Mario Lemieux is in the middle of a campaign to remove head shots, dirty plays, and limit fighting. Matt Cooke is apparently on a campaign to make his boss look like two-face. I throw my full support behind Mario. As many of my readers know I expect and hope for the NHL to take serious measures to remove fighting from the sport, but that is a post for another day.
Every time Mario takes a public stand against fighting and dirty play he gets his third line goon, Matt Cooke, thrown in his face. With good reason. Cooke has always been a tough guy, he plays hard and hits hard. That is exactly what this league has always wanted and embraced. Over the past year Cooke has crossed the line from tough guy to goon.
When he put this hit on Marc Savard I defended him. I will not make that mistake again.
That was just the beginning of the slippery slope for Cooke though. Since then everyone has been analyzing everything Matt Cooke does on the ice. In the Ranger game today Matt Cooke threw an elbow that finally cost his team. He was given a 5 minute misconduct. Surprisingly Chris Kunitz scored a shorthanded goal to put the Penguins in front. Not surprisingly the Rangers scored the next 4 goals of the game and won 5-2. Hopefully this will result in at least a 10 game suspension, anything short of that is an embarrassment to the NHL.
The real question is what should the Pittsburgh Penguins do about this? The team is, as it has been since 1984, Mario Lemieux's team. He has made it very clear he does not want things like this in the league and he is disgusted by these types of players. If your boss was adamantly against something you would not do it. If you did you would be fired. Well maybe something like that needs to happen to Matt Cooke. I realize Ray Shero is the man who makes the decisions on who is on the roster, not Mario. However, Mario signs Ray Shero's checks. It may be time for Mario to pull a power move and tell Ray its time for Cooke to go. That could mean being traded in the off-season, being a healthy scratch when he returns from suspension, or sent to the AHL where they are expected to play like goons. Working in this world is simple. There is a single rule that spans all types of careers. Keep your boss happy and you keep your job, make him look bad and you won't. Matt Cooke is making his boss look like a hypocrite and that is just something you do not do.
Here is an interesting look at most of Matt Cooke's questionable hits. It makes you think he might be the dirtiest player in the game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0waePHWjVGY
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