icedog97

"Penguins Hockeybuzz Blog"

Pittsburgh, PA • United States • 48 Years Old • Male

Yahoo! - Same Old Story

A quick look at the Yahoo! NHL front page shows this as the main article

Same Old Story - New and improved Matt Cooke boards a guy
http://sports.yahoo.com/n...2hut7vLYF?urn=nhl-wp13351

Those of you that read my blog...(I think 5 now?) know I have spoken out against Cooke in the past. I am a fan of 95% of what he does...and the other 5% was enough for me to say get rid of him last year.

He's still here...and supposedly a changed man.

The jury is still out on how changed he is, but one thing is for sure, the Yahoo! lead-in makes it sound like he committed some terrible boarding penalty in a pre-season game against Minnesota and he might be suspended for it.

What a joke!

I watched the game live...and have watched the replay of the hit repeatedly...and to be honest, I am having trouble finding how the call of boarding was even made.

It would have been much more interesting if the author of this article had challenged the idea that this hit was ruled a boarding call than to simply look at the box score...see "boarding" with Matt Cooke next to it and then decide it was the "Same Old Story". While the author did later indicate the hit did not appear to be that bad, he clearly was capitalizing on the first attention getting penalty (only because boarding usually looks a lot worse than this one did) that Cooke committed.

I guess for Yahoo, it is the Same Old Story...always looking to find some way to make a bigger deal out of something than it actually was.

Apparently, for once, the Yahoo comment blog is on my side with some rational replies. Here's a sampling:

"I don't like the Pens and I don't like Matt Cooke.
That being said, I don't think that hit would even be a penalty in the NHL 2 years ago.
Something isn't right here. I don't think I like the direction the NHL is going."

"As a Pens fan, I wish the Pens would have dumped Cooke after his last suspension. He's more trouble than he's worth. Having said that, this hit was not suspension material - not even for a repeat offender like Cooke. Come on people - I know you hate the Pen's, but be honest!"

"I'm not a Cooke fan, but are you kidding me?!?! It's debatable weather that was even a penalty."

"This hit was not even a penalty, This is not worthy of any news. The guy has made 100's of worst hits than this weak one. "

"I really do hate Matt Cooke but there is NO WAY that this is a suspension in the words of the new rules he "minimized contact" and the Wild player clearly embellished the hit. Now I will be the first to call for a major suspension if we see any more real @#$% from Cooke but this article was ridiculous."

"While I never am happy about Cooke's play, please note that as he entered the screen he never lifted his feet off the ground skating in...he glided in....yeah, its a hit, sure it sucks, but he didn't skate into the hit...perfectly legal."

"Matt Cooke is a scum bag, but this isn't even close to a suspendable offense. Why does Yahoo! waste space with this kind of junk?"

"Whoever is responsible for this article is a joke. Give it up buddy. This coming from someone that hates Cooke."

"I really can't see this meriting any sort of supplemental discipline no matter how big of cheap-shot artist Cooke has shown himself to be time and time again. If he even gets a fine for this that would be too much. He got a minor for the hit and that's good enough. I don't even know if he deserved that much of a punishment but Cooke has made his bed with the officials with his past conduct so he can probably expect more of the same."

"This hit is not worthy of a suspension. If Matte Cooke gets suspended for this then it is only because he is Matt Cooke. It was worthy of a penalty, which he received, but to give supplemental discipline would be uncalled for."

"No way he hardly touched him. This is not an issue if it's not Cooke."


Thanks for reading....


III...105

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