Penguins' Cooke suspended 2 games for hit on Rangers' Anisimov
Photo credit: AP | File - New York Rangers' Artem Anisimov (42), of Russia, fights for the puck with Washington Capitals' Nicklas Backstrom (19), of Sweden, during the second period of an NHL hockey game. (Nov. 17, 2009)
Matt Cooke won't be available for any sort of retribution Monday night when Pittsburgh comes to town to face the Rangers. The NHL on Sunday suspended the Penguins' Cooke for two games for his forearm to Artem Anisimov's face in the Pens' 8-3 win in Pittsburgh on Saturday.
If John Tortorella had his way, Cooke would have gotten the right sort of hockey justice after his needless hit in open ice 7:50 into the third period. Cooke somehow got only an interference minor despite delivering a head shot, one of the checks that the league's general managers and NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell have been trying to make sense of this season.
Donald Brashear tried to get at Cooke, but the linesmen prevented anything drastic from happening. Ryan Callahan fought Cooke later in the third, so it seemed as if Cooke preferred the 5-9 Callahan to the 6-4 Brashear. Tortorella said that removing the instigator penalty in certain situations would alleviate some of the brash checking that goes on.
On Wednesday in Sunrise, Fla., Wade Redden was injured by a hard, legal check from Panthers rookie Victor Oreskovich. Oreskovich leveled Vinny Prospal in the third and Matt Gilroy started a fight, getting 17 penalty minutes for doing so, putting the Rangers further down in manpower.
"To me, it's pretty simple: Change the rulebook," Tortorella said after Saturday's game; the Rangers were off Sunday after their 1-2-0 road trip. "Some of these guys that go about doing that have no fear at all, as far as maybe a little retribution, so then it's going to continue.''
Tortorella added: "This is where our game is screwed up, as far as I'm concerned. There's no respect, no respect in those situations, and I think the rulebook has a little bit to do with that."
This was the second time in three weeks that the Rangers were on the receiving end of a blindside head shot, the first coming when the Flames' Curtis Glencross hit Chris Drury in Calgary on Nov. 7. Drury missed two weeks with a concussion and Glencross got a three-game ban.
Anisimov stayed on the bench after the hit, though he didn't take a shift. He said after the game he was fine, with only a welt on his cheekbone and apparently no other head injury.
