I’ve been waiting to see what was going to happen here, and finally Steve Moore has announced that he’ll be filing suit in his attempted maiming by Todd Bertuzzi. Some thoughts:

1. I’m no lawyer, so it will be interesting to see how the decision to file in Colorado plays out, since the actual assault took place in Vancouver.

2. I’m obviously tickled silly that Moore is doing this, although I am disappointed that the suit didn’t name the NHL and its top execs as defendants. Bertuzzi, May, Crawford, Burke, plus the team and ownership – sure, that makes sense. But there’s a larger culture issue at the core of this that implicates the league and its officials, and I think all sports fans would benefit from having the league’s role in shaping that culture “clarified.”

3. Just to pre-empt some of the more obvious indignation that I’m sure my thoughts will provoke, let’s be clear. What Todd Bertuzzi did (actions that were sanctioned in advance, at least implicitly, by all named defendants, as well as the league itself) was so obviously and egregiously criminal that had it happened anywhere else but in a sports competition it would be a slam dunk conviction and a walk-over civil verdict for the plaintiff. Neither case would likely get to court, in fact – Bertuzzi would consider himself fortunate if he could plead his way down to avoid active jail time on the criminal case and no lawyer with a brain in his head would risk letting a civil jury see footage of his client’s gutless blindside attack.

If you believe that you surrender your rights as a citizen when you step on the ice, the gridiron, the hardwood, the pitch, or the diamond, then there’s plenty here to offend you. But sorry – I just don’t buy the idea that it’s not criminal so long as there’s a zebra in the vicinity. There are gray area cases, to be sure, but what Todd Bertuzzi did to Steve Moore was as black and white as they come.

Let justice be served.