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Courtesy: USA Today
Wild enforcer Matt Cooke returns from his seven-game suspension last weeked. He received his suspension for his knee-to-knee hit on Avalanche defenseman Tyson Barrie. Talk about a lenient sentence. Even Cooke had to admit he got away with one, who thought he was going to be suspended this entire playoffs.
It’s remarkable why the Wild enforcer received a lenient sentence with his history. He served suspensions for injuring players such as Marc Savard, Ryan McDonough, Matt Johnson, Scott Walker, Artem Anisimov and Fedor Tyutin. He also ended Savard’s career with a dirty hit.
After ending Savard’s career, the NHL should have given Cooke a zero tolerance treatment. That means if he doled out a dirty hit that causes a player to lose time, he should be suspended for a month. If he injured a player that would have cost him his career, he should be banned from the sport for good.
It’s a joke Cooke is employed by a NHL team. He adds nothing to his team other than injuring players. That has been the rap for his entire career. This is the same guy that laid out dirty hits to Erik Karlsson, Sam Gagner, Valeri Nichushkin, Adam McQuaid, Alex Ovechkin, Steve Montador, Evander Kane, Keith Yandle, Rick DiPietro, Andrei Markov, Chris Osgood, Erik Cole, Zach Bogosian, Zach Parise and Mathieu Roy.
On his 104.3 The Fan’s Morning Show weekly spot few weeks ago, Avalanche coach Patrick Roy mentioned Barrie was the 22nd player that was hit by the Wild goon in his career. Anyone can google Cooke’s dirty hits on YouTube. No one needs to be a hockey aficionado to know the Wild enforcer is a thug.
It’s embarrassing this guy is in the league. Enforcers like him have made hockey a joke by creating a perception that the sport will be a thug sport. How can anyone take hockey seriously when guys like him are employed?
For Cooke to not get suspended for the rest of the playoffs or banned for life, it shows hockey need enforcers to get the casual fans to be into it. It’s a sad commentary. Until a hockey player is dead from a dirty hit, guys like Cooke will continue to do their thing and get away with it. The league should have gotten tough on Cooke long time ago. That way he would have stopped doing these hits. That seven-game suspension will certainly not stop him from doing it again.
Courtesy: Minnesota Star Tribune
Don’t kid yourself thinking Cooke has few years left until he is out of the league. There is always going to be room for players like him. Teams know they need enforcers to take out the other team’s best players for them to win a playoff series. That’s why the Wild signed their agitator to a three-year deal in the offseason.
Cooke did his job. He took one of the good Avalanche players. Rest assured, he would have continued to do it again tonight if he was not suspended. That’s scary.
The last thing we need is Cooke to come back and maim another innocent player doing his job. Everyone knows he is not going to stop when he comes back. He would not be doing what he is paid to do if he stopped his nonsense.
The fact Cooke could play in the next round is disgusting. He doesn’t deserve that privilege. Not when he cost an Avalanche player his season.
It was bad day for the league when this goon came back on the ice this season. There’s nothing positive that comes from him getting a seven-game suspension. Cooke is an embarrassment to himself, his team and the league whether he realizes it or not. It does not speak well of his skill that he was hired to be a goon. It also does not speak well of the league that guys like him play in it and get away with dirty hits.
Not suspending him for the season sends a bad message to the entire league and a bad look for the NHL as a whole.
