Well in Cooke's defense (as odious as that may be.. or maybe its Colin Campbell I am defending...whatever) he didn't break an "existing" rule when he smoked Savard. I saw the game and have seen numerous replays: he didn't charge/leave his feet, he used the shoulder and upper arm. He targeted the head of Savard (by the way he pulled his shoulder up), which will be illegal next year but unless they wanted to call him for "intent to injure" (which a case could made for) it was within the established rules (this is actually a peeve of mine: there is a lot if coverage on fouls in the existing rules, for example it was a no-brainer that Avery's waving his stick in Brodeur's face in the playoffs last year or whenever, was Unsportsmanlike Conduct. Why do the refs not call this crap for what it is instead of making the league come out with new rules and directives?).
Talloola, I know you don't like Cooke but to certain degree justice has to be blind: you can't penalize someone for who he is, but if what he does merits a penalty, you CAN take his history into account.
Ovechkin's case should (will?) be different. He broke an established rule in hitting Campbell from behind like he did. Since that is not in question, the NHL now should look at Ovechkin's history (including his suspensions for kneeing) and hand down its judgement... but because he IS Ovechkin, I don't see a huge suspension. He is one of the faces of the game right now and the league wants the Capitals to do well and cement more interest in the Washington area and southern reaches of the eastern seaboard (the same reasons he got off light on taking out Gonchar last year). I hope I'm wrong because his lack of respect for other athletes is the reason a pretty good defenceman's season is done.
Yeah, I know exactly what cooke did, and could have been
'intent to injure', campbell could have dealt with it that
way, but because he chose to ignore the richards hit earlier
in the season, he didn't have the courage to say, "O K, that's it, intent to injure is the call here, and anymore
of this sort will be the same, until the new ruling sets in.
The vicious slew-foot on crosby seems to be an intentional
retalliation on the cooke hit, and I know it's tampa bay
and not boston, but steve downey is also a dirty player from
way back, and the tampa bay players have expressed their
anger because nothing was done to cooke. Even Guerin, on
pittsburg expressed his dissapointment that nothing was done, cooke's own teamate.
This Thursday boston hosts pittsburg, all the 'suits' will
be there, and probably many warnings to players to keep it
clean, but how can those boston players go on the ice, with
their star player still suffering from a season ending concussion,
from the predatory hit from cooke, and not do 'something'.
If the league won't do anything, and cooke skates around and
continues to play, as cocky as ever, and when interviewed,
said "Just finishing my check", with no remorse at all, and
saying that he didn't mean to hurt him, well, please give me
a break, as he had lots of time to decide 'not' to do what
he did, travelling upward with his shoulder right into
sevard's head, from the blind side.
The penalty that cooke might receive, could be from his own
team, who may not sign him next year, and no one else will
want him either, hopefully. That would be what he really
deserves in the end, he has no respect from anyone, and he
certainly doesn't respect other players in the league,
they all need each other, and should play that way when
hitting.
Ovetchin's hit on campbell is a penalty, needs to be addressed, was the right call, he could have hit his head,
and been concussed too, but a broken clavicle and a broken
rib, will end his season too.
Ovetchkin didn't purposely attempt to hurt him, just made a
bad decision, and because he is so strong, and campbell much
lighter, it sent him flying into the boards at high speed.
Ovetchkin must learn to 'temper' his hits, he will seriously
hurt someone someday, although he is 'not' a dirty player,
he is tremendously strong, and plays like a bull.
