Repeat Offender Matt Cooke Scheduled To Have Disciplinary Hearing After Hit To McDonagh

Added on Mar 21, 2011 by J Merrill in

NHL

Penguins forward Matt Cooke has painted Pittsburgh into a corner after his hit on New York Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh. Cooke checked McDonagh and his elbow struck him in the head. In the 5-2 loss, Cooke was given a five-minute major penalty and ejected 4:36 into the third period. Cooke is set to meet with NHL brass for an in-person disciplinary hearing planned for 1:30 this afternoon.

Cooke is the definition of a repeat offender. This is his third suspension in as many seasons, and some say is part of the problem. Cooke delivered the blow to Marc Savard that essentially ended his career, and that hit itself prompted the NHL to adopt a new rule that bans blindside hits to the head.

Ryan McDonagh said that it didn’t feel as though his head was targeted, or that the hit was intentional. He said “I didn’t see him coming. I know it hurt, that’s for sure. I would hope it wasn’t his intent. It’s a tight game. I’m sure he’s not trying to get his team a five-minute penalty. He’s probably just trying to finish his check and just caught me wrong.”

So far Cooke has not talked to the media about the hit. Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said with all the new attention on the issue, and the remarks made my GM Mario Lemieux, he is expecting repercussions. Bylsma said “I don’t think you can talk about eliminating head shots from the game, as we have as an organization, and not expect [Cooke's hit] to be examined. It’s what looks to be a contact right to the head on the play, so the league will look at that and treat it as such.”

The league recently voted to not ban head hits in NHL, because of the possibility that it could slow the game. However, many GM’s were in support of fining players and making stricter penalties. Pittsburgh GM Lemieux took it a step further, and sent a letter to the commissioner of the NHL Gary Bettman saying that he felt the teams should be responsible for the players. He said “While there have been 50-plus suspensions since the start of the 2009-10 season, the suspensions themselves don’t seem to be deterring these illegal acts and tactics. And we’ve often seen repeat offenders. We think it is time that teams also are held accountable for the actions of their players. We propose instituting a policy of automatically fining a team when one if its players is suspended — with the amount of the fine based on the length of the suspension. This should serve as a disincentive for teams as well as players to employ these kinds of tactics.”

Bettman’s response to the letter was that this was an idea that the NHL could get behind, and he said they were planning on discussing it at the annual June meetings. He told the media “I will be discussing with the Board of Governors at the June meetings the fact that I intend to, for next season, provide that clubs will ultimately be responsible for the acts of their players so that if a player or players on a club are the subjects of repeat disciplinary procedures and resultant supplemental discipline, ultimately it is the club and perhaps the coach that will be held responsible.”

I will update the story later today, but expect a swift response to Cooke, especially since they are doing the meeting in person. Check Sportsbettingworld.com later for more news.