The NHL's league disciplinarian Colin Campbell ruled that Penguins forward Matt Cooke will not be suspended for his open-ice hit to the head of Marc Savard during Sunday afternoon's game that left Savard with a Grade-2 concussion.
"No one likes when a player like Marc Savard goes down the way he did. No one likes when a player like David Booth goes down the way he did. But we have to be consistent. I know Matt Cooke is a repeat offender, he's been suspended twice in the last year. I can't suspend Matt Cooke for being a repeat offender, I have to find a reason. Right now our rules say that shoulders to head are legal. Matt Cooke did not jump, and did not do anything that we found illegal in his actions even though again you don't like what happened. I know it's not something that Boston fans, or hockey fans would like to hear. They want justice. We feel we have to be consistent and do what we feel is right and hopefully we've gone to a place in our meetings today that we can eradicate plays like this in the future."
- NHL Sr. VP of Hockey Operations, Colin Campbell
I saw a little more elbow on that play than Mr. Campbell did, but I can not say that I am shocked by the ruling. You never really know what is going to come up on Campbell's "Wheel of Injustice".
So much for Claude Julien's strategy of letting the league handle the situation. So now you have one of the top team's in the Eastern Conference coming to Boston next week knowing that these Bruins are a docile bunch that can just be pushed around as they wake up from their winter hibernation.