In Canada we love our hockey. If you live in Canada or a place that covers hockey at all, you've heard about the Todd Bertuzzi attack on Steve Moore and the subsequent suspension.

This story has led the sports casts and pages since it occurred. There has been much debate as the Vancouver police contemplate laying formal charges against Bertuzzi. The hockey brass hope that the police allow them to police themselves.

I think there is no doubt that Bertuzzi did not intend to break Moore's neck. However, he did. I believe he wanted to fight him and when Moore refused Bertuzzi gave him, what Bertuzzi thought, no choice by sucker punching Moore in from the back. The "highlights" (how can you call this a highlight?) I saw indicate to me that Moore was out cold when he hit the ice.

Now hockey is left with yet another black eye on the game. I've never been a proponent of fighting in hockey, although admittedly, because it is "part of the game", don't mind seeing a good tussle between rivals. I believe it is time to take another step toward eliminating fighting in hockey. Some arguments against abolishing fighting:

1. It is part of the game.
2. Stick work will increase.
3. Star players will be vulnerable to cheap shots.
4. Without the fear of retribution chaos will prevail.
5. The fans like it.

From that point on, the officials need to call the rules about use of the stick more literally. Don't let the slashing and hooking and spearing that occurs every game go on. The product will become a better flowing product in the long run.

If we really sit down and think about it, we all know that the fighting really is a side show of the product. Nobody sits down to watch a game because there will or may be a fight in it. We also know, that fighting has pretty much been eliminated from the grass roots leagues around the country, and even to a great extent from men's hockey. Why? Because it is not tolerated by the leagues, nor accepted by society as a whole. Society says it is not alright to go and fight someone because you do not see eye to eye. Professional hockey needs to adapt the same mentality.

The game truly is, in it's purest form, one of the best and most exciting sports to watch. Anyone who watched the last hockey at the Olympic games knows this. Now it is time to bring that type of hockey into the living rooms of all Canadians and Americans.