Former Avs Tough Guy Scott Parker: Moore-Bertuzzi 'Wasn't Vicious'

It was March 2004 when Todd Bertuzzi of the Canucks decided to make Steve Moore of the Avalanche pay for an incident in a prior game. Moore had injured Vancouver captain Markus Naslund, and Bertuzzi's form of retribution involved jumping Moore from behind and effectively ending his playing career.

Enforcer Scott Parker was a member of the San Jose Sharks when the incident took place, but he had been Moore's teammate briefly the year before in Colorado. Speaking with Avalanche blog Mile High Hockey in an interview published Wednesday, Parker defended Bertuzzi and had some choice words for Moore.

Via Mile High Hockey, here's Parker on Moore, Bertuzzi and the infamous incident:

[Todd Bertuzzi's] a good man. He, he is. I mean, he did get dealt some bad cards, and the thing is, [Steve Moore] always thought he was better than everybody else. He went to Harvard, you know what, blow me. College grad. I never went to college, but I can kick your ass. I'll bring you right down to my IQ level if you want. I'll hit you about four times in the skull, that'll bring you right down.

[...]

And Todd, he might have gone overboard, and what's crazy is, even talking to him after the fact and talking to Moe, Morris and other boys that were in that, that happened, I watched that tape about a hundred times, and just the way Todd hit him, and he actually grabbed him to soften his blow when he went down, and what happened was when Moe landed on him, he actually hit the back of his neck and it actually popped up. You know, just the way Todd was holding him.

But you know, it wasn't vicious, it was just, it was the heat of the moment. It was one of those things where you, you want to do something, but you don't know if it's gonna be big, if it's gonna be small, or how it's gonna pan out. But you wanna do something. And Todd, he might not have been right and it might have been a little overboard, but you know, he did something. I mean, at least he responded, at least he tried.

And that's just part of a 5,600 word interview with Parker published Wednesday ... in addition to Part 1 of that interview, another 4,700 word piece published Tuesday.