Why it was nice that Bertuzzi finally apologized for his actions last night, he still has one thing he doesn;t get. He claimed that he is not that type of player........well history dictates what type of player you are read the following article below on some of Bertuzzi's history:
The league and game may be bystanders, although neither are innocent: They just didn't pull the trigger on this one. An individual still has to make that reckless decision. This was an orchestrated stickup gone bad. Bertuzzi acted. The rest is shameful history.
He was robbing the bank. He didn't mean to shoot the teller. How many criminals end up the same way?
"He's always had that hair-trigger," said Mike Kelly, who was Bertuzzi's general manager in junior hockey and now runs the Windsor Spitfires. "Unfortunately, it went off the other night."
Unfortunately. Everybody keeps using that word. Unfortunately, Steve Moore is in hospital. Unfortunately, he has a broken neck. Unfortunately, we don't know if he'll ever play hockey again.
Bertuzzi was just doing his job, protecting his teammates, that's what the hockey community will mutter and continue to sound ridiculous saying it.
Bertuzzi was doing what he has done for too long, in too many places, excused by too many people, because he was so very skilled: He was parading violence as sport, living the macho code that is so often misinterpreted in hockey, and figured to be congratulated for it.
"He wanted to make a point," said his teammate, Markus Naslund, maybe the best player in the NHL. "That you don't hit our players."
Some point.
The kid is in hospital. The sucker puncher shouldn't be allowed to play in this or any other season. The NHL has to be that strong when it makes its announcement on suspension length this morning -- it has to be more outraged than even the public on this one.
And no matter what happens, Bertuzzi is probably the lucky one here, lucky that a Colorado player named Andrei Nikolishin was in the right place to stop his left fist from further pounding into Moore's already injured head and neck. Had that punch connected, we might not be debating suspension length today.
We might be talking about murder charges. This isn't a one-time "I snapped" kind of determination for Bertuzzi. There is history here. There is a background. There are stories out there to be told.
Like the time in 1991, playing in the Northern Ontario midget championships, when his team was beaten out in the finals by Sault Ste. Marie and he chased the winning team's bus out of the parking lot, swearing and pounding on the windows, out of control.
The next year, his first in the Ontario Hockey League, Bertuzzi missed the end of that season and the beginning of the next when he was suspended 15 games for kicking a Kitchener player.
The year after that, in his own locker room, for no apparent reason other than jealousy, he punched out teammate Jeff O'Neill, who at the time was Guelph's prized first-round pick.
In the NHL, Bertuzzi punched linesman Jean Morin in a 1996 scuffle and ended up suspended for three games before losing 10 more games to suspension for jumping the bench to attack a Colorado player in 2001.
That's a long and nasty docket for a supposed skill player. There are other stories out there and when asked about them earlier this season in Toronto, Vancouver general manager Brian Burke answered: "That's a lot of bull(crap)."
History is not on his side on this one!
The league and game may be bystanders, although neither are innocent: They just didn't pull the trigger on this one. An individual still has to make that reckless decision. This was an orchestrated stickup gone bad. Bertuzzi acted. The rest is shameful history.
He was robbing the bank. He didn't mean to shoot the teller. How many criminals end up the same way?
"He's always had that hair-trigger," said Mike Kelly, who was Bertuzzi's general manager in junior hockey and now runs the Windsor Spitfires. "Unfortunately, it went off the other night."
Unfortunately. Everybody keeps using that word. Unfortunately, Steve Moore is in hospital. Unfortunately, he has a broken neck. Unfortunately, we don't know if he'll ever play hockey again.
Bertuzzi was just doing his job, protecting his teammates, that's what the hockey community will mutter and continue to sound ridiculous saying it.
Bertuzzi was doing what he has done for too long, in too many places, excused by too many people, because he was so very skilled: He was parading violence as sport, living the macho code that is so often misinterpreted in hockey, and figured to be congratulated for it.
"He wanted to make a point," said his teammate, Markus Naslund, maybe the best player in the NHL. "That you don't hit our players."
Some point.
The kid is in hospital. The sucker puncher shouldn't be allowed to play in this or any other season. The NHL has to be that strong when it makes its announcement on suspension length this morning -- it has to be more outraged than even the public on this one.
And no matter what happens, Bertuzzi is probably the lucky one here, lucky that a Colorado player named Andrei Nikolishin was in the right place to stop his left fist from further pounding into Moore's already injured head and neck. Had that punch connected, we might not be debating suspension length today.
We might be talking about murder charges. This isn't a one-time "I snapped" kind of determination for Bertuzzi. There is history here. There is a background. There are stories out there to be told.
Like the time in 1991, playing in the Northern Ontario midget championships, when his team was beaten out in the finals by Sault Ste. Marie and he chased the winning team's bus out of the parking lot, swearing and pounding on the windows, out of control.
The next year, his first in the Ontario Hockey League, Bertuzzi missed the end of that season and the beginning of the next when he was suspended 15 games for kicking a Kitchener player.
The year after that, in his own locker room, for no apparent reason other than jealousy, he punched out teammate Jeff O'Neill, who at the time was Guelph's prized first-round pick.
In the NHL, Bertuzzi punched linesman Jean Morin in a 1996 scuffle and ended up suspended for three games before losing 10 more games to suspension for jumping the bench to attack a Colorado player in 2001.
That's a long and nasty docket for a supposed skill player. There are other stories out there and when asked about them earlier this season in Toronto, Vancouver general manager Brian Burke answered: "That's a lot of bull(crap)."
History is not on his side on this one!
