OK, perhaps I'm going a bit over the top here. But when I saw the news last night at the bar that Todd Bertuzzi had been traded to the Wings, my heart sank. Not because I think he's a bad player (he's defintely not), and not because I don't think his physical style of scoring oriented play won't be a big help to Detroit in the playoffs (it absolutely will), and not because he was a rival member of a hated rival team for years (I've gotten over these things in the past easily enough, even Chris Chelios). But Todd Bertuzzi is a bad human being who had no business playing hockey (or being out of prison). And I finally understand what its like to be an Avs fan.
In my years of watching hockey there was only one player that I could not stomach as a part of my team: Claude Lemeiux. Though unarguably brilliant at his close-checking endlessly annoying grinding style of play, his consistently foul behavior on the ice (remember, judged in the shadow of his fellow hockey players) was so vicious and nasty, I could never really forgive it.
When Bertuzzi came into the league, I had a grudging respect for him. Those games (was that 2002?) against Vancouver in the playoffs were some of the best of the entire run, with Bertuzzi and Jovanovski earning my anger and respect in equal measure through every minute of play. But on March 8th, in 2004, Bertuzzi committed the second worst outrage in recent hockey (and all sports) history, when he sucker punched Steve Moore of the Avalanche, slamming his head to the ice. The resulting fall broke Moore's neck, at least it is assumed to be the fall, as Bertuzzi had to be pulled off him even after the fall. Moore will never play hockey again, though he has avoided paralysis.
Bertuzzi was suspended indefinitely, but only ended up missing the lockout non-season and was reinstated on August 8th of 2005.
I'd like to believe that people can change, and can be redeemed. But I'd also like to believe that there should be some form of responsibility for destroying someone's health, livelihood and driving them out of the sport. Ending someone's career through intentional malicious action is not OK, and not being allowed to play in a league that does not hold any games in not a sufficient penalty. And I can't avoid feeling really awful that my team is now a part of it.
In other news, Kyle Calder was also added and should be a good help to the team.
I'm probably over-reacting, but I can't help but think about dealing Jason Williams and all those draft picks for Forsberg, before Nashville got the chance. I guess the best I can hope for is that he takes longer to recover from surgery and gets traded in the off-season. But its going to be difficult to enjoy games with him playing.
