Let the players police themselves

Sporting News, The, March 22, 2004 by Adrian Aucoin

Everybody is talking about the Todd Bertuzzi incident. In recent years, there definitely have been more of these incidents and less respect for the players by the players. The instigator rule, in part, is to blame. If our enforcers were allowed to play the way they used to be able to play (since 1992, instigators of fights are automatically ejected from a game; multiple offenders are suspended) it would be different. If some little rat on the ice cheap-shots a star, the referees would know it, and if one of our enforcers went after that player, it wouldn't warrant a suspension--the officials would understand. With the instigator rule, it restricts self-policing, so guys get away with these kinds of cheap shots.

In Bertuzzi's case, I think if it was anyone else not as big and strong as him, that punch might not have hurt as bad. A lot of times people get punched like that in the middle of a game, and it doesn't make a highlight film or the player doesn't get hurt.

Because of the timing and whom Bertuzzi punched--and because be got the Avalanche's Steve Moore in the right spot and Moore went down--it was a lot more severe than most situations.

With the severity of Moore's injury and the amount of attention the incident got--not just nationally but internationally--the league had to make a bold statement with its punishment.

It's hard to say definitively whether the resulting injury should be taken into account when deciding on punishment for a player's action. Sometimes a little slash can hit a guy in the right spot, and he might miss months with a broken bone. A lot of other times you can punch a guy as hard as you can, and really try to injure him, and he doesn't miss a game.

With suspensions and the money lost during them, players are normally pretty levelheaded about thinking about the consequences of their actions before they act.

In the Bertuzzi case--and I know him--he's a real good teammate and a real good person. He saw it as defending his teammate, Markus Naslund. There is not much doubt in my mind that Bertuzzi was trying to hurt Moore but not injure him. The difference being, players can play hurt but not injured. Todd is an emotional player who, like any other good player, acts on instinct. Obviously, he wasn't in the right state of mind when he did that, and the consequences are severe.

But should there be legal ramifications? No. There are a lot of things you can do on the ice that you can't do on the street. Guys are allowed to fight bare-fisted. It really is a different world. Hockey runs by its own rules, and we should police ourselves.