NHL goonery

Until today I had not yet seen a video of the Bertuzzi incident, where he smashed Steve Moore into the ice in retaliation for some other incident that happened previously that I don't really care about.

That said, I don't see what all the fuss is about. From the video clip I finally saw, Bertuzzi grabbed Moore's shirt, a typical hockey goon behaviour, delivered a sucker punch and then Bertuzzi and Moore both fell to the ice. What separated this incident from others, of course, is that when Moore hit the ice he broke some bones that are usually not broken. If Moore had fallen on his arm and pulverized his ulnar bone, we wouldn't even be talking about it today.

Some hockey incidents are truly horrifying. I remember watching as McSorely used Brashear for batting practice. That was something obviously unacceptable. Even Tie Domi a few years ago used his elbow to clothesline some poor sucker skating fast the other way.

Keep in mind that I think the fighting in hockey is annoying and pointless. I would much prefer if it was taken out of the game, and I think it should be. However, if the league is going to accept a certain level of thuggery, then I think that Bertuzzi was not really stepping out of those bounds. The only difference between his assault and the hundreds of others that we never hear about is that he was unlucky enough to break the wrong bone.