You almost never hear of an NHL player being upset (in a litigation sort of way) about injuries they got that resulted from fighting (drop the gloves and throw punches).

In general, the one major incident I am aware of that resulted in legal action being taken against a player was when Todd Bertuzzi checked Steve Moore down the the ice from behind and then drove his head/neck into the ice with his stick in some heavy followup hits. This is mentioned in the wikipedia article @eric3579 posted, and hinted at in the article @RedSky posted from the Economist.

In that incident, Steve Moore (a lower-level player on the Colorado Avalanche) had hit Marcus Naslund (a star level player of the Vancouver Canucks) in a previous game. That hit was a fairly normal hockey hit -- Naslund had the puck, Moore intentionally hit him to try to separate him from the puck, but arguably led with his elbow to Naslund's head. It was a dangerous play, that should have be penalized (it wasn't) -- although I don't think Moore intended to cause injury. It is a fast game, sometimes you can't react quick enough to avoid a dangerous collision like that. Still, I think that kind of play should be penalized to make it clear to players that they need to avoid dangerous plays if possible. Steve Moore didn't have a history of dirty or dangerous play, but still.

Anyway, all of that dovetails in pretty nicely with my previous post, specifically about what leads to a "spontaneous fight". Moore, a 3-4th line guy (lower ranks of skill/ability on the team) hit star player Naslund. In almost ANY hockey game where that kind of thing happens, you can expect that somebody from the star's team is going to go over to the offending player and push them around, probably with the intent to fight them. Usually it happens right at the time of the incident, but here it was delayed to a following game between the two teams.

In the next game between Colorado and Vancouver, Moore got challenged by a Vancouver player early in the first period and fought him. But I guess that the lag time and injury to Naslund (he ended up missing 3 games) had brewed up more bad blood than that so many Vancouver players hadn't gotten it fully out of their systems. Later in the game, Todd Bertuzzi skated up behind Moore when he didn't have the puck, grabbed him and tailed him for several seconds trying to get him into a second fight, and when he didn't respond just hauled back and punched him in the back of the head.

Moore fell to the ice, where Bertuzzi piled on him and drove his head into the ice. A big scrum/dogpile ensued, with Moore on the bottom. As a result of that, Moore fractured 3 vertebrae in his neck, stretched or tore some neck ligaments, got his face pretty cut up, etc. Pretty severe injuries.

So, in comparison:
Moore (lesser skill) hit Naslund (high skill) resulting in a minor(ish) injury, that could have ended up being much worse. But, it was a legitimate hockey play that just happened to occur at a time when Naslund was vulnerable -- arguably no intent to harm/injure.
Bertuzzi hit Moore in a following game, after he had already "answered" for his hit on Naslund by fighting a Vancouver player. Bertuzzi punched him from behind and followed up with further violence, driving his head into the ice and piling on him, initiating a dogpile. Not even close to a legitimate hockey play, well away from the puck, and with pretty clear intent to harm (maybe not to injure, but to harm).


Moore sued Bertuzzi, his team (the Canucks), and the NHL. Bertuzzi claimed that his coach had put a "bounty" on Moore, and that he hadn't intended to injure him -- just to get back at him for his hit on Naslund. Bertuzzi was suspended for a fairly long span of time, and his team was fined $250,000. The lawsuit was kind of on pause for a long time to gauge the long-term effects on Moore, but was eventually settled out of court (confidential terms).

All of this stuff is or course related to violence in hockey, but only loosely tied to fighting in hockey. Some would argue (with some merit in my opinion) that if the refs had called a penalty on Moore's hit on Naslund, and allowed a Vancouver player to challenge him to a fight at that time instead of the following game, it probably wouldn't have escalated to the level it did.

So, at least in my opinion, the league (NHL) needs to be careful, consistent, and fairly harsh in handing out penalties/suspensions to players who commit dangerous plays that can or do result in injuries -- especially repeat offenders. BUT, I think that allowing fighting can actually help mitigate that kind of stuff also -- as long as the league keeps it from getting out of hand and the enforcer type players continue to follow their "code".

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

snails are voracious crop pests and quick reproducers as well - I would think that figuring out their mating habits would be really important.

Steve Moore is a sensationalist doofus.

As an ecologist, I resent the fact that this "Moore" person thinks Snail mating science is a waste of tax payer dollars. When people do this kind of research they are trying to answer a larger ecological question, or trying to find what the ecological impact of a species is. And there a lot of seemingly insignificant organisms that contribute more to this universe then the hot bag of air that is Steve Moore.

@chilaxe
Your source is "by the well-known Reagan economist Arthur B. Laffer, the Wall Street Journal’s Steve Moore, and Jonathan Williams of ALEC." I couldn't figure out which way ALEC leans in a 2-minute search, but the first two authors are almost certainly biased towards the right. Everything they say may be informationally accurate, and it might even be a fair all-around representation of the situation, but I wouldn't go quoting it as a neutral unbiased source any more than if Hilary Clinton co-wrote a similar book with someone from MSNBC.

Cenk's mistakes aren't "the same kind." The mistakes the Fox dudes are making are patently false and misleading. Cenk's "mistake" was talking about two things with the same name. I put mistake in quotes this time because I watched the video again, and he says, "the 99%", which is the slogan of the protest movement, so it's not even wrong. He didn't say, "99% of the population". Your argument that it's a lie is like saying that members of the Tea Party weren't actually in attendance at the Boston Tea Party in 1773. I think anyone listening would understand that both he and the Fox guys mean the protesters. The Fox guys might not even disagree with how he said it.

Is there anything else you can point to of Cenk's that is a clear falsehood, especially one that he continues to repeat? While I like having heroes, I prefer it when their armour is a little tarnished, so you'd be doing me a favour.

>> ^DavidRaine:
"Well if you don't know, then you shouldn't be talking about it."

>> ^Xax:
Bullshit. He doesn't know what the acronym stands for, so he shouldn't be talking about the voter fraud they attempted to perpetrate? That's just stupid.

I understand you're happy that Maxine Waters took a shot at him, but it was an idiotic comment. She's taking a shot at him for talking about voter fraud... why? Does she not have a problem with voter fraud? Or is voter fraud only bad when the other team is doing it?

I'm in agreement with Raaagh here -- It sounded like Steve Moore was lacking fundamental knowledge of the situation, rather than simply not knowing what the acronym stood for. It's another example of a talking head taking a talking point and trying to hammer it into the heads of the people he's talking at without regard for the situation. That's something I have a serious problem with. Instead of raising a serious point, blindly vomiting out the talking point divides people and takes time and resources away from the actual issues.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'palin, bill maher, real time' to 'palin, bill maher, real time, dana gould, maxine waters, steve moore' - edited by my15minutes

"Todd Bertuzzi faced no consequences for his actions...."

He was suspended for 20 games, costing him $501,926.39 USD;
He lost about $350,000 in endorsement income;
He pled guilty to Assault Causing Bodily Harm, although he got zero jail time;
He is being sued for $19,500,000 by Steve Moore, and that lawsuit is still pending.

Should he have served at least a little time in jail? Yes, and it's sad that he didn't. But saying he faced "no consequences" is simply untrue.