whcanuck
Registered User
- May 11, 2017
- 158
- 61
The Todd Bertuzzi/Steve Moore incident has been talked about, analyzed and re-hashed over and over again. It ended Moore's career and obviously Bertuzzi was never the same either, never again reaching 30 goals or 75 points again.
As a Canucks fan, I remember he was suspended for 10 games real early in the '01-'02 season for leaving the bench to fight. The Canucks had made the playoffs the year before but had a really poor start in '01-'02. When Bertuzzi came back from suspension, they discovered the West Coast Express line with Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison, and Bertuzzi was suddenly the next great power forward. He finished '01-'02 with 36 goals and 85 points in just 72 games and then really blew the doors off the next year, scoring a monstrous 46 goals and 97 points en route to a first team all star selection.
But the 2003 playoffs was really lackluster for Bertuzzi and it was a rollercoaster ride for Naslund and the rest of the Canucks. Bert only scored 2 goals in 14 playoff games and his disappearing act (save for a real nice goal in game 7 against Minnesota) I thought was a big reason why the Canucks collapsed and lost to Minnesota (Dan Cloutier's play was the biggest reason IMO).
The next year in '03-'04 he was having a down year compared to the two previous seasons. He had a respectable 60 points in 69 games, but only 17 goals before the Moore incident...way down from the year prior. I think he even took a rare triple-minor penalty in the regular season and Crawford benched him. Things seemed to be going poorly with him ever since the 2003 playoffs. I don't buy the narrative that Vancouver beats Calgary in the first round with Bertuzzi...Iginla was playing at a level much higher than Bertuzzi was and Kiprusoff was also playing at a very high level.
So my question is this, was Bertuzzi already experiencing a career downturn that was only exacerbated by the Moore incident?
As a Canucks fan, I remember he was suspended for 10 games real early in the '01-'02 season for leaving the bench to fight. The Canucks had made the playoffs the year before but had a really poor start in '01-'02. When Bertuzzi came back from suspension, they discovered the West Coast Express line with Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison, and Bertuzzi was suddenly the next great power forward. He finished '01-'02 with 36 goals and 85 points in just 72 games and then really blew the doors off the next year, scoring a monstrous 46 goals and 97 points en route to a first team all star selection.
But the 2003 playoffs was really lackluster for Bertuzzi and it was a rollercoaster ride for Naslund and the rest of the Canucks. Bert only scored 2 goals in 14 playoff games and his disappearing act (save for a real nice goal in game 7 against Minnesota) I thought was a big reason why the Canucks collapsed and lost to Minnesota (Dan Cloutier's play was the biggest reason IMO).
The next year in '03-'04 he was having a down year compared to the two previous seasons. He had a respectable 60 points in 69 games, but only 17 goals before the Moore incident...way down from the year prior. I think he even took a rare triple-minor penalty in the regular season and Crawford benched him. Things seemed to be going poorly with him ever since the 2003 playoffs. I don't buy the narrative that Vancouver beats Calgary in the first round with Bertuzzi...Iginla was playing at a level much higher than Bertuzzi was and Kiprusoff was also playing at a very high level.
So my question is this, was Bertuzzi already experiencing a career downturn that was only exacerbated by the Moore incident?