Courtesy of Icon SMIRule 21.1 Match Penalty – A match penalty shall be imposed on any player who deliberately attempts to injure or who deliberately injures an opponent in any manner.
Rule 48.5 Match Penalty – The Referee, at his discretion, may assess a match penalty, if, in his judgment, the player attempted to, or deliberately injured his opponent with an illegal check to the head. If deemed appropriate, supplementary discipline can be applied by the Commissioner at his discretion.
Back To His Old Self
Matt Cooke has done it again. Another player injured, another career possibly over. Brendan Shanahan and most of the so-called hockey experts are calling this a clean hit gone terribly wrong, a freak accident. No further action necessary. I don’t. I can’t give Matt Cooke the benefit of the doubt on this one. Matt Cooke knew it was Erik Karlsson. Matt Cooke has driven Erik Karlsson’s head into the glass before. This, to me, looked like a failed attempt at a slew-foot on Karlsson. Did Matt Cooke deliberately attempt to drive his skate down through Erik Karlssons’s leg and slice his Achilles tendon? That thought is too evil to contemplate. Did Matt Cooke try to check Erik Karlsson, knock him off balance and take his legs out from under him? Only Matt Cooke knows for sure. But Matt Cooke has shown, time after time in his career, a propensity to inflict injury on other players. Predatory, blindside hits, cheap-shots, elbows to heads, shoulder to heads, knee on knee hits, crosschecks from behind, hits from behind, kicking players, driving players heads into the boards or glass, slewfoots into the boards. This is not a player playing on the edge, this is a player targeting other players in vulnerable positions “attempting to injure.” So Matt Cooke has done it again. Regardless of the technical reason how it happened, it happened and Matt Cooke’s reckless play was the reason. And for that reason, a suspension was warranted, but none given. The NHL, and Brendan Shanahan in particular, have shirked their duty. They have shown that they lack the courage to do the right thing and crack down on plays, and players, like this. This can only result in more and more, unnecessary and needless injuries in the future, injuries that the NHL can ill afford to have if they really want to grow into the game it can, and should, be.
For now, a twenty-two year young man, a rising superstar, has got to put his faith in the skilled hands of Dr. Don Chow, the Sens team surgeon. Hands, that he hopes, can put his sliced Achilles tendon, one of the worst injuries an athlete can suffer, back together again.
The Legacy of Matt Cooke
2007 – James Wisniewski – elbow to head into glass – concussion
2007 – Daymond Langkow – hit from behind into glass – concussion
2008 – Mathieu Roy – hit from behind drivingRoy’s head into the glass
2008 – Kurtis Foster – slew-foot into boards
2008 – Zach Parise – blindside hit driving Parise into open bench door
2008 – Mathew Lombardi – shoulder to head
2008 – Vincent Lecavalier – blindside hit, dislocating Lecavalier’s shoulder
2009 – Scott Walker – shoulder to head from behind, 2 game suspension
2009 – Ilya Kovalchuk – blindside check from behind
2009 – Zach Begosian – knee on knee
2009 – Duncan Keith – elbow to head from behind
2009 – Zenon Konopka – knee on knee
2009 – Erik Cole – knee on knee
2009 – Chris Osgood – kicked Osgood in the head
2009 – Shean Donovan – knee on knee, torn ACL, effectively ending Donovan’s career
2009 – Artem Anisimov – elbow to head – 2 game suspension
2009 – Peter Bondra – knee on knee
2010 – John Tavares – knee on knee
2010 – Andrei Markov – cross-check to back from behind into boards
2010 – Mats Sundin – knee on knee
2010 – Rick DiPietro – running goalie three times in one game
2010 – Erik Karlsson – blindside hit to head, driving head into boards
2010 – Keith Yandle – elbow to head
2010 – Marc Savard – blindside elbow to head ending Marc Savard’s career
2010 – Evander Kane – elbow to head
2010 – Andrei Markov – checked into boards, reconstructive knee surgery
2011 – Jordan Leopold – cross check to back
2011 – Steve Montador – sucker punch to head
2011 – Jason Williams – knee on knee
2011 – Garnet Exelby – slew-foot into boards
2011 – Alexander Ovechkin – knee on knee
2011 – Fedor Tyutin – hit from behind into the boards, 4 game suspension
2011 – Ryan McDonagh – elbow to head, 10 game suspension + first round of playoffs
2013 – Erik Karlsson – sliced Achilles tendon
So Robert Lafleur…did you even watch the play in real-time, or only the super slow motion video. My guess is the later of the two, which seems to be the case with everyone who is going after Cooke. Sure when you watch it at 1/10th it’s original speed, there is all the time in the world to think out and plot an evil plan to injure Karlsson.
How about watching it full speed before making idiotic judgements with no founding. It wasn’t a stomp. Nor was it a slew-foot attempt. It was an attempt to pin KArlsson against the boards using his leg. Something you’d see happen a dozen times in any hockey game, if you actually watched hockey. It happened in a fraction of a second, and Matt Cooke’s attention was focused the entire time on the puck. It looks entirely routine, legal an common place in real-time.
“I can’t give Matt Cooke the benefit of the doubt on this one. Matt Cooke knew it was Erik Karlsson. Matt Cooke has driven Erik Karlsson’s head into the glass before.” …so the F**k what?!? He’s hit him before. As have hundreds of other hockey players. Your entire argument against Matt Cooke is that he’s Matt Cooke. Therefore he must be guilty. That’s not based on fact. That’s based 1-00% on emotion. You’re too busy seeing red to see reason. Time to wake up and smell what you’re shoveling.
Well written Bob. When you look at the long list of “The Legacy of Matt Cooke” I don’t know how anyone could discount. The man has a history of intenionally injuring players.
One of the arguements people use is that the game is fast. Yes true. But was is the game fast?
The game is fast because the players are fast. They move fast, react fast and make fast split second decisions. To imply that because its a fast game a player cannot react that fast is ludicrous.
Now I’m not saying he did or didn’t do it, but only one person knows if it was on purpose and that’s Matt Cooke. History is not on his side.
Also, I have seen guys taken into the boards lots during everyone game. I rarely see the foot come up and then down on the skate. My guess was he was actually going to slew foot him and accidentally cut him. However, as I said only Matt Cooke knows the truth and he’d never admit it if he did.
Thanks for the comments guys. Kevin: First, I’ve been watching and playing hockey for over fifty years. Still watching, still playing. Second, of course I watched the play in real-time, many times, and many times in slow-motion.
As I said, I can’t believe Matt Cooke deliberately drove his skate into Karlsson’s Achilles. My contention, and I agree with Greg, is that Matt Cooke was not trying to pin Karlsson on the boards, he was trying to take Karlsson’s leg out from under him (slew-foot) and knock him off balance. The result of this “leg-lifting” move is that Cooke either drives an off-balance Karlsson hard into the boards or Karlsson falls into the boards. (Watch the video of Cooke on Kurtis Foster. It’s basically a variant of that move.) Problem was, this time, it didn’t work and Karlsson stayed up. Cooke got angry and was reckless. This CAN happen in a fraction of a second. As for Cooke focusing his attention on the puck the entire time, I will only agree that he looked at the puck. But again, we’ve all seen Cooke pull the “accidentally on purpose” move. It’s hard to describe, but a good example would be the video of Cooke kicking goalie Chris Osgood in the head. Was he really trying to kick him in the head, or was he simply falling and his skate accidentally came up and made contact with Osgood’s head? For players without a history like Matt Cooke’s, you’d give them the benefit of the doubt. Not Matt Cooke.
Good work Bob. At first I played off what Cooke did off as accidental which I still believe to be true, but while it may have been accidental, it was definitely reckless. The key thing to ask yourself is how many other players would attempt what Cooke did? Sure, guys pinning other players happens every game, but there is a reason guys don’t get cut by skates every game as well. There was no need for him to have his skate in the position he had it and that boils down to him being a reckless player.
And to add to that, it is tremendously disappointing that we lost one of the best and most exciting players in the game to a player who has far too often been a reckless player
No doubt it’s a huge loss to the Senators, but here’s a somewhat interesting take from the Vancouver Canucks: http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=655652
Some of their players come to Cooke’s defence and there appears general agreement that Karlsson could have prevented the injury if he was wearing kevlar socks.
Personally, I think Cooke was just trying to gain position over Karlsson and that his skate landed in an unfortunate place. I don’t think it’s an uncommon play (though the outcome was certainly uncommon). The fact it involved Cooke, however, has probably increased the level of critical attention devoted towards the incident. It might not be a ringing endorsement, but even Don Cherry (long-time critic) came to Cooke’s defence. Bob’s own stats suggest a somewhat more disciplined Cooke emerged after the McDonagh hit in 2011.
In reply to Greg, I’ve actually heard a number of other people make the slew foot argument. It makes more sense than Cooke trying to deliberately “slice” Karlsson, but as you say, only Cooke knows the truth.
As well, Cooke texted Karlsson to apologize. Is this enough? Whatever happened to personal phone calls?