Bertuzzi Won’t Ever Shake Steve Moore, But That Isn’t Stopping Him on the Ice

There are some who follow the National Hockey League who will never get over Todd Bertuzzi. To those folks, he’s not a hockey player, he’s an incident.

Bertuzzi, to the ones with long memories and an inability to forgive, shouldn’t even be playing in the NHL. He should be out doing community service, or anything else that doesn’t earn him a paycheck with Gary Bettman’s signature on it.

For the rest of his NHL career, like it or not, Todd Bertuzzi will be fused to a player named Steve Moore, the same way Lee Harvey Oswald is fused to John F. Kennedy.

Prior to Steve Moore—he himself also an incident first, a person second—Bertuzzi was one of the league’s bad guys. He wore the black hat, appearing in NHL cities as a wrecking ball of a hockey player who all but pitched a tent in front of opposing goalies.

Bertuzzi could score, and he could bully. He was the kid bigger than the others who’d take your lunch money, in broad daylight. Opposing players disliked him because they couldn’t stop him. Opposing fans disliked him because their team couldn’t stop him.

Bertuzzi pumped in goals from within three feet of the net better than anyone in the NHL. He was as immovable from the crease as someone nicknamed “Tiny” from the buffet line.

The numbers were impressive. Coming into his own in the late-1990s with the Vancouver Canucks, Bertuzzi scored 25 goals in the 1999-2000 season, with 126 penalty minutes. In 2001-02 those numbers skyrocketed to 46 goals and 144 penalty minutes.

Bertuzzi was a 6’3”, 235 pound net crasher who scored seemingly at will. He was hockey’s Shaquille O’Neal.

When the Canucks played the Red Wings in the first round of the 2002 playoffs, Bertuzzi and Wings defenseman Chris Chelios had a well-publicized grudge match nightly. The smaller Chelios stood his ice, refusing to be intimidated by the NHL’s preeminent power forward.

The battles between Bertuzzi and Chelios made for great theater, in a series won by the Red Wings in six games after losing the first two in Detroit.

Then along came Steve Moore, and the answer to the following question was a shocking and resounding YES.

Can Todd Bertuzzi be despised even worse than he already is?

On March 8, 2004, Bertuzzi was on the ice against the Colorado Avalanche. He was out there to meter out justice on Moore, an Avs forward, in Gordie Howe fashion. That is, long after the initial transgression.

Moore, two Canucks-Avs meetings earlier, had badly injured Vancouver captain and leading scorer Markus Naslund with a vicious check to the head. No penalty was called, and Canucks players vowed revenge.

It was Howe who invented the delayed reaction in hockey.

When Hall of Famer Stan Mikita was a young NHL player, the Chicago Blackhawks center caught Gordie good from behind. When Mikita skated back to the bench, expecting congratulations from his teammates, he was instead greeted with a warning.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” a Blackhawk player who should know, told Mikita.

This was in the days of Original Six hockey—with 14 games against the other five teams per season.

Several Detroit-Chicago games went by, and Howe didn’t so much as sniff Mikita. The young center thought his teammates’ words were just a bunch of hooey.

Mikita thought he had gotten away with a blindside hit on Gordie Howe.

What a foolish player Stan Mikita was in his youth.

Finally, Mikita’s comeuppance occurred, months after his hit on Howe. After making a pass, Mikita was waking up on the trainer’s table.

“Who was it?” Mikita wanted to know.

“Number nine,” was the answer.

Gordie had an elephant’s memory and his interest rate was higher than a loan shark’s.

But back to Bertuzzi and Moore.

Bertuzzi, his team trailing the Avs, 8-2 in the third period, lagged behind Moore through the neutral zone. Then, in an instant, it happened.

Bertuzzi jumped Moore, punching him in the back of the head and landing his massive body on Moore as the latter collapsed to the ice.

It all happened so fast, but when Bertuzzi got up, Moore didn’t.

Moore’s injuries from the Bertuzzi sneak attack read like those of an unlucky race car driver: three fractured vertebrae in his neck, a grade three concussion, vertebral ligament damage, stretching of the brachial plexus nerves, and facial cuts.

Todd Bertuzzi, in a thirst for revenge, ended Moore’s career, and started a legal firestorm.

First, Bertuzzi was charged with assault, and a hockey player charged with assault is like a squirrel charged with jaywalking.

Then the lawsuits started flying, which are still going on today. Commissioner Bettman is still trying to get Bertuzzi and Moore to settle out of court.

In March, 2008, Bertuzzi even sued his Vancouver coach at the time, Marc Crawford, by insisting that he was just acting on Crawford’s directive to hurt Moore.

Crawford, for his part, says the opposite; that he had ordered Bertuzzi to get off the ice before even touching Moore.

After Steve Moore, Bertuzzi was persona non grata in the eyes of many NHL observers, despite Bertuzzi’s tearful apology two days after the incident.

The league suspended Bertuzzi indefinitely after his attack on Moore. Then came the lockout that canceled the entire 2004-05 season, and Bertuzzi got shoved to the back pages.

In August, 2005, the league announced that it was taking Bertuzzi back, much to the consternation of many who follow hockey.

Bertuzzi lost about half a million dollars in salary from his suspension, plus endorsements.

Moore was 25 years old when his hockey career was ended by Bertuzzi’s momentary indiscretion.

Today, Bertuzzi is about to turn 36, is playing great two-way hockey for the Red Wings, and has been called an exemplary teammate and one who has bought into coach Mike Babcock’s call for more defensive-minded play.

He isn’t the player he once was. He doesn’t score 30 goals or more anymore, doesn’t steal anyone’s lunch money. Last year, playing in all 82 games for the Red Wings, Bertuzzi mustered just 80 penalty minutes, a little more than half of what he used to record, when he was terrorizing the league.

No, he isn’t the player he once was. He is, in many ways, better.

Even if you think he doesn’t belong.

Denver Writer Needs History Lesson When It Comes To Bertuzzi Signing

Terry Frei needs a history lesson. And a Valium.

Frei is a sports writer for the Denver Post, and he's got his shorts in a knot over the Red Wings' signing of free agent Todd Bertuzzi, announced last week.

The column, "Wings whiff on toxic Bertuzzi," appeared recently.

Frei has apparently not been paying very good attention to the Red Wings---odd for someone who roams the Rocky Mountains, where they're obsessed with the Winged Wheel and wondering where the rivalry went off to.

"Purely from a hockey standpoint, it makes no sense," Frei writes---perhaps one-handed as he scratches his head with the other. "Bertuzzi, who had 15 goals last season for the Calgary Flames, is washed up."

Ahh, I see.

Bertuzzi will be 35 before next season ends, but if Frei thinks that such a player can be washed up, then he's not even paying attention to his own team.

Joe Sakic just retired, at age 40. He had 36 goals two years ago, when he was closing in on age 38.

And what of Chris Chelios, age 47? How can Frei watch his hockey, when his peepers are embedded in his rectum?

Frei then points out that the only playoff series Bertuzzi's teams have won in the past five years came with the Red Wings---in 2007.

So how is that an argument for why the Red Wings shouldn't have signed him? Seems to be one of those hockey/good luck/superstition things to me.

Frei hasn't been paying attention, because if he had, he'd know two things: 1) the Red Wings have trademarked the rescuing of veteran players; and 2) he doesn't know more than Red Wings GM Ken Holland and his support staff.

Holland doesn't "whiff", as the headline of Frei's column stated. In his 12 years as GM, Holland has made maybe two or three bad signings and/or trades.

Uwe Krupp in 1998 (which Holland would admit to). Bringing Dominik Hasek back in 2003 (which Kenny would NOT admit to, despite me trying a few years ago). And the Kyle Calder trade at the 2007 deadline.

That's it.

Does Frei truly think Holland has gotten dumb, or is he just jealous over a rivalry that's turned from Red Sox-Yankees to (insert NFC North team)-Lions?

Maybe it grinds Frei that the Red Wings are one of the classiest organizations in pro sports. They aren’t the Avalanche, who clumsily and shamelessly publicly courted Patrick Roy (!!) to be their coach, all while their current coach, Tony Granato, twisted in the wind.

It was disgusting. “Toxic,” even.

I can understand Frei's state, after watching the Red Wings toy with the Avalanche in the 2008 conference semi-finals.

But the true source of Frei's displeasure might be the fallout from Bertuzzi's cheap shot leveled against Steve Moore, back in 2004.

"What Bertuzzi did was disgraceful," Frei writes. "...To me, though, what's most galling at this point is the cavalier acceptance of Bertuzzi within the sport as just some guy who temporarily snapped, went a bit far, but served his five minutes in the penalty box, and is back on the ice..."

First, the "cavalier acceptance" isn't coming from Holland or the Red Wings. Are they to blame? The NHL has deemed Bertuzzi fit to play in their league. So the Red Wings should prop themselves up as some beacons of justice and vow never to employ him?

Would the Avalanche do such a thing?

OH, I forgot---the Avs aren't a player or two away from Stanley Cup contention. They're a player or two away from the conference cellar.

Second, Bertuzzi's not getting off scott-free here. He's going to have to pay---financially. And he already has.

Third, I believe Bertuzzi IS just someone who temporarily took leave of his senses.

Another history lesson for Frei: Eddie Shore.

Shore was a bruising defenseman for the Boston Bruins in the 1930s and '40s who lost his mind in anger one night against the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was searching for King Clancy, but in Clancy's absence from the ice, Shore went after Ace Bailey, drilling him to the ice, head first.

Bailey's injuries were life-threatening. It was touch and go for a while. And he'd never play hockey again.

But Shore did.

It's a shame, but tempers are lost in the heat of battle. The league is remanded with the power to suspend or ban a player for life. But failing that, does that mean the teams should refuse to hire that player?

That seems to be asking an awful lot.

Frei concludes, "Bottom line: Bertuzzi is a lot of things. His 'case' is a black eye for the league. Yet even if it just comes down to trying to win games, he's more trouble than he's worth."

I guess I need to give Frei another news flash.

Bertuzzi was adored in the Red Wings locker room. He got along well with his coach, his GM, his teammates. His relative ineffectiveness in the '07 playoffs was due to his bad back, which had just been operated on months before.

Kenny Holland doesn't need any advice or scolding from little Terry Frei.

Frei best write more about teams he's actually been paying attention to.

I know that means having to cover the Avalanche, which I understand isn't the greatest gig in the world anymore.

The Avs' big brother just skated by and splattered them with some more snow, and Frei can't stand it.

Bertuzzi Latest To Be Christened By Red Wings' Magic Potion?

Last we saw of Todd Bertuzzi in Detroit, he was a skating shell. No more than 50, 60 percent of the player he'd been in his heyday.

Bertuzzi gave it the old college try, but he wasn't what the Red Wings thought they were getting when they dealt for him at the 2007 trade deadline. Or, at the very least, he wasn't what the Red Wings hoped they were getting.

He was coming off serious back surgery, and had only played in a handful of games for the Florida Panthers when the Red Wings came calling.

The result was a gingerly-skating Bertuzzi in the '07 playoffs, rarely crashing the net and hardly ever throwing his big body around.

Still, the Red Wings wanted him back for '07-'08, thinking an off-season and more rest and therapy would make him more of the Todd Bertuzzi, circa 2002 that vexed the Red Wings in their series with Vancouver that spring.

But Bertuzzi wanted more of Mike Ilitch's pizza dough than the Red Wings were willing to offer, so Bert signed with the Cup champions, the Anaheim Ducks.

After being released by the Ducks and catching on with the Calgary Flames last season, Bertuzzi is back in Detroit, signing a one-year, $1.5 million deal.

He's 34 now, but has played in 134 of a possible 164 games over the past two seasons, which isn't bad for a 30+ year-old coming off back surgery.

Bertuzzi's career has been pocked with controversy. There was the Steve Moore sucker punch, which resulted in criminal charges and a lawsuit. Moore hasn't played in the NHL since the incident, which was over five years ago.


Bertuzzi's first Detroit stint was a game effort, but his back wasn't anywhere near 100 percent


Bertuzzi badly wanted to be the final piece of the Red Wings' playoff run puzzle two years ago, and was genuinely excited upon arriving in town in late March '07. But his body betrayed him, not ready yet for the rigors of playoff hockey. He managed three goals in 16 playoff games, but his shifts were auspiciously devoid of the on-ice presence that he once wielded.

But there must be some sort of magic hockey potion in the Detroit River, which for years has been pumped into Joe Louis Arena via underwater pipeline, and under which players are christened.

Unwanted free agents. Unproven youngsters. Other teams' castaways. Veterans looking for one more "kick at the can"---the Stanley Cup.

All of the above have donned the Winged Wheel and found their mojo playing in Detroit.

The current roster is dotted with these types.

Dan Cleary, a cast-off from Edmonton and Phoenix, is probably the best example---a guy who scuffled along, trying to find his foothold, then joining the Red Wings and blossoming.

There was Dallas Drake, brought back by the Red Wings for a swan song, the last bar of which was Drake skating around the Mellon Arena ice with the Stanley Cup in June 2008, at age 39.

So the Red Wings, having lost Marian Hossa, Mikael Samuelsson, Jiri Hudler, and Tomas Kopecky to free agency this summer, are opening the magic potion pipeline once again, hoping that Bertuzzi and the afore-signed Patrick Eaves and Jason Williams can benefit from it.

Bertuzzi will probably never again be the player NHL fans remember in his prime. It usually doesn't work that way the further the calendar advances. But he's on board for a relative pittance of a salary, and the Red Wings believe in the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. They always have.

They play hockey a certain way in Detroit, and the team's aura has enabled players to buy into the system and eschew any bad habits learned elsewhere.

Bertuzzi didn't get the prize---that has so far eluded him---in his first go-round in the Motor City. Already, most "experts" are counting his new/old team out of the running for the 2010 Cup.

Just like they counted the Red Wings out after they fell into an 0-2 hole against Bertuzzi's Canucks in the first round of the '02 playoffs. I think you know how that post-season ended for the Red Wings.

So Todd Bertuzzi knows a little bit about what the Red Wings can do when they've been written off.

Sundin Not An Option, Most Likely; Bertuzzi Next?

Todd Bertuzzi wasn't much to shout about when he spent some time in Detroit late last season and in the playoffs. I heard one of those ill-informed sports talk radio callers say that he "dogged it" when he was in a Red Wings uniform. But that is, as I said, an ill-informed opinion -- or, worse yet, just plain foolish.

The Red Wings, perhaps rolling the dice a bit, nabbed Bertuzzi from Florida at the trading deadline in 2007. It was a risk, for sure, as he had missed most of the season with a bad back. A back injury is one of the few maladies that professional athletes suffer that common folk can relate to. Most of this country, I'm convinced, has a tricky back in some way, shape, or form. And those who do -- imagine lacing on a pair of skates. No -- I mean, just lacing up the skates. Forget about playing hockey, right?

Bertuzzi wasn't anything near his old self with Detroit, though he gave it a shot. There were brief moments of the Bertuzzi who terrorized the NHL six, seven years ago while playing for Vancouver. But mainly he was a laboring, one step-too-slow forward who was no more than a fourth liner at best. Yet the Red Wings didn't give up too much to get him, so there really was no harm, and thus, maybe not that big of a risk to begin with.

But Todd Bertuzzi didn't "dog it" while he was in Detroit. He just wasn't physically capable. So let's get that straight, from the get go.

Bertuzzi left for Anaheim last summer, before the Red Wings really had a chance to seriously discuss bringing him back -- which they were willing to do, if the price was right. His back got better, and he scored 14 goals with the Ducks in '07-'08.

Now Bertuzzi has been waived by the Ducks, making him an unrestricted free agent beginning tomorrow, when the NHL's free agency extravaganza opens its doors first thing in the morning (actually, at 12:01 a.m.). The Red Wings, it's suspected, might be an interested suitor.

This is a polarizing issue, I can tell already. The early retorts are either brimming with optimism about a second Bertuzzi term in Detroit, or run along the lines of, "Ugh -- do you REALLY want to go down that path again?"

I guess I fall under the first category.


A rare, "vintage" Bertuzzi moment during last season's playoffs (ironically, that's Brad Stuart he's crunching into the boards)


There's no such thing as having too much depth, or of being too hard to play against in the playoffs. Or of having too many guys who can put the puck in the net on occasion. Or of having a veteran or two on the roster who's never won a Stanley Cup and is famished.

Bertuzzi fits all of the above.

Let me also insert here some words about super Swede Mats Sundin -- also a free agent, and who's being courted openly by Montreal. The Red Wings are rumored to have interest in Sundin, too. The whole Swedish connection and all. Once, the Red Wings were a haven to Russian-born players. Now they've shifted that to the west a little bit, to Sweden.

But forget about Sundin signing with the Wings. I just don't see it happening. He may not even leave Toronto, if you really want to know. Some say he might consider Montreal because it's a Canadian city. The lure of all the Red Wing's countrymen appears to not be enough. The riches one can earn from playing hockey in Detroit may not, for a change, be persuasive enough for a star to leave his former team. How dare he!

So back to Bertuzzi.

For what it's worth, Bertuzzi enjoyed his brief time in Detroit; he has family in the Windsor area. He was treated well by the fans. And the team was a fluke goal away, perhaps, from appearing in the Cup Finals. Maybe from winning the whole thing.

It didn't work out last year -- Bertuzzi and the Red Wings. But it was no one's fault, really. And it certainly wasn't because the player "dogged it."

Good thing we don't place our teams' personnel decisions in the hands of those with cell phones cruising down the freeway.