If you read my prior post I do say that there is no way he could have planned that to happen. I dont think he was trying to hurt Karlsson, he was trying to do what a good grinder does and make the other teams players pay every chance you get. This play just went horribly wrong.
My issue is just with the amount of people defending this guy tooth to nail. He played one year without trying to kill someone as if thats something people should be impressed with rather than the norm.
Additionally the reason this is getting soo much attention is because Cooke is Cooke. It just fits the perfect criteria of all of his previous transgressions.
1) Star Player Injured
2) "Normal hockey play"
3) Cooke is responsible
With his history and this incident meeting all of the above criteria there is no reason to expect people to look the other way and this is no one elses fault but Cooke's himself.
Whats done is done I'm sure Cooke will get his eventually.
If you don't think Cooke was attempting to injure Karlsson then how is Cooke responsible for the injury to Karlsson? When a legitimate accident occurs there are no responsible parties. It was an accident. Karlsson should be just as responsible as Cooke if you think it was purely accidental. After all, merely the existence of both players would be root cause then.
I don't defend Cooke's history. I will say that one season of seemingly different play is enough to take notice. It may not be enough to say definitively that he has changed. That much is true. However, it is not merely him "not trying to kill anyone". In my opinion it is obvious that he has taken strides to attempt to clean up all aspects of his game while still playing physical.
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You can take my wings, but I'm still gonna fly
That's incredible, especially considering the Malarchuk incident.
Unreal...
It should also be noted that he did not kick at Osgood's throat thus rendering the Malarchuk incident irrelevant, and this took place nearly four years ago when Matt Cooke was hands down the dirtiest player in the league. Four years is a good amount of time. For reference, some states have shorter statutes of limitations on the following crimes: assault and battery, false imprisonment, fraud, legal malpractice, libel, medical malpractice, personal injury, property damage, slander, trespassing, and wrongful death.
I dont understand all the fuss.. Cooke was off balance.. regained his balance and Karlsson's leg happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.. Cooke's past is the past.. His wife was sick (http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puc...rn=nhl,wp11087) when he was running rampant and now he is a changed man..
The Pens are the bread and butter of the NHL.. We are the reason most NHL teams actually sell out their home games.. Pittsburgh has done more for hockey than any other American city. Even though football is King here in western PA hockey is a very close 2nd and there isnt a fan base thats more dedicated and knowledgeable than Pittsburgh fans.
That's incredible, especially considering the Malarchuk incident.
Unreal...
Yes, he might as well have slized Osgoods head off and people here would still call it "irrellevant, freak accident, it happens, skates are sharp ya now, his wife was sick so Osgood had it coming"..
If you don't think Cooke was attempting to injure Karlsson then how is Cooke responsible for the injury to Karlsson? When a legitimate accident occurs there are no responsible parties. It was an accident. Karlsson should be just as responsible as Cooke if you think it was purely accidental. After all, merely the existence of both players would be root cause then.
I don't defend Cooke's history. I will say that one season of seemingly different play is enough to take notice. It may not be enough to say definitively that he has changed. That much is true. However, it is not merely him "not trying to kill anyone". In my opinion it is obvious that he has taken strides to attempt to clean up all aspects of his game while still playing physical.
Whether Cookes act was intentional or not, it was his doing, not Karlsson's.
Whether Cookes act was intentional or not, it was his doing, not Karlsson's.
It doesn't matter. If something is an accident then the parties involved are devoid of blame. If someone is to blame is was not an accident; it was negligence.
It won't end. People are not able to view this objectively and it makes them look like whining babies (aka Sens owner).
The ironic part of Melnyk's whiny statements about Cooke being a repeat offender and having a history of multiple incidents is that Melnyk himself is currently suspended from taking senior roles in public companies and was fined numerous times for repeatedly manipulating the quarterly earnings of Biovail, the company he founded and was CEO. It takes one to know one?
Shows he isn't above kicking a player. The thought that was pretty self explanatory.
I don't care if it was four years ago or four days ago. The only reason Cooke has cleaned up his game is to save his own ass, not because he is a changed person. He has shown that he could do stopped at anytime and chose not to. Why is that important? Because it shows he cares nothing about the well being of other players. It is still in him to do something dirty and malicious ar any point.
There are just two different parties arguing about this and niether are really wrong. The first is saying that it was a fluke play and you cant blame or punish a player for something that had no purposeful intent and the second is saying that the player was so dirty in the past that he should have been out of the league and thus this shouldnt have happened.
The thing about Cooke is he was brought into the league in the past era when headshots were not only OK, they were encouraged. He filled the "agitator's role, where he was played millions of dollars to play right on the edge, which was occasionally crossed. he did that because teams payed him to do it and it was his chance to stick in the NHL. Now its the opposite, he loses his paycheck if he plays like that. Its not fair to say he changed and is a better person when it happened under threat of unemployment, though on the flip side, its not fair to say he is a psycopath or a bad person when he was paid and encouraged to do that stuff in the past. We really dont know what Cooke is like for real. its all based on actions from a past era.
The fact that this is going to go into four threads is depressing. Would've thought this had been discussed to death by now. Firmly believe it was an accident and I stand by that.
Im simply saying that play could very well resulted in a serious injury to Osgoods throat
Yeah, okay.
I watched the vid. He's being an a-hole, but it is a long stretch (let's say the length of Yonge Street) to say that Osgood was ever in danger of getting his head sliced off.
I will actually acknowledge the dumb stuff Cooke does and say he has, in the past, been a real blight on the league.
But when you start posting stuff like the head slicing off bit, all cred is lost at that point as far as I am concerned.
I dont understand all the fuss.. Cooke was off balance.. regained his balance and Karlsson's leg happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.. Cooke's past is the past.. His wife was sick (http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puc...rn=nhl,wp11087) when he was running rampant and now he is a changed man..
The Pens are the bread and butter of the NHL.. We are the reason most NHL teams actually sell out their home games.. Pittsburgh has done more for hockey than any other American city. Even though football is King here in western PA hockey is a very close 2nd and there isnt a fan base thats more dedicated and knowledgeable than Pittsburgh fans.
I hear the Penguins were responsible for curing cancer, and Crosby orchestrated the raid on Bin Laden too.
I watched the vid. He's being an a-hole, but it is a long stretch (let's say the length of Yonge Street) to say that Osgood was even in danger of getting his head sliced off.
I will actually acknowledge the dumb stuff Cooke does and say he has, in the past, been a real blight on the league.
But when you start posting stuff like the head slicing off bit, all cred is lost at that point as far as I am concerned.
He didn't say he was close to slicing his head off. He said people would still defend him if he had. It was a dangerous play where I'd he had made contact it could of been very ugly and it shows that Cooke us not above taking those risks. You can't really argue against that.
I watched the vid. He's being an a-hole, but it is a long stretch (let's say the length of Yonge Street) to say that Osgood was ever in danger of getting his head sliced off.
I will actually acknowledge the dumb stuff Cooke does and say he has, in the past, been a real blight on the league.
But when you start posting stuff like the head slicing off bit, all cred is lost at that point as far as I am concerned.
I genuinely believe that had this been someone else (Say - Simon Despres) then little would've been made of it. But because people have seen that it involved Cooke they think it must be intentional.
I genuinely believe that had this been someone else (Say - Simon Despres) then little would've been made of it. But because people have seen that it involved Cooke they think it must be intentional.
This isn't really a leap to say and not many of us that aren't defending Cooke would argue otherwise. The way the date came down would still be questionable, though.
Matt Calvert lifts up Pierre Marc Bouchard's stick and gets hit in the face. PMB suspended for 2 games.
YT please, would love to judge that for myself.
It was a clearly intentional slash by PMB, however he was trying to slash Calvert in the hands, not the face. While going for Calvert's hands, his stick deflected of Calvert's hands/stick, and hit Calvert square in the face, ****ing him up pretty good (missing teeth and whatnot).
A truly unintentional high stick to the face is obviously not a suspension, it's a 2-4 minute penalty. An intentional 2-handed slash to the face is a massive suspension, like 10-20 games. PMB delivered an intentional slash, but the face part was an accident, so he was given a 2 game suspension, which seems reasonable. Here's the play btw:
As for Cooke/Karlsson, it was completely unintentional. Cooke was going for a perfectly legal rub-out, but was awkwardly off balance, and cut Karlsson in the process. It was clearly the right call not to suspend him. I feel for Karlsson, he's an awesome player and that's a nasty injury, but there's no way the NHL should start suspending for accidents.
Shows he isn't above kicking a player. The thought that was pretty self explanatory.
I don't care if it was four years ago or four days ago. The only reason Cooke has cleaned up his game is to save his own ass, not because he is a changed person. He has shown that he could do stopped at anytime and chose not to. Why is that important? Because it shows he cares nothing about the well being of other players. It is still in him to do something dirty and malicious ar any point.
Is it self-explanatory how you know all this? Are you his counselor or therapist? Speculating on such things really is pointless--and That is self-explanatory.
How ****ing stupid is it to make such comparison? Bert is a great guy who stood up for Nazzy and the team. He made ONE mistake which caused a tragical outcome. End of story!!!!
Last edited by Timmy: 02-16-2013 at 01:40 PM.
Reason: filter
