More trouble a-Bruin'

McCabe makes Team Canada after all, but that's not the story today. There's not many issues to argue about with the roster, very similar to the one chosen by Star readers in an online survey this week. The one difference is a biggie -- our readers left Todd Bertuzzi off their Team Canada, Gretzky, Lowe and all, not. So we're asking today if Bertuzzi deserves to be on the team. Does he represent Canada's Olympic ideals? Check the website for our yes/no survey. Early returns are about even but the comments are anti-Bertuzzi. Seems our readers don't want this guy on our team.

Leafs and Bruins tonight in one of those home-and-home deals. Back in Toronto tomorrow night.
Boston, 9 points behind Buds, are thinking making up 4 of those points in two days will help.
Hey, that Thornton trade isn't really working out yet, is it? Sturm does have 4 goals since the trade (Thornton has 3 goals and 16 points in 8 games) and is skating with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Boyes (yeah, that guy) on the B's second line.

Mark Zwolinski has the latest on the Leafs injuries, including "good to go" from both Tie Domi and Jeff O'Neill.

But seriously, Todd Bertuzzi? Yes? No?

UPDATE: Damien Cox with some words today on the topic: why including Bertuzzi is not only a mistake, but a political move.

Comments

[Flam Flim]

You just gotta love guys who make outrageous and false statements like this (from yesterday’s Star reader’s reactions):
“I will cheer for every country that plays Canada TO BEAT Canada as badly as possible..Bertuzzi has no business on a team Canada. This sucks and makes me sick. "

Okay, you do that buddy. But I’m calling your bluff because chances are you’ve had a crap week at work, the holiday stress is getting to you, and deep down you’re a diehard Canada hockey fan. You probably wear Team Canada designer pajamas to bed. So don’t wank on about how you’re going to cheer for the U.S. or any other country … you don’t mean it and you’re lying. Now get over it, your 15 mins. of fame hath passed. One more thing, hold yourself to the same standard you hold Bertuzzi before posting on this site again.

Guys like that … but I digress.

I’m not a big Bertuzzi fan post-Steve Moore incident either. But if the NHL and the criminal courts in this country figure what Todd did wasn’t so bad (and both did), then neither should Team Canada and neither do I.

I’m hoping Todd gets out there and clobbers a member of the opposition in the first game. Maybe Bertuzzi will carry the torch that former Great Canadian™ Bobby Clarke carried when he deliberately broke the ankle of a Russian competitor that was just too good back in the vaunted Summit Series. There’s a rich history of goonery in Canadian hockey. I’m all for seeing that tradition continue. Aren’t you? Well, aren’t you?

One more thing … sure it’s nice and it’s politically correct to announce our national women’s team at the same time as the men’s but c’mon. You can’t tell me hockey fans in this country are as excited about or interested in the women’s team to the same degree as the men’s. No offense to the ladies who play the game, but really, who cares beyond their immediate families? Answer: No one!!

You can all climb on your soapboxes and hurl barbs at me if you wish, but no one who reads this blog has ever been to a “pro” women’s game nor do they watch the entire female Team Canada games because they’re not interested. At least I’m not afraid to say it.

As for Bryan McCabe … I like Bryan. But he’s got no business being on the taxi squad. That spot should have gone to Flames young defenseman Dion Phaneuf.

I see Tie Domi returns to the Leafs lineup for tonight’s tilt against Boston. Hooray! We’re saved! A Stanley Cup is forthcoming! Pfft!

[Meatriarchy]

Bertuzzi should be on the team.

[SW]

(just between you and me Flam Flim, are you sure it's not YOU having the bad week? -- Not the first "edgy" comment from you here - wink, wink)
Hey, the women's gold medal game between Canada and the U.S. in Salt Lake Olympics was one of the best hockey games I've ever seen. I remember a lot of people saying that in the days that followed. The women absolutely belong on the same stage as the men.

[Flam Flim]

Okay SW, I'll give you that ... fair comment. But no, my work week has been quiet and quite pleasant. I think I overdosed on coffee this morn. ;)

[Andrew Spencer]

Women's national hockey team? Snore! Yeah, yeah, great game when all there is on the telly is figure skating and cross-country skiing.

[Jim Fabbrini]

One question to all those "moralists", that feel Bertuzzi should not represent Canada.

What about Bobby Clarke? I mean, how many of the "holier than thou" crowd were applauding the Flin Flon Bomber's vicious two handed attack on Valeri Kharlamov in the '76 series?

Clarke was once asked by Dick Beddoes about the slash. Clarke, in typical fashion, stated: "If I hadn't learned to lay on a two-hander once in a while, I'd never have left Flin Flon."

Bertuzzi, as wrong as it was, at least had a reason to go after Moore. Clarke just wanted to lame an opposing star. And what is a bigger loss to a team: Moore or Kharlamov? Really, which act was worse?

Where was all this outrage when Bobby Clarke was in charge of Team Canada? If these holy rollers are going to act all righteous about the Bertuzzi selection, please devote equal time to the other "goons" of NHL lore who, I would assume, given some people's moral stance, also should not be representing Canada.

Jim Fabbrini
Chicago, IL

[denial]

nothing wrong with edgy. not when it makes sense.

Look, Cox et al may be pulling out the Olympic Ideal lens to view this -- and it's a perfectly fine lens to use -- but come on, this isn't a high school paper. if you're going to go down that road and take that position, then you have to pull back further than this one situation. Bertuzzi - and to an even GREATER extent, Heatley -- don't reflect the olympic ideals. But why suddenly pick on them?

NHL players shouldn't BE in the Olympics -- period. Are you telling me a professional athlete who earns $5 million for working 8 months of the year (less if you're on a crappy team), reflects the olympic ideal?

When they let the NHL enter the olympic picture -- for PURE financial reasons -- they tossed out olympic ideals for hockey. So Canada didn't dominate the podium in mens hockey. So what? Is that what the olympics are about?

As a Canadian, I was infintely more proud to see that there is a team in MONGOLIA, than whether or not a home grown team dominated. That's not what this country is about. It's about this: because of our passion for this game, people around the world are playing it. I mean, just look at the multicultural tournament being played. Is that not the COOLEST thing of all time? Is that not the most stunning reflection of just how tremendous this country has been for this game? Because we shell out money and time and emotion to hockey -- at all levels -- it has exported around the world.

I'll take a team of $50/day Khazakstanians (ouch) making a run for the silver before they go back to the factory or farm that they work on ANY DAY before some bloated and greedy - and clinically insane -- professional millionaire Canadian hockey player skates around with the gold around their neck, right before they return to their absurdly pampered lifestyle.

Olympic hockey as a concept lost any claim to the moral high road when it let pro athletes dominate -- and it was always about money, just as it is now. It's not about olympic anything. It's about loading viewers in front of a TV to sell advertising revenue, newspapers, and all the while distracting them from the fact that the current canadian men's hockey team is about as 'olympic' the globetrotters vs. the generals. it's a circus for those in need of one to watch.

[Flam Flim]

Thanks Denial ... Jim in Chicago: Read the posts first next time.

[Ninja]

Seriously, this selective memory crap is ponderous.

What is the Olympic Ideal? International Participation? "Swifter, Higher, Stronger"? "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."?

The Olympic Games have never been your grandmas chicken soup type of event. Wake up and smell the torch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Games

[Fred]

I don't think Bertuzzi should have made the team. He is having an off year this year, and Team Canada should have included stars such as Shannahan and Kariya, who have led Canada to gold last time out. Mccabe should have been top pairing defenseman on the team, as he is one of the best blue liners in the Nhl.

[Arthur]

Bertuzzi belongs on the team.

Damien Cox and his colleagues are on a witch hunt to ruin Bertuzzi's career. He's apologized, and was dismissed by the court. What else can he do? Quit? All he knows how to do is redeem himself on the ice, but it seems like the Canadian media won't relent until his life has been destroyed.

The only reason this is an issue at all is because the replay of Bertuzzi was played 24/7 on news networks for weeks. Maurice Richard died a legend, but if he had ever attacked a hockey player with 3 hockey sticks in today's era, he never would have played again. Never mind won five Stanley Cups.

If Bertuzzi shouldn't be on the team, then neither should Heatley, and I don't hear anybody saying that. Bertuzzi didn't mean to break Moore's neck. It was stupid, but wasn't what he had in mind. He'd take it back if he could. Heatley was foolishly driving too fast when he killed his friend, and unlike Bertuzzi, actually pleaded guilty to his crime.

Cut Bertuzzi some slack. How many other players that kids across Canada idolize have unloaded an act of goonery at one time or another?