Bertuzzi gives NHL a black eye

Long-term conclusions are not easy to come by in the matter of Vancouver’s Todd Bertuzzi’s suspension from the NHL for his blind-side punch of Colorado’s Steve Moore during a March 8 game.

Moore suffered two neck fractures and a concussion. The NHL found that, “When Mr. Moore declined to engage Mr. Bertuzzi [in a fight], Mr. Bertuzzi responded by delivering a gloved punch from behind to the side of Mr. Moore’s head, rendering him unconscious. Upon falling to the ice, Mr. Moore suffered additional serious injuries.”

Bertuzzi has been suspended for the rest the year, including the playoffs, and must seek reinstatement from the commissioner before next season.

Bertuzzi’s act was in retaliation for Moore having hit Vancouver’s Markus Naslund in the head with a shoulder check three weeks earlier. Naslund suffered a concussion and missed three games.

Bertuzzi’s action was a cheap shot, not a fight. Had Moore gotten up and walked away, would Bertuzzi have been suspended? Not likely. The league said the nature of the injuries was a factor in determining punishment.

If the punishment is for the injury, not the act itself, there is a problem. The injury should be irrelevant. A sucker punch itself deserves the penalty rendered because it always has the potential for serious injury. That would have been a stronger message to players.

Is retaliation, in the form of fighting, a legitimate part of hockey? It continues to be. That’s because the NHL can never cleanly answer the fighting in hockey issue. It’s time.

Fighting should be banished from the game, not just be a rules violation with a five-minute major. Enough. The continuing wink at fighting results in the more extreme actions such as Bertuzzi’s because players live in a violent “gangland” mentality.

The rules must be strictly enforced. No more macho garbage about sticks up, clutching and grabbing, hooking and holding. The rules are fine. Enforce them. The players will adjust and the game will be better and retaliation will not be necessary.

Is fighting necessary for fan entertainment? If it is, then NHL hockey should just go away or turn itself into roller derby-wrestling. Those who relish collecting “great fight tapes” can find something else to do. The NHL doesn’t need them.

The league also fined the Canucks’ organization $250,000. Moore was a marked man after he hit Naslund with Vancouver players publicly saying so. The league said the organization should have done more to prevent the retaliation.

They did not because the front offices of teams, GMs in particular, played and grew up in the fight-filled NHL mentality. They want retaliation. They see fights as part of the game. They keep paying goons for just that purpose.

Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux have long argued for the elimination of fighting. Commissioner Gary Bettman has pushed and pulled to bring that about. He does not have the final say.

The NHL’s seat of power is with the franchises – the owners and GMs. That’s where fighting has at least tacit support. The NHLPA should put an end to that by demanding that fighting be removed from the game.

Will any of this happen? I wish I believed it would.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and NBC sportscaster.