Last week, I criticized the head of the NHL’s Department of Player Safety Brendan Shanahan, for what I felt like not enough of a punishment that he issued to Washington Capitals winger John Erskine for his hit that concussed Philadelphia Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds. This week, however, I applaud Shanahan for the stance that he took regarding an incident that occurred in a game last week that has many people talking.
On Wednesday, Feb. 13, the Pittsburgh Penguins played host to the Ottawa Senators. During the game, Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson was looking to play a puck near the boards when he was met by the Penguins’ Matt Cooke. Cooke went to back check Karlsson into the boards, and when he did his skate came up, hitting Karlsson’s left leg. Karlsson went down in agony and needed to be helped off of the ice. He was later diagnosed with a lacerated Achilles tendon that would require surgery that would put him out for the rest of the season. Cooke apologized to Karlsson after the game, saying that it was just an unfortunate accident.
This is a big blow for an Ottawa Senators team that already had a few injuries they were dealing with, like Jason Spezza is and Jared Cowen is. But an injury to Karlsson could cripple the Senators’ chance of making the playoffs; aside from being one of the best young defenseman in the game, he is also one of the most dangerous offensive defenseman and the reigning Norris Trophy winner and was on pace to win it once again. Now, obviously, with this injury he will not be able to retain his title and will be on a long road to recovery for next year.
Aside from the injury being yet another thorn in the Senators’ side, there is also question about whether or not the hit to Karlsson was intentional or not. Many people around the league think that Cooke meant to injure Karlsson and that he should be suspended. However, Shanahan and the Department of Player Safety deemed the hit was not dirty in nature and that Cooke cannot be suspended as a result of it.
One person who was not very happy bout Cooke’s no being punished for the injury was Senators owner Eugene Melnyk; when asked about Cooke, Melnyk called him “a goon,” and that Karlsson injury is “something that never should have happened. [Cooke] should never be playing in this league. It’s a league for elite players.
As much as I agree with Melnyk, because I too do not like the play of Cooke or any other instigators in the league who try to injure other players, I do not think that this injury was intentional. Cooke has been known for his dirty play before, so it is not out of character for him to attempt to injure someone. However, Cooke has seemed to change his game recently, realizing that playing is more important than hitting and successfully dropping his penalty minutes and scoring more goals.
Even if you don’t buy the fact that Cooke is a changed player, when you take a look at the hit it does not seem like he intentionally hurt Karlsson. Cooke came in to hit Karlsson and his skate came up because he was off-balance and in order to right himself he tried to put his skate down. Unfortunately Karlsson’s leg was in the way and the skate came down and sliced his leg, but that’s all this was: unfortunate. I do not think Cooke saw that Karlsson was going for the puck and made it his personal mission to go out and injure him, I think that he was just playing the puck like anyone else would and the injury was just a freak accident.
I also feel that Cooke’s past incidents are leaving him more at fault here. If someone else did this to Karlsson, obviously the Senators would be upset, but they probably wouldn’t be stressing so greatly that it was an intentional injury if it was a player who didn’t have a record like Cooke did. I think that Cooke was genuinely sorry about injuring Karlsson and I think that Shanahan was right in not suspending him.
I wish Karlsson a speedy recovery and hope he is back on the ice just the way he left it. He is a great player, but I cannot say that there was any foul play here.