Cooke suspended rest of regular season, Round 1

[Forkboy]

Pittsburgh Penguins forward Matt Cooke has been suspended for the remainder of the regular season (10 games) and the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for delivering an elbow to the head of New York Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh in NHL game #1080 yesterday, the National Hockey League announced today. Cooke will forfeit $219,512.20 in salary.

"Mr. Cooke, a repeat offender, directly and unnecessarily targeted the head of an opponent who was in an unsuspecting and vulnerable position," said NHL Senior Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell. "This isn't the first time this season that we have had to address dangerous behavior on the ice by Mr. Cooke, and his conduct requires an appropriately harsh response."

Cooke's most recent suspension was for four games on Feb. 9, 2011 and under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement forfeits his salary based on the number of games in the season (82), rather than the number of days (186). The money goes to the Players' Emergency Assistance Fund.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=556768

[madinmaryland]

1. Welcome back, Fork. You recovering, ok?

[Forkboy]

4. I'm doing pretty good, actually, thanks.

Should be all set by June. :)

[PRETZEL]

2. I'm ok with it,

no place in the game for what he did, and it wasn't the first time.

I'd even be ok with Pittsburgh releasing him.

[Forkboy]

5. The GM Shero and even members of the teams agreed with the ruling.

Shero made a strong statement, which is rare to see. Usually the GMs just make perfunctory statement and that's it. Shero went to town. At the just ended GM meetings he was the one pushing for the toughest penalties for this stuff, so it's not surprising.

I have to laugh thinking about Don Cherry. When a Bruins player hit a guy in the head and got suspended earlier this year some of the Bruins players said they agreed with the suspension (after Marc Savard and Bergeron, how could they not?), and Cherry freaked out, saying no team should ever admit that, and that it was going to cause major strife in the Bruin's locker room. They went on to win 9 of 10. Wonder if he'll call out the Pens players? :)

[Upton]

3. The elbow wasn't cool..

but it was Cooke's history that got him the big suspension. The whole thing is rather ironic, considering what Lemieux recently had to say.

The Sharks Dany Heatley just finished serving a two game suspension for a similar type incident involving Steve Ott, though in truth Ott did a great job of selling it..

[Forkboy]

6. The Heatley one was borderline, but knowing Ott's own history I'd side with Heatley.

Ott can be an effective player, but he's a cheap shot type of guy. He's pretty much hated around Boston parts, and the B's only play Dallas once a year.

Cooke should be tossed out of the league if he fucks up again. To do something that blatant after just serving another suspension is just damned stupid. No one on the Pens has a leg to stand on in this issue when Cooke is on their team.

And I got a chuckle out of Lemieux's comments on dirty play all along. It reminds me of Gretzky complaining about fighting, ignoring all those years McSorely protected his ass.

[JonLP24]

7. Off topic

You're right about the west though about winning streaks and losing streaks(sucking basement water). Coyotes won like 7 games and were 4th, about a game behind SJ, then they lost 5 in a row and fell to the 8th spot. Then they won 5 in a row and again was/is in 4th about a game behind SJ and then Chicago snapped their streak. I still think they are game behind SJ but I haven't looked at the standings since Sunday night.

[Forkboy]

8. Right now they sit in 4th place with 89 points, 3 behind SJ.

But only 4 points out of 10 place as well. I have never seen a race this tight, and it's really fun to follow. It's basically already playoff time for these teams, as every single game is crucial.