INDEPTH: THE BERTUZZI INCIDENTBack
to square oneBY RANDI DRUZIN | Posted
March 12, 2004
An hour after the NHL suspended Todd Bertuzzi for the rest of the season, I opened my e-mail account.
Five American friends had sent me messages. All of them were about Bertuzzi.
Some of the messages started with chitchat. But Bob, in New York, got straight to the point. 'Thuggery on ice,' he wrote. 'I would never let a child of mine play such a sport, at least not in North America.'
That hurt.
I had spent the better part of a decade trying to convince Bob that hockey was worthy of Canadians' loving embrace.
In Prague, where we both lived for a time, I regaled him with hockey stories to rival those about Babe Ruth's called shot and Knute Rockne's 'Win one for the Gipper!' speech.
I waxed poetic about the Leafs' Bobby Baun scoring a game-winning goal in the 1964 Stanley Cup playoffs on a broken ankle, and about the magical 1972 Summit Series.
Bob started to come around. He got caught up in the Czechs' excitement during the 1998 Nagano Games, and he peppered me with questions about hockey's rules and regulations.
I was certain that, within a decade, Bob would be whacking an eraser around the floor of his Manhattan office with a ruler yelling, 'He shoots, he scores!'
But when Bertuzzi lashed out on Monday, he broke Steve Moore's neck -- and put me back to square one with Bob.
I didn't respond to his e-mail right away. I wasn't sure how to address him. Should I be defiant (Screw you! You don't even know what 'dump and chase' means!), breezy (No biggie. Moore will be back on skates in no time) or apologetic (On behalf of the Canadian people ...)
I closed my e-mail account and turned to the television. I saw the same images on every news station -- Bertuzzi punching Moore, Bertuzzi with his head bowed in penitence, Bertuzzi wiping tears from his eyes. There was no escape.
I walked back to my computer and opened my e-mail account.
There, at the top of the queue, was a message from Melissa in Phoenix. Finally, an e-mail about something other than Bertuzzi.
Melissa had as much interest in hockey as I did in horticulture. I opened her e-mail expecting to read a message about the status of her relationship with Glen or about the final episode of Sex and the City.
But, no.
'Hey, I can't believe a Canadian hockey player broke another player's neck!' she started. 'I thought all you Canucks were mild-mannered.'
Back to square one.
Randi Druzin is a freelance writer and author based in Toronto, and is currently a writer with CBC Sports Online's Olympic unit.
