Headshots and Starfuckers

Could be a pretty good album title.

This of course has to do with the Matt Cooke hit everyone is bitching about. I'll try to keep this as short and sweet as possible. Here's my thesis statement, dumbass:

The Matt Cooke hit will be good for the league.

OMG u r so bias!

1. People who talk like that have no rights as human beings, in my opinion.

2. Let me finish.

The Matt Cooke hit, like the Mike Richards hit before it, was a brutal, dirty hit. Why was it dirty? Because it gave a guy a friggin concussion. Sure, Savard was playing with his head down. Sure, Cooke tucked in his elbow so the hit was legal. Sure, he eased up slightly before his shoulder collided with Savard's head. If Savard gets right back up, is it still dirty? YEEEEESSSSSSS.

There's a reason the IIHF gives automatic two-game suspensions for headshots. Because they are, by definition, cheap shots that don't belong in sports. It's not like Cooke decided to show up on highlight reels around the country by lighting someone up. Richards didn't, either. Cooke followed through with the hit because it's a contract year, and he's paid to walk on the thin line between legal and illegal. If you were a contract employee that relied on finding loopholes to get paid, and right before your current contract expired, you found a big one, you'd take advantage of it. If you pretend you wouldn't, die.

So again, why is this good for the league? Because now Colin Campbell has to make a very tough decision. He's already set precedent with allowing this kind of hit to go unpunished, thanks to the starfucking double-standard set by the league offices, in which superstars only get suspended if they draw 2 major penalties for cheapshotting in 3 games. If Crosby hits Savard like that, I guarantee the league isn't even thinking suspension. But seeing as David Booth still can't watch TV without feeling dizzy, and Savard is probably (and should be) done for the season, hopefully the pressure is on to do something about headshots, regardless of who's doing the hitting.

In shortish, this has potential to bring about necessary change in a flawed system. I'm not pleased that it took someone's life being changed permanently to make it happen, but if there's any win in this whole situation, it's that the NHL may have had its hand forced on these matters.

And the Pens better resign Cooke. I don't want him on any other team in the league, much less an Eastern Conference one.

- Matt