinato, the bench clearing brawls, the Broad Street Bullies, Eddie "Clear the Track" Shack, Howie Young, Ty Domi...it goes on and on. I'm not endorsing this, I'm just saying it's hard to separate the game from this unfortunate aspect of the game. And, let's face it, just like a lot of people watch car racing for the accidents, a lot of people watch hockey for the fights. When you have the kind of limited fan base that hockey has, the powers that be have to be careful about alienating anyone. As outrageous as that might sound on its face, it's just smart business.

Up over and out.

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