A letter arrived at GM Place on Monday containing a suspicious white powder and investigators say the target was Todd Bertuzzi.
The evidence was turned over to the Vancouver Police Department.
''The letter was opened, powder spilled out,'' said Harvey Jones, vice president and general manager of arena operations for Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment. ''There were other people working in the area. They obviously called security.''
Thankfully, nobody was ever in danger, and here's hoping the person who engineered this stunt winds up with some jail time.
A reader sent us a link a few days ago, to Offwing’s poll from last week which asked “Who is the most hated player in the NHL?” The number one answer (with 21% of 2032 votes) was Todd Bertuzzi.
We weren’t even going to bother commenting on this stupid thing, but then we read this TSN story [reprinted below; link found on Canucks Hockey Blog].Clearly some people confuse their hatred of a hockey player’s actions with hating an actual human being that they don’t even know. Sure it’s just a hoax, but a frightening one. And what about next time? When is enough, enough?
And from a comment further on down:
This is not just about Bertuzzi, either. In the case of the Offwing poll, the post editorializes on a few other players as well, with hyped statements (in our opinion) like “Jarkko Ruutu… Nearly killed Jagr at the Olympics” (really? killed?) and “Darius Kasparaitus… it just seems as if he likes to hurt people.”
Are those reasonable statements, or just hype? We’re no fans of Kasparaitus either, but we’d never seriously suggest he’s “evil”. We don’t know him personally, we just don’t like his game.
As for the Ruutu shot on Jagr, click here and decide for yourself. Truth be told, the trouble didn't start for Ruutu because of the hit itself, it started when he taunted the fans in Torino after he was thrown out of the game.
As for me being an integral cog in the anti-Bertuzzi hype machine, click here to listen to what I actually said about Bertuzzi when AOL interviewed me about the poll they asked me to conduct.
Here's the link where my speaker notes are included. At one point, I did refer to Kasparaitis as "pure, concentrated evil" but I thought it was pretty obviously tounge in cheek, especially since the line comes straight out of a movie.
In any case, the real question we ought to be asking is why does this story raise hackles more than two years after the fact? Watch it all again in case you've forgotten:
I see two reasons: First, there seems to be a general impression out there, and I understand some folks disagree, that Bertuzzi's punishment wasn't severe enough. I know that's what I thought.
From time to time are hockey blogs guilty of hyperbole? You bet we are. As John Buccigross has written, hockey is a blood sport, and hating the other guy in the heat, or even the aftermath of the battle is par for the course:
Mike Modano.
In the context of today’s NHL, the Hockey Hall of Fame and general Modern Hockey Greatness, we think Modano’s swell (and maybe he’s even a good guy). But in the context of games against the Vancouver Canucks, we just want him dead. Arrggh.
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Comments
Most of this 'hated player' business is all media nonsense — I, for instance, don't have a clue what kind of person Sean Avery actually is.
It's understandable Bertuzzi's the most hated in the game (were people expecting a different result?) but the beaten, dead horse has been decomposing for some time now.
Posted by:
at March 15, 2006 02:53 PM
If people--including your partner in blog--didn't get it when I used a movie quote in my blog, I somehow don't think they'll get it when you do the same thing in your blog.
Just my opinion.
Posted by:
at March 15, 2006 03:08 PM
Geez, McErlain--I didn't realize you were putting hits out on hockey players. How positively Tony Soprano of you.
Posted by:
at March 15, 2006 05:38 PM
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