Monday, November 30, 2009

Cooke Suspended for Hit on Anisimov (COMPLETE BS)!

The Penguins announced earlier this morning that yesterday the NHL suspended Matt Cooke for two games for a "deliberate" check to the head area of New York Rangers forward Artem Anisimov in the third period of the game (he was injured and did not return to the game). Cooke will also forfeit his pay for those two games during the suspension.

He will be out of the lineup tonight and for December 3rd's game against the Colorado Avalanche.

Cooke, who was suspended for two games January 20, 2009, now is considered a repeat offender under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Accordingly, he forfeits $29,268.30 in salary based on the number of games (82) in a season, rather than the number of days (193). The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

3 comments:

Zigh said...

That is complete crap!!

I hate how random the NHL is... if you're going to dish out suspensions... make sure they're for a good reason!

They do this over a hit like that... but then let other people get away with almost murder.
If only Cooke had of bitten Anizimov instead... then he'd probably be playing tonight.

Stephanie said...

I TOTALLY agree Zigh!!! The randomness of handing out "punishments" and even the extent of them is garbage (random is a PERFECT word!)!! They need more specific rules that are more fair, but pretty much its people sitting there making their minds up for that instance on that day and not taking anything else into consideration or any previous actions into consideration. I've always thought this was something that needs corrected and is very frustrating, so I can't imagine how the players feel!!

Val said...

I am also completely frustrated by the total lack of consistency by the NHL when handing out suspensions, especially in light of the Ovi hit, for example, on Kaleta...

The crazy thing is, after reading an article in the most recent "THN" about hitting, Colin Campbell still could not come up with a reasonable explanation for the randomness, and he is a former big hitter. Argh!