What is particularly troubling about the Bertuzzi hit - which cost Bertuzzi $501,000 in salary for a suspension that covered the final 13 games of the season, the playoffs and an unspecified number of games next season - is that it was followed in short order by more intolerable acts.

Columbus' Jody Shelley sucker-punched Alex Henry of Minnesota (three-game suspension); Dallas' Marty Turco high-sticked Ryan Smyth of Edmonton (four); Toronto's Wade Belak high-sticked Colorado's Ossi Vaananen (eight); Mark Messier speared the Penguins' Martin Strbak (two).

In the wake of Bertuzzi's punch, the league issued 10 more suspensions and fines totaling $490,000. Commissioner Gary Bettman sent a memo to all teams warning coaches and GMs they would be held accountable for the actions of their players.

"There's just not enough respect," says Penguins' winger Steve McKenna, who drops his gloves whenever he has to and whose 2003-04 season was ended prematurely by an injury suffered in a fight. "There's a lot of cheap hits. I'm all for playing tough, but you have to use your head. If a guy's in a bad position, you don't hit him. That's not soft. That's smart.

"You can't put your finger on why there's not as much respect, but you really see it changing. It should trouble everybody."

It troubles Ken Dryden, the former Cornell law student who won six Stanley Cups with the Canadiens before retiring to become one of Canada's foremost writers on the game and Leafs' GM.

During a March speech at a symposium on the future of hockey, Dryden wasn't about to take the state of the game in stride. "We need a complete, thorough, ambitious and fundamental review of all aspects of the game, and we need it now," Dryden said. "We need to look at the way we play and the code of how we play, and we need to look at public standards today, what is acceptable and what isn't. Hockey has always been dead-square mainstream Canadiana, but hockey today is at risk of becoming an extreme sport."

Canadian writer Roy MacGregor called the speech brilliant. In a Toronto Sun story about the reaction of the Leafs to Dryden's speech, Toronto coach Pat Quinn said, "We're always saying, "Look at our game, let's change it.' I remember sitting in a GM meeting thinking, 'Let's leave the bloody thing alone. It works. It's good.' "

Policing Their Own

Part of the dilemma is that the hockey community isn't unanimous in the belief that by permitting fighting the NHL breeds the more isolated acts of violence like that of Bertuzzi. Many, like McKenna, see fighting as an activity that allows for the policing of those who commit more dangerous fouls.

"If somebody wants to take a run at somebody, let him pay the price. If he wants to play that way," says former Penguins' center Dave Hannan, "then BOOM - he better be ready to answer the bell. That's how I grew up, and the game was more organized."

Both Hannan and McKenna lament the advent of the instigator penalty, which they believe prevents players from policing themselves because they are reluctant to draw an extra penalty that might hurt their team.

Former Penguins' defenseman Moe Mantha, who coached with the U.S. National Development Team and in the Ontario Hockey League, says the ban on fighting by the NCAA has led to other problems.

"When we'd play college teams, there was a lot of vicious slashing going on," he says. "It got to the point where you're thinking, 'Boy, I wish there was fighting so we could stop this crap.' "

Ironically, fighting and dangerous stickwork virtually disappear in the playoffs as players focus on avoiding penalties and winning games - while still playing a hard and physical game. The annual result is the best hockey of the season. Why can't the regular season be played that way?

"That's a great question," says Hannan. "If we all knew the answer, we'd be working for Gary Bettman."

PSR Senior Writer Bob Grove has been covering the Penguins since 1981 and currently serves as a regular co-host on the Penguins Radio Network.