Cooke responds to Melnyk accusations
A day after Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk called Matt Cooke “a goon” who should be booted from the NHL, the Pittsburgh Penguins winger continued to strike a conciliatory tone.
A day after Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk called Matt Cooke “a goon” who should be booted from the NHL, the Pittsburgh Penguins winger continued to strike a conciliatory tone.
As Cooke was running Senators defenceman Erik Karlsson into the boards during Wednesday night’s game in Pittsburgh, his skate came down on the back of the defending Norris Trophy defenceman’s leg and cut his Achilles tendon.
Melnyk was livid after learning his star player would be out for the season and lashed out at Cooke Thursday, suggesting in an interview that a player who has been suspended five times for questionable incidents has no place in the game.
Cooke, who apologized after the game and said he didn’t mean any harm, was asked about Melnyk’s comments as the Penguins prepared to face the Winnipeg Jets Friday.
“Obviously I’m sorry Mr. Melnyk feels that way and I understand the position he’s in and it’s not easy,” he told TSN. “I think this is different than it was in the past for me, I know where my head is and how I feel about the play and that’s most important.
“I’m not one to judge whether it is unfair or not. I mean, people are entitled to their own opinions and they’ll have their own regardless of what I do.”
Cooke added that he’d tried to reach out to Karlsson via text message, but hadn’t received a response.
“Whether or not (Karlsson) responds to me, I mean I understand. At the end of the day, it was a freak, unfortunate accident and I can’t control anything else other than that,” he was quoted as saying.
The Senators organization has been upset top to bottom since the incident, but both Melnyk and general manager Bryan Murray insisted they weren’t upset that the NHL didn’t dish out any supplementary discipline.
Both suggested Cooke’s history of injuring opponents — including ending Bruins centre Marc Savard’s career with a hit to the head in 2010 — was reason enough to doubt the Karlsson incident was an accident.
You have to be delusional to believe that Cooke did that on purpose. Hockey is a rough and violent game and things happen. Believe me as a Penguin fan and even more as a hockey fan I hate to see great hockey players getting hurt, it detracts from the game. We spent nearly a year without one of the best players in the world because of injury. If I believed Cooke had done that on purpose, I would be the first one to call for a suspension Pens fan or not. It was an unfortunate accident. This has been a tough year for the Sens, I have been a huge Spezza fan since I saw him dominate the ice in Binghamton. Please let your owner know that just because he has money doesn’t mean he can categorically condemn a person for an accident. I have always respected the Ottawa fans for their knowledge of hockey and respect for the game. Eugene Melnyk not so much. Good luck the rest of the way.
When the so called “accident” first happened, I too was livid. Especially because it was Cooke who was involved. His rap sheet caused pretty much every SENS fan to have doubt in the accident thing. Whether or not he did it intentionally or not, Cooke should have been given the boot a long time ago. Statistics say that he has really cut down on his aggressive nature & if that is true, then that is commendable. I certainly know what it is like to change some things in life that were creating big problems for me & anyone around me, & it doesn’t happen over night. I am just having a hard time with seeing him laughing with a line mate moments after he put Karlsson out for the season. How does anyone who feels genuine sadness for having done this, laugh moments later? All he did was send a text message? He should have gone to the hospital after the game in person. That would have definitely shown signs of bad feelings for what had happened. In the final analysis, the SENS backs are against the wall now & any wins achieved are going to happen through drive, determination & plain hard work. I have seen them play in the thick of adversity before, & I must say that it is really quite spectacular. I will always love my SENS & believe that anything can happen for them if they want it to.
JMO…GO SENS GO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is unbelievable to me that the Senators organization would react like this to an accident that happened in a very physical game with players getting injured every day. No matter who did it, it shows a complete lack of class for an organization to make such comments over a player getting injured in what was obviously an accident. Yes, Karlsson is a decent defenseman, but he is just one part of their team. From their reaction you would think the entire team died in some horrible accident. The Penguins lost Sidney Crosby for the better part of two seasons after a questionable hit by Steckel, however you did not hear the outrage from the team that you do over Karlsson. This shows no class on the Senators part. It is tough when things like this happen, but it is part of the game. What exactly would Matt Cooke have to gain from taking Karlsson out for the season? It is not like the Senators were a legimate threat for winning the Stanley Cup. The Pens do not even see the Senators that often and to fans in Pittsburgh they are not a team anybody really cares about. What would his motive be? I know, its to end his NHL career by taking out some little punk for a couple months. Karlsson still has a long way to go before he is a great defenceman. Namely, he needs to learn how to play defence. How would they feel if Chris Neil ended somebody’s season in a similar manner. His reputation isn’t exactly stellar either. Does this mean that based solely on his reputation, no matter what he does, it was on purpose with intent to injure? Oh, and what was Neil doing at the end of that game? Was it intent to injure? It sure looked like it from here. They need to suck it up, quite crying about it, and concentrate on the rest of the season with what they do have. I feel sorry for the rest of the team there, apparently, based on their reaction, they feel like without Karlsson their season is over. That shows a lot of confidence in the rest of the players. Hopefully the ownership and management of the Senators can grow up and move on.