Not mentioned in this thread are some aggravating circumstances: the possibility of showing negligent behaviour in several ways - eg. Crawford's alleged "instructions" to the team before the game and Bertuzzi ignoring what may be cast as an already inflamed situation (contributory to the sucker punch, the dogpile and the resulting injury).
Once negligence is proven, liability follows pretty quickly and without much defence.
I suspect what will happen is that it will be settled during the course of the trial as Bert, the Canucks et al discover that they are losing. The cheques will come out then and we likely will never know the amount.
That's generally the way it's done unless one or the other party is stupidly stubborn.
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