Quote:
Originally Posted by Gertner
The Vancouver Canucks version of Cooke was really good. Finished his checks cleanly, penalty killed, scored some goals. There's a reason why he's getting paid what he does. The Pens organization seems to criticize everything else in the NHL but just throws Cooke back out there without consequence. Maybe the team needs to be more strict with Cooke because he was rarely an issue in Vancouver.
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Bingo.
You hit the nail on the head. When Cooke was a Canuck, he was nicknamed "Cookie" He was an Esa Tikkanen/Claude Lemieux type player. He was well liked by the fans (although there are conflicting ideas on how much he was liked in the dressing room, due to his unwillingness to drop the glove after he started shit) He got in the face of the opposition, and was fun to watch. I don't remember any dirty or cheap plays out of him.
Then Alexandre Burrows came along and made Matt Cooke completely redundant. When Burrows first started, he was a 3rd line agitator...much like Cooke is...but also much better. So Cooke was shipped off.
For what it's worth...Cooke is still active in the Vancouver area. He runs some sort of foundation...I don't remember the details, all I remember is that he's more than just a hockey player...
He's gone downhill since. He didn't play long enough for the Caps to place any blame on them. He didn't turn into a douche bag until he joined the Pens.
So who's fault is it?
Cooke's fault.
And now he's paying the price...and a well deserved price at that.