Matt Cooke - The story most people don't know

[bondon]

http://triblive.com/x/pittsburghtrib...#axzz2LdulYPfc

"We finally had a chance to take a deep breath," he said. "Michelle was finally going back to a game and ..." He paused to reflect on the McDonagh hit. "Here I am trying to be strong enough to help her through this, and now I needed her support."
Cooke said he has reviewed 20 hours of hits — his own and those by others such as Rangers forward Ryan Callahan — so he could learn how to deliver a legal check.
Cooke said his new approach to hitting would have changed the way he approached McDonagh. He could have gone after the puck — McDonagh was in the process of dumping the puck from the neutral zone into the offensive zone — with his stick blade. Cooke said if he "had to hit (McDonagh), I'd hit his hands with my body.

I'm sure it won't change a lot of people's opinions on him, nor will it bring Marc Savard's career back or reverse the brain damage he's done to numerous people...but an interesting read nonetheless.

[Axeman33]

Thanks for sharing. I am not a Cooke fan or a Cooke hater but this certainly puts things in perspective. Great read.

[ross10019]

http://triblive.com/x/pittsburghtrib...#axzz2LdulYPfc




I'm sure it won't change a lot of people's opinions on him, nor will it bring Marc Savard's career back or reverse the brain damage he's done to numerous people...but an interesting read nonetheless.

No, it won't change people's opinion of him. Especially when you read the following excerpt:


"Cooke even sent an apologetic text to McDonagh.

"Matt was still upset for a couple of days after that hit," Michelle said. "That was the difference I noticed. This (hit) bothered him."

She said her health scare and the brief change in his in-season dynamic with the kids provided her husband "perspective."

That perspective, Cooke said, is the reason to believe he is a changed man, that he can play hockey the right way."


So, in other words, the hit he delivered on McDonagh "bothered him", but the hit he delivered on Savard that effectively ended his career did not bother him. That speaks volumes.

[Loch]

Wait, Cooke is 34 and has an 18yr old daughter?

... and he is only just now learning that his actions can have lasting consequences?

[Dakkster]

Wait, Cooke is 34 and has an 18yr old daughter?

... and he is only just now learning that his actions can have lasting consequences?

Bam!

Some people need time, Loch

[One87]

I'm not going to justify Cooke's wrongs. However, if there's one thing I've learned in life and continue to experience, is that we all learn at a different pace. No matter how ignorant someone may appear to be, you can't expect them to see things your way. That,in and of itself, is just as much an egregious error as any other form of ignorance.

[Pengwin7]

I try not to comment much on Cooke.

I did have an accounting class with him in high school in Windsor.
(He & Rob Shearer were in that class. Funny to watch junior stars try to get through the class... can't believe they actually signed up for it.)

I've played with the Cooke-types before. A rugged game-style gets engrained into you. It becomes like sneezing & coughing.
People can get seriously annoyed by "how you do it" and not stop to think that you don't really intend to be so menacing.

I've watched the Karlsson highlight several times.
I know from playing enough hockey that it could be both accident or intentional.
We'll never know.

I think it's fair to suggest two things:
*Cooke has made a better effort to not play so recklessly
*Cooke's playing style WILL still find ways to injury people... it's just too far set into his hockey-system to change. He can try to change, but it's there.


Good article though.
I grew up playing a bit of all five sports off-and-on... and truly believe that hockey players are the most ethical/nicest/coolest of the bunch.
Hockey is the only sport I still play currently.