Big Lead Sports Bar

2/09/2011

Matt Cooke Facing Disciplinary Hearing


Another day, another Matt Cooke controversy...this time, it was his hit on Fedor Tyutin in last night's 4-1 Columbus win that is drawing the attention of Garage League Headquarters. For the record, Cooke received a five-minute major for charging on the play, but the Blue Jackets are crying foul. Those cries will be heard, as Cooke has a Wednesday disciplinary hearing scheduled with the league.

Cooke and Dan Bylsma both defended the hit, as you would probably expect, but I'm not too optimistic about the outcome of this one. Cooke has too often put himself in the middle of these controversies, and by now it's perceived that such plays are no accident. He's quickly becoming the James Harrison of the NHL, at least in the sense that his reputation precedes him, and he may very well have to sit down and cool off for a while after this latest event.

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8 comments:

Steve said...

So Cooke gets 4 games, Malkin is officially out for the year, Kunitz is out with a lower body injury, who knows what is Asham's return date is and Crosby might be out another month. Anyone concerned about this team even making the playoffs...anyone also concerned that some injuries to the defensemen could turn this barely legit NHL team into a complete disaster before the trade deadline even gets here?

A 15-point lead over 9th place right now could evaporate fairly quick in 2 to 4 weeks, so they could be looking at bottom seeding or worse before they even know who they're going to add, if that is, they don't decide the playoffs are lost anyway and simply make a few token moves just to clear cap space for next season. Why add a scoring winger if Crosby is a bump to the head away from another concussion.

I would like to think things can't get worse for Pittsburgh sports at the moment but fortunately we always have the Pirates to go where no team has gone before and carve out new trails into the pathetic and depressing.

Bababooey said...

Call up Nate! Call up Nate! Call up Nate!

BurressWithButterflywings said...

I don't think Cooke's hit was anything more than Passion for the game and a sign of Leadership.

Brian said...

Hard for the team to complain about hits to Crosby while employing one of the dirtiest players in the game.

okel dokel said...

Brian - that is complete bullshit! The Crapitals and Flyers, two of the dirtiest teams in the league, complain about hits to their players all the time.

This is why the NHL is a garage league. The fact the Penguins, and every NHL team, have to employ players like Cooke and Godard is proof.

I like Cookie. I wish he would stop this type of crap, but he works hard and has been one of the Pens biggest producers in the playoffs the past two seasons.

Compare the Cook hit on Ovechkin with Ovechkin's hit on Gonchar. What is the difference? Oh yeah, one is a toothless neanderthal who is part of the NHL's marketing machine.

Until the discipline for these types of hits is consistent and hurts in the wallet this crap will continue to be an issue.

BurressWithButterflywings said...

Like I said, I just thought Cooke was being passionate and showing leadership.

If you have passion or exhibit leadership, you can get away with trying to break legs, blindsiding guys in the head*, or leaving your skates 10x a game to hit somebody.

* I know Cooke did not get suspended for the hit on Savard, but it was the end of the world as we know it after it happened. No such outcry came about when Richards did the same Booth, which is similar to what he did to Malkin in the 2008 playoffs.

Some guys are dirty and everyone just knows it, Cooke is one of them. Some guys are dirty and people make excuses for them, Richards and Ovechkin are two of them.

Steve said...

Speaking of dirty and Ovechkin, how pathetic and hypocritical was it of him to go after Cooke for that knee on knee in Sunday's game? Not only that, he gets to throw a couple punches after the fact, isn't penalized and then comes out on the ensuing power play (musta been a vicious hit huh?). Sometimes, I wish that Euro-trash monkey phuck would get blindsided by a garbage truck full of AIDS. Sorry, what am I saying...I mean all the time.

BurressWithButterflywings said...

Part of the reason that Ovechkin gets away with it is because of that fat windbag of a coach pissing and moaning over everything that happens on the ice that he perceives as an injustice.

He has such an enormous inferiority complex, along with an enormous gut and enormous face, that he turns everything into how they are unfairly treated. It is no wonder why his teammates held him down and tarred his ballsack. They should have tarred his mouth shut, too.

Ovechkin could take an Axe to Staal's head and Boudreau would say Staal should have gotten a 5 minute major for head butting the axe.

That might be a bit of a stretch, but it's no bigger than the one the waistline on his pants gets every day.

BTW, in case you haven't noticed, I have ZERO respect for anything involving the Capitals and am sick and tired of every team in the league acting like 5 year olds griping in the newspaper after every single game.