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Todd Bertuzzi apologies to the Vancouver media

By Zach Laing

Oct 21, 2020, 15:34 EDTUpdated: Oct 21, 2020, 15:54 EDT

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Todd Bertuzzi has apologized to the Vancouver media market for being a “douche” during his days as a player.

Bertuzzi is infamously known for his sucker punch on Colorado Avalanche forward Steve Moore that left the latter with a career-ending broken neck. In the wake of it, a media firestorm circled Bertuzzi as criminal charges and a civil lawsuit brought the spotlight down on the power forward.

He joined Sportsnet 650’s Starting Lineup Tuesday where he made the comments.

“I was too hard, I told you guys, ‘Sorry if I was a douche, man.’ It’s true, I wasn’t very co-operative at times because I wasn’t ready for that stuff. I didn’t want to speak every day. I was paid to go play hockey and entertain fans not to have stuff written in the paper. I could care less what was written in the paper, the stories that you guys needed. I just wanted to go play hockey and entertain fans, that’s all I wanted to do.
“Getting older and understanding that a lot more comes with it, I’m sure things would have been less abrasive after 2004, but at the same time what’s done is done and we all learn. If people want to hate me or have an opinion on me because of that then that’s OK I’m fine with that.
“Vancouver, you know what, looking at it now, they were great, they really were. I was just at that point annoyed with having to answer the same set of questions, I was not prepared for what I needed to do.” -transcribed by TheScore

I think this is something that lots of players in the league are likely uncomfortable with, let alone someone like Bertuzzi who was so heavily scrutinized — and rightly so.

On Twitter: @zjlaing