Looks like Gary Bettman has Toronto Star writer Damien Cox flummoxed. The journalist can't figure out for the life of him why the league's commissioner is dragging his feet on making a ruling on Todd Bertuzzi's case. Cox writes that besides the fact that Steve Moore's health has not changed, the problem is compounded by "the NHL's curious behaviour in this matter, doubly odd given the strong and immediate manner in which the suspension was handed down three days after the incident."

Is it really that odd? The suspension was a no-brainer. One player sucker-punches another from behind, then lands on him, breaking his neck. The clip is played endlessly, even on networks like CNN that wouldn't care about hockey otherwise. Oh, what to do, what to do? Let the perpetrator go free without punishment, or try and convince the world that hockey isn't really made up of this type of goonery? Suspend him, of course. Make an example of him, and show that you won't tolerate that kind of crap. But then, one year later, you come to the point where it's time to do something about it again. And Gary Bettman might not know all that much about hockey, but he's not a complete idiot - he knows that fewer people are going to complain if the suspension continues than if it is lifted, and procrastinating on holding a hearing is definitely an easy way of doing the former, while seeming like you're progressing towards the latter.

Cox is right about it being a "gut-wrenching decision," which is exactly why Bettman's tactics are obvious. He's a chicken, and the last thing he needs is more bad P.R., being that he's the man who locked out the NHL for the 2004-05 season. There's all kinds of pressure on him to do it before the World Championship rosters are finalized, though; Team Canada GM (and Vancouver assistant GM) Steve Tambellini has left a spot open for Bertuzzi, and if the power forward becomes available he'll be on the team for sure, to avoid a row within the Canucks organization if nothing else. Of course Bettman will leave it for the last minute, though...come on, we're talking about a guy who didn't cancel the hockey season until February 16 (just to torture the more hopeful of us, I suppose).

I'm actually kind of surprised that Cox didn't pick some ridiculous explanation for GB's behaviour, and run with it; he seems to have a penchant for making statements that will make people sit up and take notice, if only to say "what the hell is he talking about?" During this year's World Juniors, he was asked on TSN which player would have the brighter NHL career, Russian Alexander Ovechkin, or Nova Scotian Sidney Crosby. Long story short, Cox initially answered "Ovechkin," then went on a long rant that culminated in "Crosby will be the better player." He didn't believe that Ovechkin would be better, but he just needed to say it anyway to make Canadian hockey fans pay attention to the intermission programming. I understand, though...it must be hard to entertain yourself when usually at this time of year you'd be writing about how much the hometown team sucks.