Matt Cooke Suspended for Regular Season and First Round of Playoffs

[thepolishkid88]

TORONTO -- 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.

The incident occurred at 4:36 of the third period and Cooke was assessed a major penalty for elbowing and a game misconduct.

Cooke will miss Pittsburgh’s remaining 10 regular-season games and be ineligible for the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

[havoc00]

First round is overboard

[thepolishkid88]

Originally Posted by havoc00

First round is overboard

If anybody deserves overboard its Matt Cooke.

[Thrillhouse]

Horray! Good job. Maybe I won't pull my sponsorship dollars after all.

[BobNystromOwnsU]

They should have suspended him for the entire playoffs.

[camx]

Def deserved a suspension thought the rest of the regular season would have been fine but understand the league is trying to send a message and he is a repeat offender.

[PuckHogs29]

Totally on board with this one. For all the talk about how "at least Matt Cooke can play hockey" he's more of a danger out there than Trevor Gillies and his 3 minutes of ice time ever could be.

[RayzorEdge]

That's at least 14 games. About fukin time Campbell got something right.

Now let's see what Mario has to say.

[Mike Tython]

I guarantee that future suspensions will still be retarded. This is just an isolated incident where they got one right.

[OLLBLUEEYZ]

thats about right.

[Isles4life]

The NHL finally got one right. I don't like long suspensions, but Cooke is a many-time offender, and he's even gotten away with multiple other offenses this year alone that easily could and should have resulted in suspensions. The guy just can't help himself from crossing the line with his style of play, and the league finally sent him a harsher message. If you're going to crucify Gillies with 10 games for the hit on Clutterbuck, you can't possibly give Cooke and his track record a lesser punishment. Throwing in the first round, while some may think it's excessive, was an important addition I think as it sends a much stronger message.

For once in your miserable tenure, good job Colin.

[RCSheppy]

14 games at least, i like that.

[yatyas]

Again the 3rd or 4th elbow/head hit of the week and further proof take out the instigator, let players handle it and you don't have these talks. That also gives a reason for the guys who literally bleed for thier teams the goons to stay up in the NHL. Why can Bettman and his goons not see this?

[Grittzkey]

I don't like this.. Regular season would have been enough..

[kam]

I think it's fair. First round is where it's going to hurt most to the team and himself. If this doesn't wake him up and keep him from being a gutless prick then he's a complete idiot and need to finish his career in the minors.