Tom responds to those who think coach Marc Crawford is to blame for the Vancouver Canucks' recent slide: “His best player hasn't been right since he suffered a concussion. His second best player is suspended indefinitely for attempting to avenge that concussion. His third best player just returned to the lineup after missing 25 games. His goaltenders have given up about 10 bad goals in two weeks. Everyone else is playing like they expect bad things to happen and so they do.”

Julia on Wade Belak's slash to the head of Ossi Vaananen last night in Toronto: “As I've indicated, the Maple Leafs are my team of choice, but I will not tolerate this from any player on any team. Belak should be suspended for at least as long as Bertuzzi, and in my opinion longer. While Bertuzzi sucker-punched a player and injured him severely, and Belak didn't seriously injure Vaananen, to me, the degree of injury is irrelevant, it's the potential for injury that matters. Slashing at someone's neck with your stick is never acceptable.”

The Belak incident is a little strange, since the intent seems to be there, but he wasn't looking at the player he ended up slashing. The Toronto-Colorado game wasn't the only one on the CBC last night that had a serious incident of violence in it, though. Well, the other game didn't have a serious single violent episode, but the refs in that game needed the authority to end the game with less than 2 seconds remaining on the clock. One of the linesmen stepped in between Krzysztof Oliwa and the player(s) he wanted to fight, but the refs and linesmen should have been able to tell the coaches to get their players off the ice because everybody in the building knew that a brawl was about to erupt. (The fans were even chanting Oliwa's name, egging him on to fight. Tthe Calgary coaches were unaware of this.) Fortunately nobody was injured in the brawl—even the two European (!) goalies (!!) fought in the brawl too—nor was the brawl the result of an incident causing serious injury, but when the atmosphere is toxic like that—and it's increasingly clear that many games—and the Calgary-Colorado game, just like the Vancouver-Colorado game earlier this month—are atmostpheres that are toxic to begin with.

Kevin doesn't have much patience for the excuses for the Bertuzzi incident: “Players are taught to harness their emotions not submit to them like some hormone fueled adolescent.”

I once tried to figure out why fighting is acceptable in hockey but not other sports.

Tom may have the most radical solution (note that I do not say it's the wrong solution): eliminate fighting.

Tom: “The NHL acted predictably. Brian Burke reacted predictably. The media will act predictably. Don Cherry will act predictably. There will be hand wringing from some along with the declaration that Bertuzzi got off lightly. Those who believe the punishment should be consistent with similar incidents will think it is too much. Nothing else will change.”

Andrew Coyne: “Bertuzzi is a convenient scapegoat. Having performed the necessary ritual sacrifice to appease the critics, the league can now return to its regularly-scheduled complacency.” Also, in the comments: “the law takes intent into account. So should the NHL.”

I saw and heard the news conference given by Bertuzzi, and saw (but could not hear) the news conference given by Burke. I'm unhappy with the suspension, but I still think it's appropriate. (But I disagree with anything lengthier, and I wish the league didn't reserve the option to punish Bertuzzi further.) I also take the contradictory stance that the suspension should be appealed, mostly because of my bias as a long-time Canuck fan but also because of my long-time although possibly residual bias of workers' rights.