Matt Cooke is such a pansy faggot I find it amazing he doesn't play for the Red Wings.

Are shoulders to the head illegal yet?  I didn't think so. 

All he does is line up and skate through.  It didn't look like he extended his elbow or anything.  Brutal hit.

But what is the intent when you hit a guy in the head? I think he had a chance to abandon or considerably lessen the hit when he saw how exposed Savard was going to be, and he didn't. I'm all in favor of harsh punishment when it comes to blows to the head.

He received no suspension.

However, the NHL said they are going to change the rules next year.

If you play for the Sid Crosby All-Stars, yes.

If you play for some nondescript team in flyover country who doesn't even have a player worthy of appearing in those NHL commercials, you get five games.

Hockey is getting so pvssified.  A player need not debate the ethics of hitting a guy with his head down before laying the wood.  That hit isn't illegal (for now).  What happened to the calls of "he should keep his head up and expect to get hit there?"  Matt Cooke is an asshole.  That much is a given.  The deterrent to this sort of stuff used to be a big gorilla coming off the bench next time cooke was on the ice and making blood spurt from his nose and ears.  If the beating was bad enough to where the guy's career was ended and the player was good enough and well-liked the league would eventually name a trophy after him.

That was my exact reaction when I first saw the highlight.  You can't wander the high slot firing pucks indiscriminately without getting knocked on your ass every so often.  Like it or not, injurious result or not...what Cooke did was within the rules as they're currently written (or at least within my interpretation of the rules).

* Wasn't elbowing...his elbow was tucked in.
* Wasn't charging...he didn't take several purposeful strides toward Savard & thru the hit.
* Wasn't roughing...it could be argued as roughing, but that's generally called when hands get up into faces.
* Wasn't interference...the hit was virtually simultaneous with Savard's shot.
* Wasn't boarding...as Savard was nowhere near the boards.

Same damn thing could've happened to Sharp when Weaver demolished him in open ice earlier this year...except that Weaver is Lilliputian and Sharp has decent size. 

Watching the Hawks feed made me rage.  Any way, I agree totally. If this was a body check I wouldn't have a problem with it. The puck was on goal when the hit occurred, not even close to simultaneous, but I could buy the "committed to the check" argument if there had been a body check like Weaver's. Cooke just did a drive-by headshot.  Dirty, dirty hit.

every coach in the NHL should have their equivalent of King Pound this fucker's face in once or twice a game.  That should be the rule: you decide to be a pussy and go headhunting, then every goon in the game punchifies your face for the rest of the season.

Point conceded on the "simultaneous" claim.  I re-watched the whole video that included the slo-mo replays, and it wasn't as close as I originally thought. 

We need to flip some race cars!

Repeal 56a and let the gorilla come off the bench to "handle" these situations.  Legal or illegal the price will be immediate retribution, and your coach can't protect you by keeping your line off the ice when the other teams bruiser is out there.

I don't like the wording of the new rules. At this rate, guys are going to just put their heads down while running through the center because, while in that position you can't be touched. It'll be a "Blindside" and impossible not to hit the head.

LOL, the exact same thought went through my head. People get all excited about the "cycling" that goes on now, and all it is is guys skating back and forth passing the puck to each other with their back to the ice so they can't be hit. 98% of the time it results in nothing but running time off the clock in a very boring fashion, but the announcers get all excited about the "great sustained pressure" in the opponents zone.