VANCOUVER (CP) - The Vancouver police are investigating an ugly on-ice hit by Vancouver Canuck Todd Bertuzzi which sent Colorado player Steve Moore to hospital with a fractured neck.
“I have spoken to the chief of Vancouver this morning,” B.C. Solicitor General Rich Coleman said Tuesday morning."There is an ongoing investigation with regard to this incident.” A spokeswoman for the Vancouver Police later confirmed an investigation is underway.
Moore, from Windsor, Ont., spent the night in a Vancouver hospital after he was slugged in the side of the head by Bertuzzi late in Monday night’s game at GM Place.
Moore landed face-first - with Bertuzzi on top of him - and lay in a pool of blood for several minutes before he was removed from the ice on a stretcher.
It will be the second time in recent years the Vancouver police have become involved in an on-ice incident at an NHL game.
Former NHL tough guy Marty McSorley was charged for hitting then-Vancouver Canuck Donald Brashear with his hockey stick in February 2000.
While playing for the Boston Bruins, McSorley was slapped with a one-year suspension for using his stick to hit Brashear on the side of the head. Brashear was knocked unconscious and missed 20 games with a concussion.
McSorley was tried in court and received a conditional sentence for assault with a weapon, but his one-year suspension from the NHL ended his 17-year career.
Coleman said he doesn’t believe the investigation into the Bertuzzi hit will be handled any differently because it involves a home team this time.
“I believe the one thing about a police investigation is that it’s always nonbiased. . . We investigate crime. Period. "
Bertuzzi, from Sudbury, Ont., has been suspended indefinitely pending a hearing at the NHL’s office in Toronto on Wednesday morning.