I loved that article on ESPN... I mean, it is now clear as day to me that Canada is a violent culture unfit for its place in North America. Goodness no, we might corrupt the poor impressionable youth of the US and Mexico into being violent sociopaths with our merciless ways!
Won't someone please think of the children?!
The NHL has always condoned this sort of thing by allowing it to happen. While I still think that the neck injury was still part accident, and its quite clear that I cannot persuade anyone otherwise, while Bertuzzi is to blame for acting; part of the fault clearly goes to the Canucks - Injury aside, if they wanted revenge, they would have had Brad May execute it, and if something went wrong, they wouldnt have lost someone integral to the success of the remainder of the season and the playoffs. However, the fact is, the staff of the Canucks and parts of the team wanted this to happen, and it would have happened regardless - so while Bertuzzi is responsible for his physical act; the team is clearly responsible for the motivation to act, and the fact that it would have happened anyway (though, hopefully, not in this grizzly manner). That being said, the NHL only ever acts when things are taken to extremes; so the NHL needs to take the majority of the responsibility and start doing things to prevent this kind of behaviour instead of reacting to it.
I still disagree that Bertuzzi leapt from the ice; I mean, lets define 'pounced' or 'jumped' or 'leapt' ... I watched the replay again last night just to make sure, and what I saw was no jump. Ive had to jump on skates, and from the position he was in, there is no way he could manage it, nor does it look like one to me. Be that as it may, I've still not offered any argument that there wasnt intent to injure, but I certainly don't think that he intended for what happened to happen. The intent was there, but I think the extent to which circumstances played out was far worse then he or anyone else could have forseen. Again, I point out Kevin Stevens; he needed 3 reconstructive surgeries to restore his face after he was knocked out and landed face first on the ice - and in that case, noone had 'driven' him into the ice. Theres no doubt in my mind, that if Bertuzzi (who's what, 6'5, 260lbs?) wanted to really drive Moore's face into the ice as is so alleged, that Moore would be dead right now. If things proceeded as alleged, Bertuzzi would have had his hands on Moores head, and would have tried to land with his weight on his hands instead of landing on his chest (which happened to be on Moores back). If the real intent to severely maim Moore was there, this would have been far, far worse. Don't make the mistake of thinking that the human body is indestructable - just look at that NBA incident from about 15-20 years ago: One punch shattered the man's skull and almost killed him. We have that sort of power over one another, and we can kill each other with our bare hands if we're so inclined. I'm still really not convinced by all this media hooplah about Bertuzzi flying through the air with purpose to drive Moore's skull into the ice and break his neck.
Edit:
And having read that last post that was made while I was writing mine... Yeah. The administration of the teams, of the league, and of the players are all quite terrible; Its unfortunate that something like this had to happen to spur them into a situation of actually enforcing accountability. However, theyre doing what all good administrations do (government, education systems, corporations, the CIA, etc): vacillate on the issue until they come up with something that the public can accept - even if it contradicts stuff that they said earlier. And yes, it is irritating. I really can't help anyone on that one, I mean, the NHL and the owners/managers/ NHLPA really need to step up once and a while.