At some point in life, everyone finds themselves at the stage where Tyler Bertuzzi was as he sat on the Detroit Red Wings bench Sunday night, about to do something incredibly foolish that in the heat of the moment made perfect sense. Colorado Avalanche forward Matt Calvert was bumped into the Detroit bench by a check from Detroit defenseman Mike Green, and Wings forward Michael Rasmussen grabbed Calvert’s stick, pulling him deeper into the bench. Calvert tugged and jabbed with his stick to try and get it free and was pulled into the bench and held by Detroit’s Dylan Larkin. As Larkin held Calvert, Bertuzzi took his right glove off and punched Calvert.
Detroit’s Tyler Bertuzzi has been suspended for two games for unsportsmanlike conduct/roughing on Colorado’s Matt Calvert. https://t.co/L2E2XHzDNW
— NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) December 3, 2018
Monday, following a telephone hearing with the league, the NHL suspended Bertuzzi for two games for roughing and unsportsmanlike conduct. Bertuzzi has been among Detroit’s more effective forwards this season. He has points in five of his last eight games and three goals in the last three games. “He goes to the hard areas,… Detroit’s defenseman Niklas Kronwall said. “He wins all the little stick battles. He doesn’t lose a lot of 50-50 battles on any given night.… Bertuzzi is also someone who plays the game on the edge and like Sunday, and when you skirt that line, at some point you will cross it and hurt the team. He did it last year against the New York Islanders, taking a stick foul major that allowed the Isles to rally and eventually win a game that Detroit had well in hand. “He’s an agitator,… Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard told DetroitRedWings.com. “He’s out there and he’s not afraid to give up his body. He’s not afraid to throw it around. That can tick people off.… No matter the role you assign to Calvert in escalating the altercation, the bottom line is Bertuzzi can’t expect to do what he did, when did, and have a reasonable hope that he’d get away with it. By then, all the eyes and cameras were trained on the episode, and you know the guy who strikes last is going to get caught every single time. It’s the first suspension of Bertuzzi’s NHL career. He will forfeit $15,053.76, in salary that will go into the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund. Follow me on Twitter @asktheduffer