Penguins owner Mario Lemieux was silent on the Matt Cooke hit Monday but coach Dan Bylsma spoke out.
It happened in concert, the way an orchestra breaks into a symphony after 20 minutes of cacophonous tuning.
The National Hockey League finally got it, handing down a hefty suspension to the dirtiest player in the league, Matt Cooke: 10-games plus one round of playoffs, and nearly $220,000 in salary forfeited.
A smart, classy general manager who already gets it came out in favour of the suspension, definitely the exception rather than the rule.
And on Monday, even a few NHPLA members began to sound like they’re ready for change; though there was no indication their association was willing to back that up as a whole.
"Nice to see the NHL come through with that suspension," tweeted Edmonton Oilers defenceman Ryan Whitney. "Enough is enough with that guy. #zerorespectforanyone."
This is what the standard absolutely should be for Meathead Matt Cooke.
Dany Heatley gets two games as a first-time offender. Cooke gets 10 games plus the first round of the playoffs as a guy who isn’t smart enough to figure it out. The next time — and you know there will be a next time with this guy — he’s looking at 25 or more.
"Mr. Cooke, a repeat offender, directly and unnecessarily targeted the head of an opponent who was in an unsuspecting and vulnerable position," the NHL’s senior executive vice president of hockey operations Colin Campbell said in a statement.
"This isn't the first time this season that we have had to address dangerous behaviour on the ice by Mr. Cooke, and his conduct requires an appropriately harsh response."
Thursday on Sportsnet: Concussions in the NHL have nearly doubled this season, affecting more than 10 per cent of the league's players. From the NHL to minor hockey, there is public outcry for action. On Thursday, March 24 we respond with "A Rogers Sportsnet Special - Crisis on Ice?" -- a national conversation on the issue of serious injuries in hockey. | Premiere: East/Ont 7 p.m. ET, West 9 p.m. MT, Pacific 7 p.m. PT
And then, a Ray of sunshine from Shero, who stood by his principles even though he’s losing for a long time a player that his team counts on.
"The suspension is warranted because that’s exactly the kind of hit we’re trying to get out of the game," Shero said. "Head shots have no place in hockey. We’ve told Matt in no uncertain terms that this kind of action on the ice is unacceptable and cannot happen. Head shots must be dealt with severely, and the Pittsburgh Penguins support the NHL in sending this very strong message."
For now though, a skill player such as Detroit’s Henrik Zetterberg will still keep his head on a swivel when Cooke’s anywhere in the building.
"Honestly," began Zetterberg, whose Red Wings lost 5-4 at home in a shootout to Pittsburgh Monday night. "He keeps doing stuff over and over. I think the suspensions he gets doesn't really bother him. He keeps going out and doing that stuff."
The topic, at the morning skate at Joe Louis Arena and spoken to long before the suspension was handed out Monday afternoon, was the same topic that dominated every NHL dressing room on Monday morning:
How many games would Cooke get for his latest violation, a cheap, dirty elbow on New York Ranger Ryan McDonagh?
"You have to give him a suspension that will hurt him," said Zetterberg, the kind of skilled player who must cringe at how a mook like Cooke plays the game. "You can't just go four-to-five games. It clearly doesn't work. You have to set a standard here, especially with what we've been going through this year."
Across the way in the Penguins dressing room, the comments were not near as pointed. Cooke’s teammates have done this dance enough times, with a repeat offender teammate, a GM in Shero who favours automatic penalties for contact with the head, and a faux-pacifist owner, Mario Lemieux.
It’s a tough spot for a teammate/employee to be in.
"What puts us in a tough spot is when he misses games," winger Craig Adams said of Cooke, a good penalty killer who has 12 goals, 30 points, and a plus-14 rating this season. "He’s a great player, and people don’t realize how good of a player he is. If you don’t watch him play every night you don’t know. We know."
They’ll do without Cooke until late in April. Or perhaps for the entirety of their season, if the Penguins — without Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and now Cooke — don’t manage to win a round this spring.
But the practice passed with no teammate speaking out against the way Cooke plays the game, as Bill Guerin did one year ago when Cooke laid out Boston’s Marc Savard with a vicious and vile hit.
Guerin had the stones to say what more players should be saying, when he noted, "You got to pay a price for that."
"When I spoke out last year, it wasn’t against Matt Cooke as a person. It’s against these hits," Guerin, now retired, told Sportsnet Monday. "I was always the first guy to stick up for my teammates, but I think we’re at a day and age now when our league is dealing with what a lot of people think is an epidemic. It goes beyond (being a teammate).
"You’re not saying the guy’s a bad teammate or a bad person. You’re saying it is a bad hit. That’s it. There’s nothing more to it than that," he said. "No one can possibly look at some of these hits going on today, and say it’s a good hit."
Thankfully, nobody did.
