Moore on Bertuzzi

The Globe and Mail's Roy MacGregor added some more ink today on a done-to-death subject, as he rehashed the Todd Bertuzzi and Steve Moore happenings of the past year and a bit. The venerable columnist had a few biting criticisms of the big man, but I'll leave you to judge the leanings of his prose.

Todd Bertuzzi, Canadian hero.

It is an alarming, even disturbing, image —— but not beyond the realm of possibility after tomorrow morning's closed-door meeting at NHL headquarters.

Here, I posit, is Bertuzzi not the same man as the one who would have represented Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics? And again, I wonder, how is it that Bertuzzi has become media-enemy No. 1 when his actions are nothing new in regards to brutal actions in a brutal sport? Did Bertuzzi cross a line? By all means, yes. Is he, for that, some type of sub-human wretch? If so, he's got plenty of company among his NHLPA brethren.

Canadian hockey fans, desperate for some satisfaction in this Stanley Cup-less spring, would be far less likely to condemn Bertuzzi's return to the ice if it is done in Team Canada colours and, possibly, contributes significantly to O Canada being played after the May 15 gold medal match in Vienna.

Desperate for more of the lackluster international hockey we saw eight months ago at the yawn-inducing World Cup? Not particularly.

The reasoning continues...

[I]t seems somehow outrageously unfair that the perpetrator got 19 games, the victim may have received a life sentence.

And now the victim, if he merely fights back tomorrow morning in New York, stands a bizarre chance of becoming the villain.

Quite a leap considering how insignificant the chances Bertuzzi will play for Canada are, no?