| 24 September 2010
"Your teammates are kind of your brotherhood, and you stick up for each other and stuff like that has to be attended to. I think anyone else would have done the same."--Todd Bertuzzi
That was from this morning's Free Press. I know that there's still a lot of you who aren't on the "Dirty Bert" bandwagon - you still can't wrap your head around what happened between him and Steve Moore. But this is a guy that the Detroit Red Wings organ-i-zation values - and therefore, so do I.
I'd also like to point out one more snippet from last year. RWBill from Abel to Yzermanposted this in the comment section yesterday, not sure where he got it from - but it gives you more of a glimpse into what Bertuzzi brings to the locker room:
It was another forgettable loss for the Red Wings. Unable to budge out of ninth place, the Wings were mired in the middle of a seven game streak without a win in regulation time.
The daily gloom in the locker room reflected the acceptance of hopelessness. The season from Injury Hell had already seemed to go on forever, but in that Chicago cold of January the Olympic break was still another month away. With half a dozen key players still out the dire situation was reflected in the players’ same non-committal answers they’d been giving for eight weeks. Another unsuccessful result that day ensured they would stay out of the playoff race.
Out of the always subdued murmur of gloom that characterized the entire franchise arose a statement so bold that everyone in the locker room, players as well as reporters, turned their head to see who said it. It didn’t come from the always understated Swedish Captain or any of his countrymen. It didn’t come from any of the long time Red Wings from whom such perspective and inspiration would have been expected. The statement was so remarkable and reflected such a different and positive attitude than anyone had heard in the Wings locker room all season that by the end of the day it had been published in newspapers and web sites from San Jose to Chicago and Boston.
From the resignation of impending doom of the locker room of a team closer to twelfth than ninth place came this statement from a most unlikely source,
“I still think we’re the team to beat.”--Todd Bertuzzi
According to the source, everyone cleared a path for Dirty Bert to make his way to the showers, including Nick Lidstrom. He's a leader, folks. He's not going to sit by and let some punk from Pittsburgh take out one of his brothers without making him answer for it. Doesn't matter if he won or lost (and eyewitnesses say he won)...the point is that he responded. Think Orpik might think again before sticking his knee out on a Wing? He better.
Bertuzzi had only been in twenty three fights in his career going into the pre-season game against Pittsburgh, according to hockeyfights.com - so it wasn't as if he's been known to drop the gloves at the drop of a hat. But he most certainly will stick up for his teammates when the situation calls for it.
And that my friends, is something we need on this team.
