Matt Cooke Suspended 14+ Games

Ladies and gentlemen, justice has been brought to to the wicked.

Matt Cooke, long time NHL forward, agitator, and cheap shot artist has been suspended for the remainder of the regular season, which consists of ten more games for the Penguins, as well as the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Cooke will also be losing $219,512.20 in salary from the games he misses.

Cooke, who had been suspended once already this season, was up to his normal antics in New York when he delivered a blindside elbow to the head of Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh. McDonagh  was not seriously injured, but Cooke was escorted off the ice and given a 5-minute game-misconduct penalty. At the time of the elbow, the game was tied 1-1. The Penguins managed to score shorthanded, but the Rangers quickly used Cooke's actions as motivation and scored four goals in the 3rd period to win the game 5-2. (video below)

Cooke's track record more than likely played a part in his suspension, for he has been suspended multiple times throughout his years he's been in the NHL. Earlier this season, Cooke was suspended after delivering a similar elbow to the head of Bruins center Marc Savard. Savard suffered a serious concussion and was pronounced to not be able to return to the lineup for the remainder of this season, and possibly longer considering Marc Savard's history with concussions. To see more of Matt Cooke's cheap shots throughout the year, check out his history of violence, provided by Tolensky.com.

A question that is going to be brewing among the NHL fan base is going to be: is Cooke's suspension going to be enough? Will Matt Cooke learn from this harsh punishment and never throw another elbow in his career? The answer is: probably not. 

Cooke has been in the league since 1998. Clearly, throughout countless reprimands from the league, teams, and Evander Kane, Matt Cooke has still not learned his lesson. It's hard to believe that after such a long stretch of aggression, Cooke is finally going to be born again and be some hockey saint after this incident. My only hopes as a hockey fan are that Cooke gets scratched from more and more games so that he can no longer potentially deliver any more blows like this to another player ever again.