What you may have missed while discovering your little brother's MySpace page.Quick thoughts on the Steve Moore-Todd Bertuzzi case now that Gary Bettman is trying to strike a compromise (yeah, right):
- A civil court is highly unlikely to give a damn about Moore's status as a fringe fourth-line player when it assesses damages. So quit bringing that up.
- Why are people so quick to jump on Moore (pardon the pun) for only doing what anyone else would have done if they were deprived of their health and livelihood by a criminal act? Why does the focus always shift more to the perpetrator and not his victim?
- This has probably dragged on too long -- 2 1/2 years -- for either party to ever feel justice was done.
- If the NHL had any balls, it would have banned Bertuzzi from the league for life -- as any junior or minor league would have done for a player who deliberately injured an opponent in such a fashion. The league wouldn't have been preventing him from earning a living; he would have been free to play in another league. Todd Bertuzzi should be the one trying to go through the courts, fighting the NHL and/or the Interternational Ice Hockey Federation to get his suspension lifted.
Blue Jackets 4 Red Wings 3: If Columbus is showcasing Sergei Fedorov for a trade, last night certaintly didn't hurt as he scored the game-winner against his old team.
Tonight's better games: Islanders-Rangers, 7 p.m.; Panthers-Leafs, 7:30 p.m.; Bruins-Senators, 7:30 p.m.; Avalanche-Oilers, 9 p.m.
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
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3 comments:
I disagree on the notion that Bertuzzi deliberately injured Steve Moore. What he did was stupid, foolish and unbelievably dirty. It was a deliberate attempt to hurt Moore, not to injure him - something that I believe counts (based on precedent, if nothing else).
I don't believe anyone can reasonably argue that Bertuzzi was planning to break Moore's neck - the fall did that, not the punch. He caused the injury and should be held accountable, but I don't see this as being any worse than a slew of other dirty plays in previous NHL games. For one example, think of Ulf Samuelson on Cam Neely. Ulf's knee was a deliberate attempt to injure, yet he wasn't punished nearly as severely as Bertuzzi and nobody was talking about a lifetime suspension for something that, in the end, greatly reduced Neely's career. Gary Suter's cross-check to Paul Kariya's face in 1998, while not career-ending, could have been just as bad, yet nobody would have ever thought a lifetime ban would have been appropriate for that action either - even if Kariya was left with a slew of concussion problems.
Kyle, "deliberately injured" is probably a bad choice of words on my part, you're right. (That's what happens when you write late at night.)
Remember, though, this is a civil case, and intent does not enter into it. If reckless actions are found to have caused someone else injury, pain, loss of income, etc., you can be found liable. Really, I shouldn't even have put "deliberately" in there -- I know I didn't mean to, pardon the pun.
Bertuzzi was deliberately trying to hurt Moore but not injure him? I think that is pretty much the same thing. Whether or not the idea of it being deliberate is part of the case, I think it's something to take into consideration regarding the situation in it's entirety. It was made quite clear after the Naslund incident that Moore had a "bounty on his head" and I agree, I'm sure it wasn't in the plans to break the guy's neck and end his career, but who can predict the actual physical damage that any blow can have. I think that it was it was premeditated based on comments made by some of the Canucks, and that makes the serious injury not so accidental (that's just my opinion though). But anyways, Sager I agree with all 4 of your points. Amen.
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