Pittsburgh Penguins agitator Matt Cooke has been suspended for the rest of the regular season and the first round of the playoffs after a blatant, textbook blindside elbow to the head of New York Rangers forward Ryan McDonagh.
Cooke isn’t a stranger to controversy, beginning with his headhunting of Boston Bruins forward Marc Savard last season. Savard’s career may be over as a result of the hit. Cooke was not suspended for the incident, but was suspended for four games earlier this season for hitting Columbus Blue Jacket forward Fedor Tyutin from behind.
From a consistency perspective, the punishment doesn’t quite fit the NHL’s responses to other incidents. Last week, Danny Heatley and Brad Marchand were both suspended for two games after hits to the head of their opponents.
In Cooke’s case, though, the NHL had little choice but to make a statement. He is the definition of “repeat offender” and is a black eye on the league, which is already dealing with it’s own PR issues without his bush league antics.
Flyers captain Mike Richards commented earlier in the season that he would fight with Cooke when Sidney Crosby fought with Dan Carcillo. He reneged on this in the following game between the two clubs, dropping the gloves with Cooke within five seconds of the first puck drop.
The truth is, there are virtually no players in the NHL that support him. They might not have any qualms with him as a person, but read any story or tweet of players’ reactions to the news, and the consensus is the same- “about time.”
The only person who hasn’t commented on the suspension is Penguins owner Mario Lemieux, who issued a public statement after an ugly New York Islanders/Penguins game a month ago that if the league didn’t crack down on goon behavior, he would consider removing the Penguins from the league.
In other words, this is the NHL’s way of shutting up their critics, including hypocrites like Lemieux. Many of their calls and non-calls have been suspect over the years, but Cooke is being directed out of the league unless he cleans up his attitude.
Although Cooke is no Crosby or Malkin, he is actually a decent player when he sticks to hockey. His absence in the line-up will require the Pens to recall more AHLers just in time for their last two games against the Flyers.
