Ten years after Moore-Bertuzzi hit, case may be coming to a close.
Sean Pronger lunged into the crime scene without having witnessed the crime itself. “My face was almost right on top of his head,” Pronger said the other day. “You could see the blood just starting to pool. It was just a sickening feeling.” The journeyman forward was on the ice with the Vancouver Canucks midway through the third period of a late-season game against the Colorado Avalanche. It was March 8, 2004, the night before the NHL’s trade deadline, and the night Trevor Linden collected two assists to become Vancouver’s all-time scoring leader. And it was the night Pronger joined the pile of bodies that had pinned a rookie Avalanche forward named Steve Moore to the ice, bleeding, unconscious and broken, having just been assaulted by Todd Bertuzzi. On the 10th anniversary of that game, National Post reporter Sean Fitz-Gerald sorts through what happened, and how the long-running story might finally end later this year:
WHY STEVE MOORE?
Raised in the quiet Toronto suburb of Thornhill, Ont., Moore attended Harvard and spent two seasons bouncing between the Avalanche and the American Hockey League before landing a regular spot on the roster. He was in his first big NHL season when, in a game against Vancouver on Feb. 16, Moore hit Canucks captain Markus Naslund in the face with an elbow. Naslund was leading the league in scoring, and had to spend the night in a local hospital, missing the next three games with a concussion. Moore was not penalized on the play, nor did he receive any supplemental discipline from the league. Canucks coach Marc Crawford was incensed. Threats were made. “There’s definitely a bounty on his head,” Canucks winger Brad May said, as quoted by The Vancouver Sun. “It’s going to be fun when we get him.”
SO WHAT HAPPENED THE NEXT TIME THEY MET?
Nothing. The teams met in Denver on March 3, two weeks after the Naslund incident, but clashed only on the scoreboard. With a division title on the line, the teams played to a 5-5 tie. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was in attendance. “It was a very critical game and they were points we needed,” Bertuzzi said in The Province. “You know what? Games will come and situations will present themselves.”
ON MARCH 8, 2004?
A situation presented itself. Colorado raced out to an early lead — Moore scored to make it 5-0 in the first period — and was cruising to a 9-2 victory when Bertuzzi and Moore were on the ice in the third period. Pronger was on the ice, too. “I thought, ‘Why not?’ I asked him to fight,” Pronger said. “He didn’t say anything. He skated away from me.” Moore kept skating, and Bertuzzi began to follow. Moore had already fought once, recording the first fight of his career when he squared off against Canucks agitator Matt Cooke in the first period. He had fared well. “It’s just that he did too well,” former Avalanche teammate Kurt Sauer said. “If he would have paid the piper on that fight and took a couple and got a bloody eye, he probably would have been fine. It sounds awful to say that, but I think that’s kind of the way it is.” Bertuzzi tugged on Moore’s jersey.
AND THEN?
Moore was skating out of the zone, approaching the blue-line, as Bertuzzi tugged hard on the back of his jersey and reared back with his right hand. Moore was looking up ice and had no idea what was coming: Bertuzzi drilled him on the side of the head. It looked like Moore was out on his feet. Bertuzzi had already dropped his stick, and as Moore fell, the 225-pound winger fell on top of him. Colorado forward Andrei Nikolishin jumped onto Bertuzzi, and Pronger jumped onto Nikolishin. “One of their guys jumped on Bertuzzi, and then so I jumped on him,” Pronger said. “I didn’t see the punch or anything like that until afterward.” Bertuzzi was not on the ice much longer. “They dragged him out of the pile, they sent him off the ice,” Pronger said. “He was showered and gone by the time we came in.”
WHAT HAPPENED TO MOORE?
Chaos ensued. Sauer, a defenceman who had been traded to the Avalanche only 16 days earlier, fought May in the immediate aftermath. “I have a picture of Steve Moore on the ice, knocked out, with an image that’s just ingrained,” Sauer said. “It wasn’t pleasant at all.” Moore suffered three broken vertebrae and a concussion. He was taken from the ice on a stretcher. The crowd at GM Place in Vancouver, bloodthirsty moments earlier, was silent. “It was just this eerie feeling in the building when he was down,” Pronger said. “The blood that was coming out of his head, it was awful.” Colorado defenceman Derek Morris made a strong allegation about Crawford, the Vancouver coach: “The worst thing about it is their coach is over there laughing about it and that just shows the class of that guy.”
HOW WAS IT RESOLVED?
Paul Martin, then the Prime Minister, told reporters he thought, “Canadians feel that there is a problem with hockey,” and described what happened in Vancouver as “a particularly vicious attack.” Bertuzzi offered a tearful apology in a news conference. He was charged with assault causing bodily harm three months later, and received a conditional discharge after pleading guilty in a B.C. court. The NHL suspended him for the rest of the season, and by the time he was reinstated, 17 months later because of the lockout that scrapped the 2004-05 season, Bertuzzi had forfeited US$501,926.39 in salary. He was named to Canada’s Olympic roster in 2006, and is now a member of the Detroit Red Wings. Moore never played again. He has said he spent five years trying to rehabilitate his injuries to a point where he could return, but was forced to surrender that hope in 2009. “It’s certainly a very difficult injury to deal with,” Moore told Sportsnet 590 radio in December.
WHAT ABOUT HIS LAWSUIT?
Moore filed suit against Bertuzzi and Orca Bay Hockey, the Canucks ownership group, and the trial is set to begin in an Ontario court on Sept. 8. Moore is seeking $38-million in damages. Bettman and NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly will be called as witnesses, while Crawford and Brian Burke, who was the Canucks general manager at the time, are among the others expected to be called.
IS THERE A LESSON IN ALL OF THIS?
Moore has launched a foundation (www.stevemoorefoundation.org) dedicated to raising awareness about, and funding research and treatment for, head and neck injuries. “I still get some classic post-concussion symptoms when I do work out,” Moore told Sportsnet in December. Pronger played in only three games with the Canucks in 2004, and was sent back down to the AHL the day after the Moore incident. He has written a book ( Journeyman) and has a clothing line dedicated to the same theme (www.jrnymnwear.com). “It was awful, what happened,” he said. “I feel terrible for Steve Moore. I feel bad for Todd Bertuzzi, because his intention wasn’t to end his career that night, by any means. His emotions got the better of him and the game was out of hand, and he kind of took matters into his own hands.” He has seen replays of the incident. “I just cringe,” Pronger said. “When you see him hit him, and then when his face hits the ice. It’s just awful. You wouldn’t want to see that happen to anybody, not your worst enemy.”