Steve Moore
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other persons named Steve Moore, see Steve Moore (disambiguation).
Steve Moore is a teacher at Woodland High School and a former ice hockey player in the National Hockey League.
[edit] Path to professional hockey
Moore was born September 22, 1978 in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. He was drafted by the Colorado Avalanche in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, 2nd Round, 53rd overall. Before joining the Avalanche, Moore played for Harvard University. Moore played for the Avalanche for three seasons[1] before retiring after a major injury.
[edit] Major injury and rehabilitation
On March 8, 2004, Moore was in a game versus the Vancouver Canucks. Late in the game he was punched from behind by Todd Bertuzzi while skating up-ice, knocking him unconscious. The 245 lb (112 kg) Bertuzzi then continued to propel his body on top of the unconscious Moore (205 lb), pushing him towards the ice. Colorado Avalanche player Steve Konowalchuk dogpiled on top of him, then teammate Andrei Nikolishin jumped onto the back of Bertuzzi in an attempt to protect Moore. This action potentially worsened the situation, as Moore now had two players falling on top of him. Moore sustained a neck fracture and concussion, and was taken off the ice on a stretcher.
On March 22, 2004, Moore was released from a Denver-area hospital. He wore a neck brace for 6 to 12 weeks and then started physical therapy after recovering from his neck injury and concussion.
By December 2004, Moore was back to doing light workouts but had not resumed skating or playing hockey. [2] Several news sources speculated that he would file a civil lawsuit against Bertuzzi. In December 2004, Moore publicly stated that he would not do that unless doctors told him that he could never resume playing in the NHL[3].
However, on February 17, 2005, one day after the 2004-05 NHL season was canceled, he filed a lawsuit against Bertuzzi, May, Brian Burke (the Canucks' general manager at the time of the incident), and the Canucks team. According to a Sports Illustrated article, he chose to file the lawsuit then because of the state of Colorado's laws pertaining to the timing of lawsuits[4]. The lawsuit was thrown out in October of 2005, as the Colorado judge felt that British Columbia was a better venue for the suit.
On August 8, 2005, Todd Bertuzzi was reinstated to play in the 2005-2006 NHL season. At the time, several news agencies reported that Steve Moore had commenced working out and skating in the Toronto area[citation needed]. Moore did not return to professional hockey after the injury.
