Matt Cooke is considered one of the dirtiest players currently playing in the NHL. He recently cut Norris trophy winner Erik Karlsson and ended his season in 2013. Was this hit intention?
Matt Cooke denies it but he has to if he wants to avoid any suspensions which of course would cost him a lot of money. If you watch the reply of the video his leg comes up high on Karlsson's leg and drivers forward. There is no reason for this forward thursting motion unless you wanted to drive your skate blade in that direction. If this was just an accidental play it would happen more often but it doesn't. Just look at the balance of Matt Cooke and you can clearly see that he has to exert a lot of energy to get his leg in that position and also to thrust it forward. You can see at the end he kicks downward which isn't used to balance himself at all, he has his weight on his right skate and his center of gravity is near his right leg. At any point his body doesn't move forward.
So how could Brendan Shanahan not catch this? If this was any player other than Matt Cooke then it is probably a hockey play and an accident. Matt Cooke has played his entire NHL career going after players. All you have to do is watch all of his videos and it is a surprise that this player is still in the league.
Matt Cooke deserves to be suspended for his play on Karlsson. Just see what all the hockey news networks have to say about this and if this wasn't Matt Cooke then the story is about the accident. Since it does feature Matt Cooke, hockey analysts are going to ask, did Matt Cooke intentionally do this?
The video speaks for itself. Cooke gets his skate up yet he is fully balance on his right skate, he quickly slams his skate into Karlsson's leg. This is a careless play and he probably wanted to hurt Karlsson but didn't mean to hurt him so bad as to end his season. Watch Cooke speak about the play and his body language looks to be a mixture of guilty with a hint of embarrassment. Dear NHL if you want fans to come back to the game, get rid of losers like Matt Cooke. He isn't a good hockey player and he has spent his career injuring others and talented players that fans actually want to do. Good luck finding any good videos of Cooke doing any hits or scoring nice goals. Search for Matt Cooke into google or youtube and look at the suggestions that come up: dirty player, 10 dirty NHL players, Matt Cooke elbow and now we can add skate laceration. Heck look at his history of cheap shot videos, there is one of him kicking his skate towards a goalie's head.
