Vancouver, British Columbia – Brad May still has a lot of friends in Vancouver. He was a popular teammate in the Canucks’ dressing room, he had a warm relationship with many members of the British Columbia media and his charity work in the area gained him considerable admiration and respect.
So when he returned Saturday as a member of the Avalanche, May was the center of attention at the morning skate and heard questions about the less-than-warm welcome he has gotten in Denver.
Did it bother him?
“I’m not going to lie, yeah,” May said in the visiting dressing room at GM Place hours before the game. “There’s no question when you have feelings out there. The only question I would ask is if you’re going to formulate strong opinions, maybe dig a little deeper, that’s all. Otherwise, form your own opinions, and I respect that.”
May was included among the defendants in Steve Moore’s lawsuit because of his reference to a “bounty” on Moore in the wake of the Avalanche forward’s Feb. 16, 2004, hit on Markus Naslund – nearly three weeks before Todd Bertuzzi’s attack on Moore.
That original lawsuit was tossed out for jurisdictional reasons in Denver District Court earlier this month, and while the Moore camp is planning to appeal, the other possibility is the suit will be refiled in Canada. It’s still uncertain whether May would be among the defendants there, because his inclusion originally involved trying to show a “conspiracy” began in Denver.
May wouldn’t comment on whether he was relieved by the dismissal of the case in Colorado.
“That’s well behind us,” he said. “That’s not even worth an answer to me. I’m here to play hockey. I’ll answer hockey questions.”
Looking ahead to the game that night, May said the issues raised by the March 8, 2004, game and Bertuzzi’s attack “are well behind us, almost two years away, almost two years in the past. In talking to our captain, Joe Sakic, that’s behind us. …
“I’m here to help our team do the right things, to create a spark, whatever it is. Maybe make the right play, get the puck out at the right time and play within the system that Joel Quenneville sets forth for us. You all know me, I’m a passionate guy. I’ll do the best I can, that’s all.”
