What's worse than skating on the ice and completely knocking somebody out? Well, Pittsburgh Penguins forward Matt Cooke showed us a prime example of that on Sunday, by elbowing a New York Rangers player.
Matt Cooke is scheduled to face discipline hearing today and there's no doubt from players around the league that they think Cooke should get a suspension. How many games would you say? I would say around six to ten. Just look at other players in the league who are facing back-to-back suspensions, like New York Islanders forward Trevor Gillies who came back and gave another player a blindside hit. He was immediately ejected and given a ten-game suspension for being a repeat offender.
That should bother teams who are going down the stretch, like the Penguins, who are already suffering from the absences of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Even though Crosby did skate before Sunday's game, he still has no clue when he'll return.
But going back to the Cooke suspension. I believe the NHL is taking steps to improve the way in which players get hits. Blindside hits are a major factor in concussions and possbly career-enders. If players like Cooke don't learn a thing or two about blindside hits, then it is no longer a friendly league, but it'll be like the NFL, who are ridiculed about their paralysis hits on players.
What more can you say? Hopefully, it would be six to ten games. He is, however, a repeat offender so he could possibly get more. But look for the NHL to not only send a message to Cooke, but to send a message to all the players who could possibly be repeat-offenders.
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