On the Cooke cheap shot

I neglected to mention Matt Cooke's hit on Fedor Tyutin in last night's game recap.  Apparently I was the only person in North America to do so.  Never one to shy away from the big topics, however, I'll dive in (belatedly) and offer my $.02.

First, why didn't I mention it?  Two things:

1. I was distracted at the time - taking care of the Dark Blue Toddler - and did not see Cooke leave his feet.  If I had seen it, I probably would have boiled over as well.
2. More pertinent to my thinking, however, is that Tyutin got back up.  Tyutin not only got up but kept playing, finishing both the shift and the game.  That suggested to me that the hit wasn't THAT bad. Strapping Young Russian Bear, he is.

I know my logic is a tad twisted and seemingly rewards the drama queens among the NHL elite, but that's how I looked at it at the moment.  Honestly, I was more concerned that Derick Brassard was going to pop his shoulder out again in the post-hit scrum between Brassard and Cooke.  The perils of distracted hockey viewing...

As for the hit itself, I think the photo above says it all. Cooke launched himself off the ice and into Tyutin's numbers.  You don't do that.  You especially don't do that when you have The Taint as an NHL cheap-shotter.  

So Cooke got a four-game suspension for the hit.  Good.  Let's hope the next hit gets him a longer suspension, and the next hit gets an even longer one.  Because we know he's going to keep doing it.  That's what cheap shot artists do.  

The bigger questions that I have are: 

• Why does the NHL permit this behavior at all?  Do they not care about the players?  
• Why is the NHLPA not screaming bloody murder about the lack of meaningful officiating to protect players from potentially life-altering injuries?
• How many such cheap shots will it take to force the hockey powers that be to make the meaningful changes necessary to make players safe from such actions?

But those are questions that I can't answer.  In the end, I'm just happy that Tyutin is OK.