KRAMER VS.
Vigilantes on Ice

By IRWIN KRAMER
The Daily Record
March 15, 2004

They are called “enforcers.” Hit men who whack their enemies and take revenge on those who cross members of their gang.

There are enforcers in every major gang: The Gambinos, the Genoveses, the Columbos, the Canucks.

Three of these gangs are members of organized crime. One is a member of organized hockey. Neither the mafia nor the National Hockey League believe in police protection or seek to settle their differences in a court of law. They enforce their rules through violence and intimidation instead.

Al Capone once used a baseball bat to whack his victims from behind. In the NHL, the weapon of choice is a hockey stick. Some “enforcers” even take the law into their own hands with their bare hands.

According to Tony Twist, a retired “enforcer” for the St. Louis Blues, “There is a place in our game for retribution and, to put it better, for guys being held accountable for their actions.” The players call this “policing ourselves.”

Todd Bertuzzi undoubtedly agrees. With his team going down to a 9-2 defeat, the All-Star forward for the Vancouver Canucks focused on a new goal — revenge. Retaliating against Colorado’s Steve Moore for an altercation that occurred several games earlier, Bertuzzi and his teammates threatened to place a “bounty” on the head of this Avalanche rookie.

After waiting more than two weeks to avenge a hit on his team captain, Bertuzzi delivered Moore’s punishment, punching him from behind, pile-driving his face into the ice and continuing the attack as both players slid along, with Moore unconscious and bleeding.

Bertuzzi got his revenge. Moore now lies in a hospital bed with a broken neck, an uncertain future and a guarantee that he will never play rough with the Vancouver Canucks ever again.

Though Bertuzzi previously referred to Moore as “a piece of %#@$” before the attack, he now claims that he “had no intention of hurting [Moore]. I feel awful for what happened.”

So does the NHL. Though both Bertuzzi and his league could lose millions if hockey’s “enforcers” are replaced by police and prosecutors, his insincere apology hardly provides a defense for the bloody brand of excitement that keeps fans in the stands.

In straining to keep the controversy out of the courts, Bertuzzi and the NHL are skating on very thin legal ice. Players do assume the risk of injuries which are a part of playing the game. But, unless the sport is boxing, one does not assume the risk of premeditated violent attacks designed to kill or maim. In hockey, players assume the risk of being hit from behind by pucks ... not by punks.