Keep Your Stick on the Ice

No, this post is not about the Red Green Show. It’s about the Bertuzzi incident during a recent Canucks and Avalanche hockey match hosted by the Canucks.

I, myself, am not a big hockey fan.  Basketball is the game I’ll watch and at that, I prefer highschool and college ball.  But, in the couple dozen games I’ve watched on the teevee in my life, I’ve always wondered why certain skaters want to beat the shit out of each other from time to time.

Billy Beck casts his gaze on this recent Bertuzzi viciousness and has a few words to share here, here, and here. Billy’s posts were in response to this post from Colby Cosh.

Posted by on 03/10 at 09:54 AM

  1. “I’ve always wondered why certain skaters want to beat the shit out of each other from time to time.”

    Because the game is full of pounding.  And for good reason.  Believe it or not, hockey isn’t as strenuous as it looks.  Personally, I could skate all day, and have when afforded the opportunity to (the frozen pond scenario, something I don’t get here in the Seattle area - but having lived in North Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, and Indiana - I’ve been there and loved it).  So, for leverage’s sake, you’ve got to wear down your opponent in other ways.  Meaning, hit the other guy.

    Well, in an atmosphere where this kind of thing is provoked and encouraged, some guys might think they’ve excessively been made a target or one hit seemed mighty close to - home, or something - and retaliate in kind.  Tempers flare.

    Compounding this is the relative safety of the thing.  Contrary to popular opinion, unless you get walloped on the head or something analogous to Dale Hunter cheapshotting Pierre Turgeon in ‘93, it’s hard to get hurt in hockey, even in a fight.  The amount of padding we wear out there is intense.  I’m a slight guy, underweight for my height and I WAS AN ENFORCER on most of my teams.  What the team will do is keep their other players healthy and protected by sending one goon to keep the other in check.  I spent most of my games for many years in the box - opposite the other team’s goon.  It keeps the riff-raff off of the ice and, in all actuality, keeps the game cleaner than it otherwise might be.

    Grudges develop this way.  One guy I hated so bad - IN MIDDLE SCHOOL - Pepper Lee, I still so despise that guy, I’ve named perhaps my most colorful bad guy after him in one of my scripts.  These grudges, let me tell you, last a lifetime.  These grudges keep things interesting, hardly ever does anyone get hurt, what little risk remains everyone is aware and made their own choice in the matter, it’s good for the sport, it’s good for the fans. 

    What happened in the Bertuzzi case is a once in a psychedelic moon type event. 

    Posted by  on  03/11  at  01:59 AM

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