The Confluence
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Penguins’ Cooke has opponent’s blood boiling
by Tony on 11/29/09 at 11:31 AM ET
Comments (19)
The role of agitator in today’s NHL is one of the more underrated but vital ones on a roster.
The best agitators make their opponents want to tear their head off. Not because they’re super-skilled on the ice, mind you, but because of those “other” attributes.
The smirks, the skirmishes and scrums after the whistle, and yes, the hits. Oh, those hits.
Matt Cooke is among the top handful of agitators in the league. But for as valuable as his “job” is to the Penguins, his run of questionable hits over the last year is accumulating, and teams playing the Pens don’t like it one bit.
My colleague Seth Rorabaugh from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said it quite succinctly last night when he said “Cooke left his feet and targeted Anisimov’s head. He should’ve been kicked out of the game and he should face supplementary discipline based on his history. He’s a dirty player, plain and simple and he did a dirty thing tonight.”
Objectively, I can’t argue with that assessment. In defense of Cooke, however, that’s what agitators do. And quite frankly, without those “intangibles”, it’s arguable if Matt Cooke is even in the NHL.
Penguins’ GM Ray Shero has compiled quite an impressive list of players who can protect their world-class centers in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Besides Cooke’s antics, Mike Rupp and Eric Godard are there on the fourth line (and often mix in with Crosby and Malkin) to drop the gloves if necessary.
But the problem comes in with Cooke crossing that fine line between solid, legal hits and dishing out dangerous hits. Cooke has been teetering right on that line quite a bit over the last year.
Besides his hit last night on Anisimov, Cooke recently escaped punishment after a knee-on-knee hit with Ottawa’s Shean Donovan. During the Eastern Conference Finals against Carolina, he had a similar hit on Erik Cole. Back in March, he had a knee-on-knee collision with Atlanta’s Zach Bogosian. In January, Cooke was suspended two games for a hit to the head of Hurricanes’ forward Scott Walker. There are surely many more, as Canucks fans could recall from his days in Vancouver.
Will Cooke get suspended for his hit on Anisimov ?? If I were a betting man, I’d say yes. Why ?? Because 1) he has a history of head hits and 2) because his name isn’t Richards nor Ovechkin.
Cooke won’t change his ways, that’s his bread and butter that keeps him a valuable asset to the Penguins. But when Cooke crosses that fine line, you know what they say, you reap what you sow.
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Tags: NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins,
Comments
If he gets suspended, I bet it will be for more than one game, he’s been suspended twice before….
Posted by Tony from Virginia Beach, VA on 11/29/09 at 12:56 PM ET
Definitely was a penalty, but he shouldn’t be suspended because Richards did the same thing and wasn’t suspended. But it’s the NHL.
Posted by cs6687 on 11/29/09 at 01:29 PM ET
@Kstewy
Fedotenko tried to slew foot Avery in front of the net. His punk ass had to answer for that one way or another.
Posted by Jimmy on 11/29/09 at 01:40 PM ET
There was no slew foot. That’s just a Rangers fan’s excuse for Avery’s attack.
Posted by cs6687 on 11/29/09 at 01:52 PM ET
Fedotenko tried to slew foot Avery in front of the net. His punk ass had to answer for that one way or another.
Could you please provide the link of the video that shows the slew foot?
Posted by akus on 11/29/09 at 02:09 PM ET
Could you please provide the link of the video that shows the slew foot?
He can’t, it dosen’t exist.
Cooke is the epitome of a player you hate but would love to have on your team.
Posted by Lindas1st from New England on 11/29/09 at 02:20 PM ET
This is the second post on this site that i seen him say that Avery was slew footed.
The first post i did not reply to because i know when something such as proof is asked for , its really a waste of time because they never address the issue,they only change the subject.
He actually has a better argument about what Cooke did.But that would take brains and logic.
I think it’s funny that he is calling Feds a punk ass.
Posted by akus on 11/29/09 at 02:29 PM ET
This is BS. You can be an instigator without making dirty hits. Mikael Samuelsson (Vancouver) is EXCELLENT at drawing penalties by getting under the other players’ skins and he doesn’t make dirty plays. Cooke is a goon and without his dirty play, he’s not in the NHL. There’s no place for him in this league post-lockout. With the rule changes barring so much contact, the only thing Cooke is good for is injuring opponents.
Posted by matt from ohio on 11/29/09 at 02:42 PM ET
I wanna make sure I understand, you’re saying that Samuelsson is a better agitator than Cooke ??
Just trying to understand what you think is BS….
Posted by Tony from Virginia Beach, VA on 11/29/09 at 03:01 PM ET
NHL Loves the pens and will make sure they have the best chance to win the cup. just look at last few years. end of discussion
Posted by Arb on 11/29/09 at 03:18 PM ET
UMMM You’re INBRED
Posted by Evilpens on 11/29/09 at 03:43 PM ET
@Kstewy
Fedotenko tried to slew foot Avery in front of the net. His punk ass had to answer for that one way or another.Posted by Jimmy on 11/29/09 at 01:40 PM ET
The MSG feed shows why I think Avery did what he did, but he was mistaken on the “who” part….
It wasn’t Feds, but actually Max that accidently/on purpose tripped him up/slewfooted him…. Then Avery turns and sees Feds, thinks it was he who did the trip/slewfoot and goes after him….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAf8m3fpFmE
Posted by Tony from Virginia Beach, VA on 11/29/09 at 04:08 PM ET
Cooke is the epitome of a player you hate but would love to have on your team.
No, he’s not. Cooke wants to be the epitome of the player you hate but would love to have on your team, but he crosses the line between agitator and dirty player too often for me. Jordin Tootoo is a cleaner hitter than Cooke is and he’ll back his hits up by dropping the gloves.
blah blah Bertuzzi blah blah, right Pens fans?
Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 11/29/09 at 04:50 PM ET
Jordin Tootoo is a cleaner hitter than Cooke is and he’ll back his hits up by dropping the gloves.
Really? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqDUiHmQMrA
Posted by cs6687 on 11/29/09 at 05:18 PM ET
Jordin Tootoo is a cleaner hitter than Cooke is and he’ll back his hits up by dropping the gloves.
Really? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqDUiHmQMrA
Posted by cs6687 on 11/29/09 at 05:18 PM ET
You don’t have to remind me what a cheap shot artist Jordin Tootoo is. I see him do it against my favorite team six times a year. Matt Cooke, I see significantly less often, but is good for one attempt at a cheap shot per game. Tootoo is a chump, but I’d accept him on the Wings before I bought a Cooke winged wheel sweater.
I’ve also never seen Tootoo try to do this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhEZm2kaIVE
Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 11/29/09 at 05:28 PM ET
Cooke is actually a competent player who’s turned to the darkside!
No really, he may be somewhat dirty (the extent that KUNITZ is dirty) but he can actually play when push comes to shove.
Posted by stoneman from vegas on 11/29/09 at 09:19 PM ET
I for one think the suspension is warranted. Of course worse things have gone unpunished this year in the NHL but the ridiculous decision not to suspend Richards shouldn’t be the standard for the decisions made from now on. I truly hope that Campbell and his boys have their wits back so that the next time Richards makes a punk hit like that he gets the boot for a good few games.
I also don’t think Cooke’s hit was retribution for Avery trying to take out Sid. If you want to send a message to Avery, go after Gaborik or Drury, not just any schmuck on the other team.
Cooke is a prick, and Pens fans love him exactly because of that. Just like every team in the league has a goon, so does every team have an agitator like Cooke, be it Avery, Ruutu, Ott, Eager etc. Nothing wrong with that.
Posted by P.co on 11/30/09 at 02:07 AM ET
I’ve also never seen Tootoo try to do this:
Ha
Posted by MarkK from Maryland on 11/30/09 at 08:19 AM ET
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For the sake of playing hockey on Monday instead of having an all out brawl, I hope that Cooke is suspended at least 1 game for his hit, and I’d also like to see Brashear and Avery suspended at least a game for mugging their opponents from behind in their “fights”
As fun as an all out brawl can be to watch, I’d rather not see any other player on the Pens get hurt or suspended because of one. They’ve already had way too many man games lost.
Posted by Kstewy16 on 11/29/09 at 12:32 PM ET