Matt Cooke threw and elbow to the head of the Rangers Ryan McDonagh. He deserved a suspension for the hit. He deserved it because:
1) It was a dirty hit
2) Cooke is a repeat offender

He also knew it was coming because:
1) He knew Mario pissed off Gary Bettman by calling the NHL on the carpet over head shots
2) The league had just wrapped up its winter meetings where head shots were a hot topic

But the suspension he got was silly. It was, at the time because the Penguins were not a lock for the playoffs, a minimum of 10 games (if they had missed the playoffs) and a maximum of 17 games (if they played a seven game opening round having made the playoffs). Now the suspension, with the Penguins having made the playoffs is a minimum of 14 games.

It was a silly suspension because, I bring this up again, Gillies of the Islanders … sorry I mean the New York Goons … chased down a man across the ice, knocked him down and then continued to beat on him while he was on the ice and got just 9 games. Then Gillies came back from suspension and in his first game back threw a blatant elbow and promptly got a 10 game suspension. At least Cooke waited a few games between coming off his last suspension and his latest infraction for crying out loud!

There was little doubt at the time of the Cooke suspension that the league was sending Mario a message to sit down, shut up, and stop making them look so bad. There is even less doubt now.

Last night, repeat offender, and Red Wings thumper, Todd Bertuzzi proved that. You might remember Mr. Bertuzzi. He is the schlub that punched Steve Moore from behind on March 8th, 2004. Moore suffered a concussion, facial lacerations and several broken vertebrae. That incident got Bertuzzi suspended indefinitely by the league and he wound up missing 20 games (13 regular season and 7 in the playoffs).

Bertuzzi has not seriously cleaned up his act since. He regularly finds any excuse he can to hit players late. In 2003-04 he amassed 122 PIMs in just 69 games. In 2005-06 he massed 120 PIMs in 82 games. In 2006-2007 he netted only 13 PIMs but also only played in 15 games. In 2007-08 Bertuzi had 97 PIMs in just 68 games. In 2008-2009 he got sent to the sin bin for 74 minutes in just 66 games. Last year he had a respectable year of just 80 minutes in 82 games. This year the aging winger has been able to get just 61 penalty minutes. This however is due mostly to the fact that he can no longer chase down players the way he used to. Make no mistake he would love to! But he just cannot.

And he was up to his old tricks again last night as he found an excuse to throw a purposeful elbow into the head of Ryan Johnson. Of course Red Wings fans, who as we here in the ‘Burgh have learned are some of the most ignorant and ill-educated hockey fans, around are defending the hit calling it unintentional. I have read numerous praises for Bertuzzi as being a “gentleman” for immediately seeking out Johnson and apologizing for the hit that got him a 5 minute major as well as ejected from the game. Coming from a Detroit fan ok, I can see why a thug who apologizes would be a “gentleman” in their eyes considering most of the thugs on Detroit’s streets have no such courtesy. I mean, could you imagine? It would be laughable to see a gangsta thug rob a woman at gun point and then tell her how sorry he was!

I have even seen comments from Johnson claiming that he does not think the hit was intentional. Ok, so because Johnson is too stupid to know what Bertuzzi was trying to do to him that makes it ok?

The video says it all and here it is. My commentary follows:

You can clearly see at around 0:39 of this clip (during the replay) that Bertuzzi sees that Johnson’s head is down as he tries to clear the puck. Bertuzzi lifts his elbow, rides it up Johnson’s arm and straight into his head. His right elbow is more than halfway up and Bertuzzi, seeing that he was going to miss Johnson, threw that elbow out there on purpose. There is no doubt about this. That is except to the NHL brass, Red Wings fans and other assorted people who know little to nothing about hockey.

Today the league announced Bertuzzi’s punishment. That punishment? Zero games suspension. Oh yeah, the NHL is really serious about hits to the head and cracking down on repeat offenders. Nope. What the league is really about is making sure Mario knows his place. Bettman cannot stand that Lemieux knows more about what’s up that he does and he certainly cannot stand that Lemieux gets more respect than him. I mean honestly, if you walk into a room and on one end is Mario and the other is Bugsy Bettman, who do you think is going to have the bigger crowd. I mean of legitimate hockey fans, not brown-nosing yes men. Of course it is going to be Mario.

So Bettman acts like a thug to get even. He slaps Cooke hard, lets Gillies off with a relatively comparable love tap and lets Todd Bertuzzi get off scott free.

The joke that is the NHL just keeps running.

The Philadelphia Flyers are living up to expectations of many, myself included, that paid attention to how they built their team for this season. A floundering team that has lost a coach, the Flyers are in disarray without leadership and lacking too much in the talent department and are obviously living in denial. This isn’t the 1970’s and the whole Broad Street Bullies act doesn’t cut it today’s NHL.

Last night at the Igloo, the Flyers played a brand of amateurish hockey the likes of which has not been seen since the movie Slap Shot. After falling behind 1-0 on a Sidney Crosby (dare I say it?) power play goal, his 21st goal of the season, at just 3:30 of the first it was time for the goons to come out of their shells. First Arron Asham got a beat down from Mike Rupp. While both were still warming their seats in the sin bin, six seconds late off the ensuing face off Riley Cote tangled with Eric Goddard and could not do anything decisive in the scrap. Then, ten seconds after that Carcillo and Adams went for a dance. At the end of it all, and with the Flyers having successfully taken the Penguins entire fourth line to the penalty box, all the Flyers had to show for this childish display was nothing.

The penalty boxes overflowing, Bill Guerin (8) scored to put the Penguins up 2-0. The shot from Sidney Crosby squirted through Boucher’s pads and was laying behind him in the crease and Guerin just scooped it up and placed it into the cage with the blade of his stick.

The only sign of life that the Flyers exhibited was a goal midway through the first by Carcillo on the power play. The nail in the coffin however was delivered by Jordan Staal (9) who scored short handed three minutes later.

Staal added his second goal of the night (10th of the season) with 15 seconds left in the second beating Boucher with a wrist shot.

Ruslan Fedotenko (6) got out a shovel and finished burying Philadelphia with a third period goal at 12:17 and Evgeni Maklin (10) laid the wreath at 18:39 with a short handed goal.

Marc-Andre Fleury earned the win despite appearing shaky at several key moments during last night’s game and not having played in nearly a week. He ended the night stopping 26 of 27 shots and made some big saves as the Penguins improved to 23-10-1 (47 pts) and back into first place in the Atlantic ahead of New Jersey although the Devils have three games in hand.

Philadelphia fell to 15-16-1 and will host the Penguins Thursday night before the Penguins head off to Buffalo and then return home to host New Jersey.

Notes:

Scott Hartnell didn’t bit anyone during last night’s game.

The Penguins are 4-1-1 so far in December.

Despite their attempts to be tough guys, the Flyers at best netted only a draw in three fights last night while clearly loosing two of them. Oh and they got their rears kicked when they actually tried to play hockey too.

Judging by the way they are playing, the Flyers are trying to see if they can get a second coach fired before 2009 comes to a close.