Cooke-Monster?

Given all of the demonizing of Matt Cooke over the past season, I thought it would be a good time to do a little piece on Public Enemy Number One. Matthew David Cooke was born on 9/17/78 in Belleville, Ontario. He is a 5'11" 205 lb left wing for your Pittsburgh Penguins, and he is a left handed shot. He was drafted in the 6th round, 144th overall in the 1997 NHL entry draft by the Vancouver Canucks. Prior to being drafted, Cooke played 3 years in the OHL mostly for the Windsor Spitifires, and attracted attention in his second OHL campaign with a 95 point (10th in the league) and 146 PIM performance. Cooke split time in both of his first two NHL seasons with the Canucks and their AHL affiliate the Syracuse Crunch. He made the team full time for the 2000-2001 season. In the 2002-03 season playing on a checking line Cooke posted a career high 42 points and earned the Fred J. Hume award as the team's Unsung Hero. Cooke was actually part of the top line for the Canucks for the final 13 games and playoffs during the 2003-04 season due to the suspension of Todd Bertuzzi for the infamous Steve Moore hit. He joined Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison on the first line. Cooke showed his penchant for contributing big goals in that post season. During the seventh and deciding game of the playoff series with the Calgary Flames, Matt Cooke scored one of the biggest goals in Vancouver history by netting the game tying goal in GAME 7 of the series with ONLY 5 SECONDS left to play. It was his second goal of that game 7. Ultimately, the Flames won the game and series with an OT marker, but that did not diminish the contributions of Matt Cooke in a first line role.

Cooke was traded to the Washington Capitals at the trade deadline of the 2007-08 season due to his impending free agency in return for Matt Pettinger after 9 seasons and 566 games with the Vancouver organization. He is 12th on the all time list of games played for the Canucks.

On July 5, 2008 Cooke signed a 2 year 2.4M contract with the Penguins, essentially replacing the role held by Jarkko Ruutu, who left for Ottawa via free agency. After a slow start, Cooke fit in nicely with the Pens, delivering physical play, great forechecking and penalty kill, plus an occasional big goal. His grit and commitment to the Bylsma system was a significant part of the Penguins 2009 Stanley Cup run. In 2010 Cooke again played a prominent role, delivering 15 goals in the regular season, and 4 more in the abbreviated post season, including 2 goals in the decisive game 6, series clinching win against Ottawa. Despite the feelings of the rest of the league, Cookie had found a prominent role and home on this Pittsburgh team, so much so that Ray Shero broke his standard pattern and signed a 32 year old  player to a 3 year deal, something he is loathe to do. Cooke's deal was worth 5.4M over that span or 1.8M per year.

Why would the Penguins want to retain the services of a player with the baggage that comes with a guy as hated by those outside of Pittsburgh as Cooke is? First off, I have stated that I do not believe that Matt Cooke plays any more on the edge than about 15 other guys who have similar roles in the league. But given the general perception of Cooke as a villain, why bother with this guy? Well, there are several reasons. First Cooke is a guy who can play a versatile role on any team. He has played on every line from the first to the fourth, though he seems most at home on a blue collar third line. He is intelligent, he can skate, he is one of the top penalty killing forwards in the league, he is a tenacious forechecker, he will be among league leaders in hits every season, and he is a good teammate in the locker room. He is an agitator who gets under the skin of the opposition without fail. He will get you 12-15 goals and 30+ points per year without time on the power play. Not sure how good he is on the PK? Since he left the ice against the Rangers, the Penguins league leading penalty killing unit gave up 4 power play goals in less than 4 periods of hockey, and fell to second in the league for the first time in months. Guys like Cooke are invaluable in the playoffs when they play with discipline. Matt Cooke is a talented and valued NHL veteran with 805 regular season NHL games, with 126 goals, and 301 total points to go with his 988 career penalty minutes. He has added 76 playoff games to his resume and chipped in 13 goals and 12 assists in those games, several in the biggest of moments. Prior to his season ending suspension, Cooke had chipped in 12 goals, 18 assists, and 30 points to go along with his stellar leadership on the league leading penalty kill. Despite his status as Public Enemy Number One, Cooke had only been suspended for 10 games in those 881 total NHL games, not exactly a choir boy, but plenty of lesser villainized players had been suspended for MORE games in Less time. This last suspension will be for more time than all of his prior suspensions. His poor decision Saturday was a surprise as he had blossomed into a leader on this team, stepping up in the absence of Crosby, Malkin, and Orpik. He is well liked in the locker room. Off the ice, he and wife Michelle still run the Cooke Foundation of Hope in Vancouver that was inspired by the tragic loss of his niece. This charity helps many people facing personal crises related to health, finance and emotional life changes. Then there is the story about Cooke and the time he has spent motivating a local teenager who who suffered severe injuries in an automobile accident last fall, and is struggling to regain his ability to walk. Cooke reached out to this kid and his family who are big hockey fans, has kept in touch during his long rehab, got the family a suite at an early season game, and got them in the locker room post game. He followed up with Christmas gifts and cards this holiday season. The teen and his family refer to Cooke as an inspiration as they struggle through a difficult time.
Again, I understand that Matt Cooke's game has crossed the line on occasion and he needs to change his game to remain a valued player who earns a great living playing the game he loves. He has crossed over recently from a guy who played hard, and was often on the edge, to a guy who has made several dangerous hits over the past season or so. That said, I think Cooke has the character and mental makeup to make that adjustment to his game, and those who call for his banishment from the league can slow down a bit. I won't belabor my point from earlier posts by getting into much detail about other prominent players with a similar or worse history of suspension and questionable hits, we know who they are. But for those who say it is time to banish Cooke, and that "this leopard cannot change his spots" so remove him from the league before he kills somebody, I offer two prominent current players who have been in that same conversation within the past few years about being a dirty, but who seem to have found a way to modify their games without losing their effectiveness. The first one is Steve Downie of the Tampa Bay Lightning. A couple of years ago, the league was speaking of Downie in similar fashion, as he could not seem to go more than a couple of games without getting involved in questionable plays, and at a young age already had two 20 game suspensions under his belt including one for purposely slashing an official over a goal call Downie disputed. When Downie and Emminger were traded from the Flyers in return for defensmam Matt Carle, one analyst stated that the Flyers got the better of the deal if Carle never did anything for simply being rid of Downie, and having his name associated with their organization. Well, in 2008-09 Downie, though still playing on the edge with 208 penalty minutes, delivered 22 goals and 46 points for the Lightning, and managed to avoid suspension. This season his production is down as are his penalty minutes, but he will deliver a 30 point plus season without significant incident. I am sure the opposition still does not like this guy, and his coaches would not have it any other way, but he seems to have modified his game to an acceptable balance of mayhem and production. An even bigger example of this type of adjustment is still across the state in Philadelphia. I am not sure that there were many players with a worse reputation for dirty play than Chris Pronger if you turn the clock back two years. Pronger has been suspended 8 times for various incidents over the years, and has been been involved in plenty of ugliness as a player. He has been suspended for cross checking a player in the throat. He was suspended for swinging a stick at Jeremy Roenicks head, an offense for which he should have been paid, not penalized. First off there is nothing in Roenick's head, and shutting him up would have been a public service! In 2007 Pronger became only the third player in NHL history to be suspended two different times during one playoff run. He followed that up with an encore performance in 2008 stomping purposely on Ryan Kesler's thigh with his skate blade. Not hard to imagine how tragic that COULD have been. He was the guy I thought of at that time as the dirtiest player in the NHL. He is still a guy who makes his living playing on the edge, and he makes forwards think twice before crossing in front of the net, but for the past two seasons seems to have settled in also with the right balance of mayhem, menace and solid play. Opponents still hate Pronger, but that is part of why he is so good. I have no reason to believe that a guy with the intellect and skills of Matt Cooke cannot adjust his game to the proper level of menace to join these two guys as former "scourge of the earth" players to "just plain nasty" players.   Matt Cooke is an extremely valuable part of the Penguins, and my money is on Cooke making the appropriate adjustments to his game upon his return, as he is a very intelligent and gifted player.  I for one, am tired of hearing the media turn a guy who has been asked for years to fill a role in the NHL playing on the line, into a monster every time he CROSSES it.  Yes, it is time to not cross it, but please people, Cookie plays a role that is filled on virtually every NHL team, without this kind of media insanity.  So I have one thing to say....... GIMME the COOKIES BITCH!