So the reactions are quite varied over the Matt Cooke suspension. Cooke received a 10 game suspension (rest of the regular season) plus the first round of the playoffs for his elbow to the head of Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh. Too short? Too long? Just right? Depends who you ask.
Penguins fans of course are not happy with the suspension and mainly point to the playoff aspect as the issue. It appears many believe Cooke certainly deserves a suspension, and 10 games is reasonable, but missing a playoff round is costly.
On the other side of the fence, you basically have the rest of the NHL intermixed with a few analysts here and there. Cooke has drawn a lot of ire as repeat offender and must learn to control his play at some point before someone is severely injured (again...with all due respect to Marc Savard).
Then you have people sitting on the fence. A popular sentiment is that the suspension is excessive, but is still reasonable because the NHL needs to send a message and make a statement to its players that this type of play will not be allowed. Much of this group will tell you that if Ray Shero and Mario Lemieux are also speaking out against the Cooke hit, then does anyone really have a right to say anything against the suspension?
So let's take a look at Cooke's history. Let's begin with the fact that it's rather interesting that Cooke has had issues with suspensions. Cooke actually started turning heads back in 2004 even though he entered the league in 1999. In 2004, Cooke was promoted to the Vancouver Canucks top line because Todd Bertuzzi was suspended for the ugly Steve Moore incident (youtube that if you don't know what I'm talking about). Cooke led the team in playoff scoring that year and was immediately re-signed to a 3 year contract. Go figure, a suspension gives Cooke a big break.
Now let's take a look at Cooke's suspensions:
Nov. 2008: Suspended 2 games for a check to the head of Artem Anisimov.
Jan. 2009: Suspended 2 games for a headshot on Scott Walker.
Feb. 2011: Suspended 4 games for a hit from behind on Fedor Tyutin.
Mar. 2011: Suspended 10 games and 4-7 playoff games for an elbow to the head of Ryan McDonagh.
*Keep in mind, this doesn't include the headshot Cooke gave to Marc Savard in Mar. 2010, which went without penalty despite most people, including teammates, believing it would lead to a suspension.
Cooke made it through 9 years in the NHL before having major incidents, and now they have become a regular occurrence over the past 2+ years. It is clear that his actions need to be curbed somehow.
And now comes the major sticking point of the argument, Cooke deserves the suspension, but it is unfortunate that the Pens have to deal with that loss for the first round of the playoffs. No one can question that Cooke needs to learn a lesson and learn it fast, but he does provide some invaluable play to the Penguins.
Beyond Cooke's use as a "pest" against other teams, he can actually play hockey when he wants to. He is good for about 30 points a season, has a strong forechecking game, and most importantly, can handle the biggest penalty kills. Cooke has regularly played with Craig Adams and Zbynek Michalek as the Penguins top 5 on 3 penalty killing unit. For that matter, in the roughly 75 minutes of hockey that the Penguins have played without Cooke, they have allowed 4 powerplay goals. Not exactly the stats you would expect from the NHL's #1 penalty killing team for much of the season.
So my take on the suspension? It's appropriate and unfortunate. I guess that is the risk you take when employing Matt Cooke nowadays. When he's on his game and playing smart, he's a great spark plug and role player. But he has to learn this lesson, and I hope he learns a little bit more of it every time the Penguins struggle on the penalty kill. He knows his place on this team. The question is whether he values that more than his "big hit" potential. If he doesn't, the time will come where he won't have a place on this team anymore.
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