It’s Thursday Rant Day!
Seven playoff games for Matt Cooke. Regular season translation – 14 games… my take?
Not enough, not near enough. If Cooke didn’t learn his lesson after his last suspension, which was significantly longer than the one handed down by the NHL’s Department of Player Safety, how will a shorter one?
After two previous fines and seven (that’s not a typo… seven!) suspensions… this player is not considered a repeat offender under the CBA. That’s nuts. Cooke should’ve gotten at least ten games for sheer stupidity, then another twenty for the hit.
I don’t care if he’s been a good boy since his last suspension in March of 2011. I don’t care that he normally was a head hunter and that this was a kneeing incident. I’ve seen quite a few writers call this the “first” knee-on-knee incident from Cooke… First suspension maybe but not first incident... tell that to Zach Bogosian (09), Erik Cole (09), or Alex Ovechkin (11)… none of these plays drew any sort of supplemental discipline.
I don’t want to hear that he just “made a mistake” … how many “mistakes” are you allowed? This is a player that has been suspended seven times for a total of 32 games, 25 regular season and seven in the playoffs. His last suspension was 17 games (10 regular season and 7 playoff.) A carefully plotted PR campaign has been waged to show how Matt Cooke had reformed.
Yeah, right…
This latest filthy play caused an injury that eliminated a player from the playoffs. Tyson Barrie is Colorado’s highest scoring defenseman. His absence will hurt the Avalanche beyond seven playoff games.
I called out Pittsburgh’s ownership and front office for keeping Matt Cooke on the roster back in 2011 during the last sordid Cooke incident and it is a shame that this player has put Craig Leipold and the Minnesota Wild in the same position as the Penguins were. Once again it comes down to culture and what is acceptable to the leadership of a franchise.
This suspension is wholly inadequate and sends the wrong message to a player that has proven time and again that he has no ability to learn his lesson.
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Thursday Random Playoff Notes
- Thanks to everyone who came out to Tavern 96 last night. We had a great time. The podcast is posted. SlapShot Radio is back on the air on 5/7 live from Tavern 96.
- Over? Did someone say over? Yeah… that someone was me when the Penguins went up 3-0 last night in game four of their series with Columbus. Full props to Preds COO Sean Henry who told me that the Blue Jackets would win 4-3 in overtime, after that call, I’m taking him to Vegas to help build my retirement fund!
- On the prospect watch, Pred prospect Brendan Leipsic posted three power play assists last night as his Portland Winterhawks beat the Kelowna 5-1 to take a 3-1 lead in their WHL Western Conference Semi-Final series against the Rockets.
- Leipsic leads the WHL postseason with 13 power play points.
- Chicago evened up their best of seven against St. Louis… both teams winning their home games. It’s now a best of three.
- Game four of Boston / Detroit leads the docket tonight with a 7pm faceoff on NBCSN.
- San Jose can complete the sweep against LA with their game four tonight. The big question (one that Pete Weber asked last night on SlapShot Radio) is… will Darryl Sutter make a change in net for the Kings? Replacing Jonathan Quick will be a desperation move buy a coach up against the wall.
- Mark your calendar for Saturday May 3rd for Petey’s 5K Face-Off, the annual run/walk to support the Peterson for Parkinsons Foundation. It was a blast to do it last year so make sure to join the SlapShot Radio team for this fun event. More information is available at the
PFP Website.
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