Pasi Nurminen said:
Bertuzzi was 16, 17, and 18 when those things happened. He was a kid. Besides, you're not exactly giving us the whole story with your three sentence blurb on Todds criminal history. Phrases like "out of control", "kicking a Kitchener player" or "for no apparent reason other than jealousy" don't tell anyone anything. If you're interested in slandering Todd's character, don't do it with half truths.
So how exactly should I have said it? He kicked a Kitchener player with his
left skate? He ran out screaming and hurled threats with foam coming out of his mouth while banging on Sault Ste. Marie's team bus after the game was over and he had lost? His former GM in Guelph claimed Todd was upset because O'Neill was ranked higher by NHL scouts? If "apparent jealousy" doesn't cut it for you, what would have worked? "Some chicken Euro-loving chicken-**** who wants to keep real Canadians down has made up the whole thing, but you should know there are plenty of absolutely perfect reasons to sucker-punch a teammate in the changeroom."
Call a spade a spade, Pasi. The guy is an ass. He was an ass at 16 and he is still an ass. There are plenty of people like that in real life: the guy who follows a car that cut him off; the guy who punches someone who looks at his girlfriend; the CEO who won't tip because the waitress forgot to bring bread. You'd never hang out with those jerkwads, even if they gave half their money to some very deserving B.C. charity.
You've been around hockey players and you probably play yourself, so you know the code.
1. Kicking = biting = head butting = sucker punching. Not good.
2. Brothers fight and friends won't even look at one another on the ice. Pretty much anything goes when it comes to stopping an opponent from scoring. You bring him down, you shove him out of the way, you hack at his skates. But when the game is over, it's over.
3. The team comes first, second and last. Teammates are buddies in the changeroom even if they can't stand one another in real life.
4. You help your teammates when they need your help, not 3 weeks after the fact.
5. You don't fight someone who doesn't want to fight.
6. There are other rules (about bringing the beer and not sleeping with a teammate's girlfriend, for instance), but they don't pertain to this particular case.
If a guy on an amateur team fails to uphold the code in at least 5 different areas, he'll be run out of town, period. Why should it be any different for the pros?
Pasi Nurminen said:
It wasn't a punch, it was a light shove out of frustration. For no other proof, look at the fact that he only got three games. If it were any real sort of punch, he would have been out longer.
You're right, Pasi, that's not a proof. If I find the current suspension too short, that will also mean that I think the NHL is too lenient when it hands down suspensions. So I can't use actual suspension length to assess the gravity of an incident.
When you're 6 feet tall and weigh 200lbs, when you can bench press 350lbs and you wear a body armour, you don't, out of frustration, give a "slight shove" to a ref who is just doing his job and who is not expecting to have to defend himself against intentional physical contact from a player, seeing as there have only been 5 attacks on officials resulting in a suspension since 1927:
1. Billy Coutu, 1927.
2. Gordie Dwyer, 2000
3. Tom Lysiak, 1983.
4. Maurice Richard, 1955.
5. Andre Roy, 2002.
Bertuzzi's incident with Morin was much more like Richard's than any of the other 4, and he got about what he deserved, I think.
"Morin's lucky. Bertuzzi could have done so much damage. He's got fire in his veins!" Then let him use the goddamn fire face-to-face against a similarly protected opponent who knows it's coming right now, not against a freakin' ref, and not from behind.
Pasi Nurminen said:
He didn't attack an Avalanche player. He jumped off to join a fight that was already in progress, when a Canuck player was essentially attacked by an Avalanche.
If he feels like duking out with Parker because he thinks Jovanovski can't handle him, all he has to do is ask Crawford to put him on the next time the other goon is on. Parker knows it'll be coming.
So maybe you've convinved yourself that leaving the bench happens all the time... it doesn't. The Senators and the Flyers fought to 519 PIM two years ago. There were 4 distinct occasions when all the players on the ice dropped the glove, yet nobody left the bench. The game finished with a combined 17 players.
Since rule 72 is in place, the first player to jump on to start an altercation gets suspended for at least 10 games. Let's take a look at all such suspensions over the last 10 years.
1. Brantt Myhres, 12 games, February 1999.
2. Todd Bertuzzi, 10 games, October 2001.
3. Ehhhh, that's it (according to the Canadian Press NHL Suspension list).
He's in good company, ain't he? Over the last 10 years, in the thousands of games played in the NHL, two (count them, two) idiots decided to play vigilante. His teammates and opponents might not come out and say that's just plain stupid on the part of a player with as much skill as Bertuzzi, but the fact that he's the only one doing it ought to tell you something.
Pasi Nurminen said:
You have obviously not heard a word out of Todd's teammates, coaches, managers, trainers, and the ENTIRE PROVINCE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA.
It would have been shocking if his teammates had denounced him publicly. He might not adhere to the code, but they do.
But you really convinced me that he was a great guy when you reminded me that Canucks fans (ALL 4,219,968 OF THEM) think he is a good guy who got infairly painted as a monster by the liberal media. I mean, can you think of a more unbiased group? Why, when Brashear was cowardly hacked from behind by a Boston enforcer, Canucks fans (ALL 4,219,968 OF THEM) were outraged that some fools were calling for McSorley's head.
Pasi Nurminen said:
If you're embarrassed to be a Canadian because of all this, then you're not a Canadian. If you're embarrassed to be a hockey fan because of all of this, then you're not a hockey fan.
Actually, I'd like to ammend my original statement. I'm embarassed to be a Canadian hockey fan because Pasi is a Canadian hockey fan.
Come on, man, leave the "you're either with me or you're against me" bull**** in Off-Topic, where it belongs. Hockey is too important to ruin it with that kind of crap.
