Thursday, December 20, 2007

Depositions put Moore/ Bertuzzi chain of events in yet another light.

Dave Nonis added some more twists and turns into the legal wrangling between the Canucks, Todd Bertuzzi and Steve Moore, when he provided a deposition back in August surrounding the on ice incident which saw Bertuzzi punch and then send Moore head first into the ice, resulting in what now appear to be career ending injuries.

In what seems to be a daily leak of deposition insights, The Toronto Star has released details from Dave Nonis’s testimony, which stated that three separate Canucks said that on that night Moore had not specifically been targeted by then Canucks head coach Marc Crawford.

Nonis suggested that his interpretation of the night’s events had Crawford point to a number of players and said that “they must — `... they got to pay the price tonight.'

His sources for that deduction were Markus Naslund, Trevor Linden and Mattias Ohlund, who all apparently told Nonis that it was prior to the game that Crawford had pointed out some of the star players from the Avalanche for special attention.

A development that is a rather interesting contradiction to the version offered by Bertuzzi which said that it was between the second and third periods that Steve Moore’s number was posted on a board with the suggestion that he should pay the price.

Bertuzzi also offered some background information on his relationship with his coach, believing that if he did not take a more active role in the third period that the following day he would be challenged on it by his coach, making for a long week for Bertuzzi.

The slow but now seemingly steady release of deposition materials is certainly something that might be of concern to the NHL, which may soon see the inner workings of a team’s dynamic outlined in a less than flattering presentation.

Outlining a code of behavior from players seemingly spurred on by the coaching ranks or at the best case, misinterpreted signals that led to a tragic situation.

Either way the NHL is in a no win situation as the legal process continues to unfold, each new revelation adding more details of a more unsavory side of the game.

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