Matt Cooke Avoids Suspension?!

In case you missed it, the NHL has  another headshot incident this past week where a player was hit in the head, and ultimately concussed.  The perp was Matt Cooke of the dreaded Pittsburgh Penguins.  The victim, yes the victim was Boston’s Marc Savard.  The video is below.  You decide if there should have been a suspension or not on Cooke, one of the leagues famous cheap shot artists. 

I put Cooke in the exact same class as Sean Avery of the New York Rangers.  Dirty, cheap, and just a pain in the ass of a player that does nothing for the game of hockey.  Not only do I despise the Penguins, but I despise Matt Cooke as well.

Does anyone think that if the same play happened to Crosby the result would have been the same?  Don’t kid yourself. The person doing the same hit on Sid would have been penalized, given a game misconduct and a five game suspension.

I am glad that the NHL general managers made some changes regarding head shots for next season.

I am not happy that it took Colin Campbell three days to decide that this play didn’t warrant a suspension.

Take a look for yourself.

This is just wrong.

While Cooke didn’t leave his feet, didn’t charge, he seemingly went towards Savard’s head.

Look, I love the physical play of hockey.  I want to see hard checks and guys get layed out, and punished.  I love a good fight too.  But, this kind of stuff I am totally against and one day someone is seriously going to get hurt.  Cooke clearly crossed the line on this one, and I have no problem admitting so.

While some compare it to the David Booth hit, I’m not even getting into that as it was a totally different set of circumstances.

Maybe with the new changes for next year things will change, but in the meantime, player beware.

Cooke should have been suspended on this one.

Thanks for reading.