Brad May drops a bombshell regarding the infamous Steve Moore & Todd Bertuzzi incident.

It was a moment that rocked the hockey world to its core and it was a moment when everyone, even many who had never watched a single National Hockey League game in their lifetimes, stopped what they were doing and watched in horror. 

All the way back in March of 2004 fans were witness to a rather chaotic incident during a game between the Vancouver Canucks and the Colorado Avalanche, one that would result in a career ending injury for Avalanche forward Steve Moore. The incident is now so infamous in hockey lore that I don't have to recount it to you, but for those of you who are too young to have seen it personally here is a brief recap of what went down. Effectively Vancouver Canucks star forward Todd Bertuzzi was out on the ice looking to fight Moore after the latter had injured Vancouver Canucks veteran Markus Naslund with a hit to the head, one that left Naslund out of the lineup for 3 games due to a concussion. Moore refused to fight Bertuzzi however and that resulted in the big Canuck taking matters into his own hands, sucker punching Moore from behind and then driving him face first into the ice. 

The incident left Moore unconscious on the ice for 10 minutes and eventually a stretcher was brought out to carry him off of the ice and back to hospital. Moore suffered a number of serious injuries as a result of the incident including three fractured neck vertebrae, facial cuts and a concussion and this would all eventually lead to both a criminal and civil trial against Bertuzzi, a source of much controversy at this time and apparently still a source of a great deal of controversy today.

Now you might be wondering why I am recounting the details of an incident that happened over 10 years ago. Well as it turns out some people have apparently been waiting a very long time to make their thoughts on what really went down all those years ago public, and one of those people is former Vancouver Canuck Brad May. In a recent radio interview on Sportsnet's 650 radio, May revealed that he felt what Moore had done was tantamount to insurance fraud. 

“Todd Bertuzzi got railroaded by the National Hockey League,” said May regarding the fallout following the incident with Moore.

What is interesting here is that Moore made it sound as though he was effectively barred from talking about the incident at the time, but felt comfortable doing so now because the case had been settled and sufficient time had passed.

“Obviously there was a terrible thing that happened in the game of hockey, it was reported that way.”

“There was a player injured, obviously Steve Moore. It’s gone through the legal realm, and he’s been settled in court civilly. So now I can talk about it.”

May effectively painted Moore as a scam artist, this in spite of the fact that he suffered some very real injuries, and made it sound as though Moore was simply a man that was looking for the easy way out in life.

“I can tell you this, Steve Moore is perfectly fine,” May said. “Two and a half weeks after he was hit, Steve Moore was in a pool, wasn’t wearing a neck brace, and was having fun. You know why I know that? Because we knew this thing was going to go to another level in the courts.

“And by the way, no different than insurance fraud, when a guy says I can’t go to work for workman’s comp, they catch him because he’s roofing his house, and he’s doing things, and he just doesn’t want to go back to work. That was the case for Steve Moore, and I believe that.”

Interestingly enough, as much as May had to say about this incident he also made it sound as though there was still more that needed to be said. May lamented the fact that in today's political climate the need for political correctness forced many to bite their tongues and remain silent, something he feels is to the detriment of the fans. 

“But Steve Moore’s okay today, so we don’t have to worry about him. And I do feel bad that nobody can actually be honest and tell the truth about exactly what happened and how they feel because people of [political correctness]. And I do believe that. I think Vancouver Canucks fans deserve so much more, because Todd Bertuzzi was such a great player at that time.”