I know Bertuzzi is everyone's public enemy #1 right now and that the post started with a comment that a family almost lost a son. But don't forget, some children almost lost their dad when Naslund was taken out with a harder hit to the head. No one wants to talk about that so called clean hit. What makes it clean anyways? Is it because its a hard shoulder that made contact instead of a gloved hand? Do you mean that if you try to knock someone out with your shoulder, then its not considered intentional even though you intended to injure that person? Do you mean that when someone goes to hit someone else in the head at full speed, they have no intent to injure whatsoever? Does this not make any sense to anyone else but me?
Although I would not like to be hit at all
, I would rather take a sucker punch to my head with a gloved hand by someone who is skating in the same direction as me rather than an unexpected hard swing to my head with a hard stick (McSorley) or an unexpected hard shoulder to my head at 50mph (Moore on Naslund, 25mph in opposite directions) or an unexpected hard stick across my face at 50mph (Suter on Kariya, skating in opposite directions with additional velocity from the crosscheck). In each of those cases, not only would I be in more pain (and possibly kill me as I'm a small guy
), they were absolutely senseless. In Bert's case, he would not have done it in his regular game. As Underworld mention, this action was in retaliation for the abuse of his friend and he tried to dish out some justice. It may not right to take your own justice, but this sets it apart (although only slightly) from the other acts of goonery as he was only trying to do the honorable thing (retaliate against those who've dishonoured, abused, or injured members of your family)
I do agree that hockey is a violent sport and I wouldn't be surprised if it has a negative impact in some parts of society. I'm not trying to stir up the hornet's nest but I'm just trying to put some perspective for those who think Bertuzzi's act is the worst in history.