Matt Cooke hit on Marc Savard: Over the line?

I thought of the same thing when I saw this hit. And frankly, I thought Richards’ hit on Booth was worthy of suspension, regardless of what many have said and will continue to say about his shoulder. Therefore, in that same light, I really do feel that Cooke is deserving of a suspension for this hit. If anything, he’s already the owner of a reputation that the NHL does not look kindly upon. I’m thinking five or more games for this one, since he has been suspended earlier in the year as well.

Fair or not, he’ll get slapped with a really stiff suspension here. 5, and maybe more with the GMs meeting on this issue this week. He knocked out a star player with a really dirty hit directly targeted at the head. Booth was moving fast, Savard was not. Cooke hit exactly what he was aiming for.

Matt Cooke will probably be suspended on the grounds of being Matt Cooke alone. That said, the hit looks kinda bad to me, and the result is definitely bad (hopefully not as bad as what poor David Booth experienced.) I hope a head shot was not Cooke’s intent, but I also think Cooke knows what he’s doing when it comes to delivering hits. I would not mind if he was suspended for a few games.

I’d love to see a clear and consistently applied policy in the NHL discouraging hits to the head, but I’d love to see a lot of things that I’m not expecting to actually happen.

I also think Richards should have been suspended.

I’ll have to look at the hit in more detail, but from what I’ve seen it is similar enough to Richards’ hit on Booth. The x-factor will likely be Cooke’s reputation.

For what it’s worth, I’m a Flyers fan and I thought Richards should have been suspended when the Booth hit happened. But I also think the NHL should just have an outright ban on hits to the head, whether they are led by shoulders, elbows, etc. They’re just too dangerous.

Feb 21, 2004. Vancouver Canucks forward Matt Cooke was suspended for two games without pay by the NHL for spearing Matt Johnson of the Minnesota Wild

This was a low down, premeditated hit to the head! There is absolutely no difference between this hit and Richards hit. There are three fundamental differences between these two hits. The first is the angle in which Cooke hit Savard. Cooke had a straight line towards Savard’s body but where did he chose to hit him? The head. Richards hit on booth was coming from behind and at a bad angle, causing an accidental hit to the head. The second difference is Cooke’s elbow. Cooke purposely might have not stuck out the elbow but the hit on Savard’s was clearly his elbow. Richards hit on booth was a shoulder. The third difference is unfortunately his rep. Richards has had no prior altercations but Cooke has had more than a hand full. Look for Cooke to be suspended at least 5 games. Example: Cam Janssen suspended 5 games for his February 13 hit on Matt Bradley.

This hit all boils down to Cooke’s judgment. To me, it looks like he hits Savard more with his bicep than he does shoulder or elbow. True, Savard’s head was down, but Cooke should have read the situation a little better and when he realized that he was going right past the head- which let’s face it, this is Cooke’s job, like mentioned above, so he knew what he was doing and seeing- he should have pulled up, or at least turned in to take the whole body instead.

He’ll get suspended, whether we like it or not. Compare it to any hit you want to, but a head hit is a head hit, and the league needs to get this thing figured out.

He deserves to be suspended. 4-5 games sound right to me. His elbow is down, but I don’t think that makes it any better, he comes in practically from behind, not the side. Whether he intended to hit him in the head or not, I personally don’t think he did, doesn’t matter. It’s just a completely reckless hit and one that deserves punishment.

I might be the only one who feels this way, but as a hockey player for 20+ years, I feel I have to say something. As a player, you have a responsibility to protect yourself as well. Savard has his head down coming across the middle of the ice, has just taken a shot, and gets drilled. This happens all the time. Unlucky result of a fast game. Whoever said the NHL should “ban hits to the head” has obviously never played the game. It happens, you put yourself as risk when you go out there, and everyone who plays contact hockey knows this.

It was a bad, bad hit, and totally unnecessary. He should (and will) be suspended. I like Cooke a lot as a player — he’s tough, is a decent penalty killer, never quits — but you just have to question his judgment sometimes.

There is NO similarity between the two hits, except that they both resulted in unfortunate head injuries. In Richard’s case, he made every effort to use his shoulder, and was obviously just trying to make a body check. In the criminal act last night, Cooke not only used his elbow (although you could argue he kept it tight to hte body, hence no elbowing) but was obviously targeting Savard’s head – he could have easily hit him in the body but aimed specifically for his outstretched head. In my world, that indicates intent to INJURE, not intent to make a good hockey play. Cooke should be suspended, fined, and possibly drawn and quartered. While the outcomes were both (potentially) equally unfortunate for the afflicted players, my take is that Richard’s instance was one of hockey simply being a violent game and sh*t happens; the Cooke hit was a blatant attempt to injure another player and should be stamped upon by the league with iron boots.

have we heard if cooke’s gonna be suspended/how long he’ll be suspended for? sorry if it’s been posted and i missed it.

Watch him the whole way in, eh can’t not see Savard as he approaches, then he changes angle to line up Savard’s head. He didn’t look surprised or even look to see if he just hit someone. If he wanted to check Savard he would have come harder, the way he did it is exactly the way you go up and give a cheap shot at an opponent and try to get away with it.

Skate by like nothing happened.

I’ve defended Cooke before, but this hit, his angle of approach change, I mean if he checked Savard on that play they would have awkwardly bumped into each other, they both would have fallen down and as a hit it would be a huge fail. Richards was either trying to kill Booth or hit him hard, Cooke was in now way trying to hit Savard, he was trying to elbow him in the head.

All I’ll say is that I’d be in favor of instituting the Olympic hockey rule regarding head shots.

Why was Richards penalized so heavily in the game just to have the NHL decide otherwise after the fact?
Why is the sky blue?

With the hit is that Cooke could have easily went for Savard’s right shoulder and still gotten the same, big hit without injury. It looks like he aimed for Savard’s head and that’s what’s probably gonna give him a suspension (if anything).

I’ll be totally shocked if Cooke isn’t suspended at least 5 games.

I liked Cooke up until yesterday. Pens don’t need someone like that on their team. He’ll fit in good with the Flyers though

i’m not the most intellectual fan, so don’t kill me. i don’t think that any of us can know or will ever know cooke’s intention.

all i want is for savard to get well quickly and not to have any lasting brain damage.
 
that’s the way i see it.

The main reason this and the Richards/Booth hit was dirty is simply because the head could have been avoided. Coming in at that angle, there’s absolutely not reason why you can’t make contact with the body and still deliver a quality hit that knocks the guy down. Neither hit was late, neither player left their feet, neither player charged. No one except the Richards and Cooke can say if they truly targeted the head but the fact is that the head WAS avoidable and body contact would have given a perfectly fine hit.

imo this is a suspendable hit. cook went right after his mellon and made no effort to pull up. g

Agree with you. All this people that are making comparisons, are not valid each hit to the head should be looked at individually and proper suspension applied. The elbow made contact with the head of the player when he was not in a position tosee it coming. This is the classic hit that can be dangerous it does not matter who delivers it inetntionally or not. In the case of Savard it is bad because he is vulnerable to more concussions. I am a Pens fan and had been for a long time, but I don’t like this type of hits. Those who engage in an argument as to wether Richards or Oveshkyn or whoever else where suspended or not, folks, that’s irrelevant here. I feel Cook should be suspended and for more than a couple of games. Next time he’ll think about it. It is impossible to say wether their was intent or not to injure. But any player should know that that is a dangerous hit for anyone to receive. The problem in the league is that their is a certain lack of respect for the opposing player in terms of career ending hits. Do not make any mistakes, this players know it. That’s why you will rarely see if ever a good player taking a chip shot at someone (with few exceptions). Part of it could be the instigator rule.

From Boston GM Peter Chiarelli:

“What I saw was that he was in a position of vulnerability,” Chiarelli said. “Now, that is not a criteria right now for supplemental discipline. But I think you have to look at the repeat offending. These are all things we have talked about before.”

Ok, so what he did is not something that he should be suspended for, but because he has had past transgressions, maybe he should be suspended?

I’m glad so many fans out there think this issue is so cut and dried, and yet the GM of the victim in this case can’t even figure it out.

Didn’t read all of the comments, just wanted to put my 2 cents in.

Cooke’s hit didn’t appear to be a shot for the head, he didn’t leave his feet and he didn’t even really raise his elbow… the hit wasn’t late(real time wasn’t even half a second later)Richard’s hit looked worse as he left his feet, seemed to jump into the hit way more than Cooke…

I feel bad for Savard(or anyone who gets hurt playing hockey for that matter), but it wasn’t a penalty so it shouldn’t be a suspension. Just bad luck…

thanks for all those vids you do

My take on the Cooke hit echoes some of what I’ve read above. Was it a legal hit? Technically, yes. Should it be legal? Probably not. Though there has to be some leeway given how fast the action moves in a hockey game, Cooke was clearly trying to level a player in a fairly defenseless position. Will the NHL add a rule to discourage this type of hit? I’m not holding my breath. How long did it take the NHL to realize that crushing a player into the boards from behind was, you know, a bad thing?

The only conclusion I’ve been able to draw about this stuff over the years is that the NHL really doesn’t give a crap about the players. The league is basically the owners, and the owners only care about what makes them the most money. And for the most part, this is about (a) keeping star players on the ice, and (b) making examples of non-star players to give the illusion of caring about player safety and behavior. If Cooke had hit, say, Steve Begin like this, no one at the NHL level would care; but the Bruins are a much more appealing team when Marc Savard is on the ice, so the NHL acts like it’s serious about the problem. On the flip side, the Flyers are a more appealing team with Mike Richards on the ice. And of course, Lord help you if your name is Steve Moore and Todd Bertuzzi is an All-Star forward that year. Not that the NHL takes a different approach to off-ice stuff. I still scratch my head that Sean Avery got suspended 6 games for crude comments that “cast the sport in an unfavorable light”, yet Pat Kane beating up a cab driver over pocket change or Ovechkin shoving a reporter in Vancouver are somehow just fine in this regard.