I’ve been enjoying the fine summer weather (read: working too much) but this quote from Todd Bertuzzi verily screams out for some examination:
“In Anaheim I thought it was going to be a good opportunity but I just didn’t fit into the mode there with ice time - playing 10 to 12 minutes a game, it’s kind of hard to perform.”
Bertuzzi played fewer than 13 minutes four times in 2007-08. In one of those games, he left with concussion symptoms and in another, he was kicked out in the first for not having his jersey tied down when he got into a fight. He was fourth amongst Ducks’ forwards in PP TOI/G, after Selanne, Getzlaf and Perry. So he wasn’t particularly hard done by and the ice time was nowhere near as bad as he made it out to be. He actually averaged 16:27 per game, which isn’t bad considering that he doesn’t kill penalties - only 32 players played as little or less than Bertuzzi’s 11 seconds a night on the PK and managed to get more ice time than him. Most of those were on far worse teams than the Ducks.
So, a) he doesn’t know how much he played, b) he erroneously blames how much he played for his difficulties in putting up points and c) he actually played a lot considering he doesn’t kill penalties. He’s heading to a team that plays in a media bubble, has better options than him on the PP and a coach who is notoriously lacking in people skills. I can’t see how this will go badly at all.