Finally, somebody gave Matt Cooke what he had coming. In case you haven’t heard of Cooke, he’s one of, if not the most, notoriously dirty players in the NHL. To make matters worse, he’s got the reputation of a guy who will do everything he can to avoid dropping the gloves and squaring off face-to-face with someone. His most recent cheap shot victim, Bruins’ forward Marc Savard, is still experiencing headaches from the concussion Cooke gave him last month on a dirty hit. On Saturday night, karma caught up to Cooke in the form of Thrashers center Evander Kane. Here’s a video of the Evander Kane/Matt Cooke fight:
The irony of this whole situation is that we just learned the exact reason why Cooke doesn’t fight. I’ve seen plenty of hockey fights that end with a clear-cut winner, but I can’t remember the last time I saw someone get knocked out cold from one punch. The best part is Kane’s only 18-years-old and Cooke clearly went after him, instigating the fight, only to get laid out. Seems like every time the stretcher comes out on the ice in a Penguins game Cooke’s on the embarrassing end of things. You never want to see it, but at least for a change he was the player lying on his back when it happened. I don’t know how many fans Kane had before but he definitely has a ton more now.
