Bertuzzi files court action against Crawford

[Dr. Strange]

Somewhat old, but...

Todd Bertuzzi has named his former coach as a third party in court papers that blame Marc Crawford for being behind the infamous sucker punch Bertuzzi landed against Colorado Avalanche forward Steve Moore during an NHL game four years ago.

In court documents filed with the Ontario Superior Court on March 3, Bertuzzi blames Marc Crawford for encouraging Canuck players to make Moore "pay the price" for knocking out Vancouver captain Markus Naslund in an earlier game.

More at: http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/story.html?id=407039

[TZ]

1. WTF?

BERTUZZI is the one that broke the guys neck! Clearly he could have NOT punched him. Talk about "passing the buck"!:grr:

[LisaM]

2. This is very interesting. I really don't like Crawford

In a 1996 playoff game against Detroit, one of the Avalanche nearly killed Kris Darper (Claude Lemieiux). There was never an apology, and the blood between the two teams boiled so hard that Crawford and Scotty Bowman got into verbal fights about it. When Crawford coached the Canucks, they played really dirty, and the games between the Canucks and the Avalanche (Crawford's former team) were really ugly.

I have friends in both Vancouver and Denver, and once Crawford was gone from those organizations, they both admitted they thought he was a thug, who used his players as hit men (well, the thug part anyway). I've blamed Crawford for this incident for years, because I saw what happened to Kris Draper (Don Cherry himself called it "the cheapest cheap shot of all time" - exaggeration, no doubt -- but it Grapes says it's a cheap shot, you know it's pretty dirty).

[Dr. Strange]

3. Yeah, I'm not a big fan of Crawford.

Probably won't get added as a party to the lawsuit, but his reputation can't be holding up too well.

[LisaM]

4. It's no coincidence that dirty play happens under his watch

I blame Bertuzzi too. He never got his game back - I think, to his credit, he was scarred by the incident - but he did throw the hit. I can't even bear to watch it.