The Pittsburgh Penguins will be without the services of LW Matt Cooke against the New York Rangers this evening (7:30 PM EST) at Madison Square Garden after the National Hockey League announced yesterday that it was suspending Cooke 2 games for his "deliberate" hit to the head-area of Rangers rookie forward Artem Anisimov in Saturday night's 8-3 Pens' win over New York.
I'm slightly surprised by the suspension, but not a great deal, given that the league is attempting to crack down on hits like this. I will take umbrage, however, with those who say that Cooke left his feet in making the hit. Take a look for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXixraReToU
Cooke is in the air, but mostly after the hit, and as a result of it. In making contact, he doesn't elevate himself any more than any other typical hit that occurs throughout the game.
I'm also not certain that the hit was as much to the head as it was to the upper chest area. It looked to me like he was searching for the upper-center mass of Anisimov rather than the head, although I would like to have seen the hit from another angle.
The problem for Cooke on this play, as I see it -- and probably as the league sees it, too -- is the fact that Anisimov is looking the other way. The NHL is really watching defenseless hits, especially to the head (or "head area"), and that's what sealed Cooke's fate the most on this one.
That, and the fact that Cooke is what the league calls a "repeat offender" since he has been suspended previously.
With Cooke out, tonight's rematch against the Rangers may take on a slightly less hostile flavor. At least Brashear and others won't be out to get Cookie on every shift.
While Pittsburgh will be missing #24's services tonight, they are likely to see a return to the lineup of #74 Jay McKee.
McKee has missed about the last 10-12 days with a finger infection, believed to be sustained as a result of blocking a shot at the end of the last game he played.
Interestingly, I heard McKee the other day talking about how his hand swelled up so much as a result of the infection, he had to go to the hospital and have cuts relieve the pressure.
Still, McKee has obviously recovered well enough to get back on the linuep ahead of schedule. Initially, it was thought he'd be out up to 4 weeks. The Pens' will surely welcome his shot blocking and defensive presence back into the lineup.
With Pittsburgh returning D-men Ben Lovejoy and Deryk Engelland to Wilkes Barre after the returns of Kris Letang and Alex Goligoski over the weekend, it looks as if Martin Skoula will take a seat as a healthy scratch again, as he did for the first 6 or so weeks of the season when the Pens' backline corps was healthy.
It's somewhat of a shame to sit Skoula, given how good he's performed. I mean, let's be honest about it. Skoula played well while in the lineup, with 3 goals and 7 points in 18 games, and deserves a lot of credit for his showing out there.
He also was a plus-one during that period -- which inculdes the stretch when the Penguins were slumping becasue of all the regulars they were missing.
Pittsburgh will need everyone tonight, though, because they haven't won on MSG ice since March 1 of 2007.
Henrik Lundqvist, certain to start in goal for the Rangers tonight, is 12-1-1 on home ice against the Pens' in his career.
It certainly won't be an easy task for the Boys of Winter this evening, despite how easy they made things seem on Saturday.
Recap tomorrow.
Let's Go Pens!
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