Todd Bertuzzi Head Shot: NHL Fails To Walk the Walk

The Chicago Blackhawks bested Detroit Monday night at Joe Louis Arena in a 3-2 overtime thriller. 

I'll let someone else convey to you the electricity of the contest and how the game kept fans on the edge of their seats, how this was a nearly perfect hockey game to watch and how much we should anticipate the other two meetings we'll see from these teams to close the season.

Instead, I'll discuss the five seconds that the NHL should address today.

Minutes after his turnover led to the first goal of the contest, Todd Bertuzzi skated up to Ryan Johnson, turned, left his skates and blatantly elbowed him in the head. Johnson's helmet was neatly removed from his head, after which Bertuzzi was given a elbowing major and a game misconduct.

Replays confirmed that Bertuzzi turned and raised his elbow as well as launching himself into Johnson, who took a few stitches to his ear before miraculously coming back to the contest a few minutes later.

So Johnson came back. No harm, no foul...right?

Wrong.

This is exactly the kind of hit that the league says it wants to eliminate from the game. Bertuzzi wasn't trying to separate Johnson from the puck nearly as much as he was trying to separate Johnson's head from his shoulders.

This wasn't a case of the league going back and nitpicking at a no-call on the ice.

This was a textbook case for a multi-game suspension.

Intent...check. Refs made the call right away...check. Player's track record...well, without launching into a much longer character study of Bertuzzi, let's just say he's a prior offender and leave it at that.

To be fair, Bertuzzi's record has been pretty clean the last few seasons. However, the league has to see that there was obvious intent in this instance. Bertuzzi left his skates and made a blatant attempt to catch Johnson's head with his elbow. 

To me, the question isn't whether he should be suspended, but how long that suspension should be.

Pavel Kubina got three games for his hit on Dave Bolland, regardless of all the time the Hawks center will miss because of it. Whether Johnson misses any games as a result of the cheap shot is irrelevant.  The intended match was Bertuzzi's elbow and Johnson's head.

If the NHL lets Bertuzzi skate in Detroit's next regular season game, than all their barking about head shots and the repercussions that will result from them has absolutely no bite.

I would say the bidding should start at four games. Ruling Bertuzzi for the remaining six wouldn't be out of line. Playoffs? That's up for debate. You can point to a guy like Matt Cooke, but I would say he's been a more active offender the last few years than Bertuzzi.

Anything less that a suspension speaks volumes about how serious the NHL is about policing head shots out of the game. 

The league has been talking the talk for a while. Now is the NHL's opportunity to walk the walk...

UPDATE, 3:00 p.m.:  ...only they chose to stand with feet firmly planted on the ground. Reports are that the league will impose no further sanction against Betuzzi for the play.

Apparently head-hunting is fine as long as the victim isn't hospitalized or misses ice time. In my opinion, not doling out additional punishment for this hit sends a very mixed message with previous statements from the league. The league said head shots would be dealt with severely. Bertuzzi committed a head shot on Johnson. The NHL looked the other way.

What's it going to take to get the league to pay more than lip service to this issue?