Anybody remember Steve Moore?
It has been more than two years since the Avalanche center suffered fractured neck vertebrae, cuts and a severe concussion when Vancouver’s Todd Bertuzzi sucker-punched and tackled him in General Motors Place.
The Canucks and Avalanche, who meet tonight at the Pepsi Center, have undergone considerable turnover. Bertuzzi is with the Florida Panthers. Former Canucks general manager Brian Burke and coach Marc Crawford, originally included as defendants in Moore’s Colorado lawsuit, are with Anaheim and Los Angeles, respectively.
Yet it is distasteful to dismiss the notorious incident as being as relevant in 2006 as a 2004 story about a short-term celebrity’s latest liaison.
The point is not that Moore would have been a long-term star or anything close to it. The point is that Bertuzzi likely took away any chance Moore had to secure his spot in the league as the sort of third- or fourth-line forward who can stick around for years.
Moore’s high-profile Toronto attorney, Tim Danson, said Friday that Moore “still hasn’t been cleared” to take contact or play. The problem continues to be post-concussion symptoms.
Carolina’s Erik Cole suffered a similar neck injury in March when Pittsburgh’s Brooks Orpik drove him into the glass from behind. “You don’t feel that lucky sitting on a gurney with a broken neck, but it could have been much worse,” Cole told a group of us at the Eastern Conference finals before he made a dramatic return in the Stanley Cup Finals.
So while the phrase “broken neck” can sound awful (and is awful in the worst cases), the idea that the Avalanche blew the magnitude of Moore’s injury out of proportion was – and still is – ludicrous.
Cole didn’t have lingering concussion problems.
Moore does, when he cranks his physical activity up to a serious athlete’s level.
Danson said Moore is “working out a lot and looks great. He hasn’t lost any of his enthusiasm and determination, and he’s still hopeful he can make a comeback. In the next couple of months, he wants to see if he can’t get with a team and work out. … It will take the power of God to stop him. He’s not taking no for an answer.”
I remain ambivalent about in-game actions landing in the courts, but I certainly understand Moore’s reasoning in pursuing a legal and financial remedy against Bertuzzi and the Canucks. His original Colorado lawsuit, which included Burke, Crawford and former Canucks winger Brad May as defendants, was tossed out last year for jurisdictional reasons.
A streamlined suit against Orca Bay – the company that owns the Canucks – the team and Bertuzzi was filed in Ontario, with a backup in British Columbia. Bertuzzi and the Canucks challenged the Ontario case on jurisdictional grounds, but eventually their attorneys conceded the issue and the suit is moving forward. Moore is asking for $18 million in damages – $15 million for lost wages, $1 million in aggravated damages and $2 million in punitive damages.
Danson said the two sides are going through pretrial examinations, and the case probably wouldn’t go to trial until at least late 2007. As is common in such cases involving multiple defendants, lawyers for the Canucks and Bertuzzi essentially are arguing among themselves in the pretrial process, disputing who would be liable for the damages – if there are any.
Penguins’ saga
The announced sale of the Penguins to Canadian businessman Jim Balsillie, whose company is behind the BlackBerry wireless e-mail devices, hasn’t cleared up the team’s future. In fact, rumors of Balsillie possibly moving the team to Hamilton, Ontario, have started, though he is insistent that he hopes the proposed arena deal tied to the granting of a slots license to the Isle of Capri casino chain goes through. The coveted license is expected to be awarded late this year or early next year. The league’s position is Balsillie has assured the NHL the team would stay in Pittsburgh if a new arena project gets the go-ahead soon.
“This has to be done really soon,” Balsillie told reporters in Pittsburgh. “I sure hope it’s done. I can’t see it being spring before this is done. Does anyone want to wait another year?”
Foppa’s take
The Flyers opened in Pittsburgh the day Balsillie’s agreement to purchase the Penguins was announced, and the Philadelphia Inquirer talked to Peter Forsberg about the issue of franchise relocation. That was appropriate because Forsberg played in the abbreviated 1995 season as a rookie with Quebec before the franchise was shifted to Denver.
“It was so sad for the people of Quebec,” Forsberg said. “It’s really important that the league try to keep the small-market teams in place, especially with the new collective-bargaining agreement.” Forsberg said it “will be sad to lose this team. You look at the teams (Pittsburgh) had at the beginning of the ’90s, that would be lost in the shuffle if you moved the team.”
Captain Detroit
Though the Red Wings apparently also considered going with the younger Henrik Zetterberg as their new captain, they ended up doing the expected and put the “C” on Nicklas Lidstrom’s sweater.
“It’s nice to be honored as a captain and it feels good to be out there with the ‘C,”‘ Lidstrom told reporters. “I’ll be communicating more, but I look forward to it.”
Lidstrom, long one of the top players in the game, isn’t anything close to being outspoken or a fiery leader, but he’s the right choice.
Windy City
Could it really happen? Could the recently moribund Blackhawks, who actually looked good in the relatively meaningless exhibition season, shock a lot of us and be decent again?
They could if Martin Havlat, acquired from Ottawa, responds to the challenge of being counted on to lead as well as he did in the 8-6 win at Nashville in the opener. And if goalie Nikolai Khabibulin settles down and stays healthy. And if defenseman Adrian Aucoin isn’t injured and lives up to the free-agent contract he signed last year. And if …
The feelings remain that: a) if there’s a way to foul it up, the Hawks’ ownership will find it; and, b) this has become a bad-luck franchise, where anything that can go wrong will.
But if Rex Grossman can wake up and suddenly be an NFL quarterback, stranger things – like a Hawks’ resurgence – can happen.
