This week was a notable one for the city of Boston.
Nomar Garciaparra re-signed with the Red Sox for one day in order to say he retired wearing a Boston uniform. The Celtics got blown out by the Grizzlies at home. Vince Wilfork and Kevin Faulk re-signed with the Patriots.
And all anyone wants to talk about is the Bruins.
It has been almost a week since Matt Cooke's un-penalized, completely "legal" hit on Marc Savard — a hit that led Savard's mother to believe her son was dead as he lay unconscious on the ice but nonetheless, somehow, was deemed legal — and the region is still abuzz.
Reactions, to say the least, have been strong.
At the risk of sounding a bit melodramatic, Colin Campbell's decision not to suspend Cooke for the hit seems like a huge, looming black cloud hanging over the NHL. It's like Pride Rock after Scar took over in The Lion King. Rules are rules, and the fact that Campbell somehow didn't see Cooke's elbow rise and drill Savard's skull means that the hit was legal (at least until next season).
But there are times when rules need to be broken. Like when one player suffers a potentially career-ending injury because of another player's (ahem, a repeat offender's) carelessness. It's not like Savard broke his arm. He broke his head (at least for a few days, till the symptoms clear). You don't mess around with head injuries.
As the illustrious Lyndon Byers said on NESN earlier this week, this is a league where a guy gets two minutes in the box for raising his stick too high, but when one player nearly decapitates another, there's not so much as a whistle. On what planet does that make sense?
This week's edition of Word Around Here brings you a plethora of opinions on the matter — and nobody seems to be on Team Cooke except Campbell, not even his own teammates. In other news, Red Sox Nation becomes reacquainted with some old friends, Glen Davis explains how he was almost cast in an Oscar-winning film and Derek Anderson makes the mistake of saying (or writing) what he’s really thinking.
"Matt Cooke? I don't want him to get thrown out. I want him on the ice on March 18, and I want multiple Bruins to run him all game long and have authority and … again, I think that he needs to get pummeled."
–Former Bruins enforcer Lyndon Byers, on NESN, on his hope that Matt Cooke would not be suspended so that he will have to face the Bruins again on March 18
"To think we have to go back to, 'They hurt one of our best players, so now we're going to go take out Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby by giving them cheap shots in the back of the head,' that's Philadelphia Flyers hockey in the '70s. We're past that. We should be past that, and if we ever revert to that, it's the day I stop watching the damn game. Because that isn't right. It's just not right."
–NESN Bruins analyst Mike Milbury, on WEEI, on why the Bruins should not resort to a payback mentality when they face the Penguins on March 18
"If a guy gets hurt like that with a shot to the head, there's got to be something. Actions happen. Guys don't mean to hurt each other, but they do. You got to pay a price for that."
–Penguins winger Bill Guerin, on ESPN, on teammate Matt Cooke’s blindside hit on Marc Savard
"If I would have been [on the ice], I would have hit him myself. [Cooke] tried to take Marc out. He should be out. That kid shouldn’t be playing. He should be penalized. We all know it shouldn’t be allowed in the game, and we hear this stuff about new rules taking effect next year. That’s bull. Do something now. That guy [Cooke] is laughing at everyone. My son could be out forever. Who knows?"
—Marc Savard’s mother, Rollande Savard, in The Vancouver Sun
"Basketball is my first love, and winning a ring means a lot. Then acting is my second love, so hopefully, that will come down the line, and hopefully, I can get a motion picture award. Like tonight, I can play a game and then win an Oscar."
–Glen Davis, on WEEI, on being on the short list to portray Michael Oher in the Oscar-winning movie The Blind Side
"The fans are ruthless and don't deserve a winner. I will never forget getting cheered when I was injured. I know at times I wasn't great. I hope and pray I'm playing when my team comes to town and [we] roll them."
–Former Browns quarterback Derek Anderson, via email to The Willoughby News-Herald, on fans in Cleveland
"People said it was the best rivalry in baseball. No, it's not — not if you don’t let us win once, right? They beat us every year. That was the group that said: 'Let's do it, so what? They're hotter, they're bigger, they're stronger, they're better-looking, they're richer.' But we had that mentality of, you know what? Let's roll. We shaved our heads, we did what we had to do to win and be a team.”
–Former Red Sox first baseman Kevin Millar, in The New York Times, on the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry, and the 2004 Red Sox team that finally came out on top
"This thing tonight was garbage."
–Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, to The Associated Press, on L.A.’s slim 109-107 win over Toronto in which he hit the game-winning jumper with 1.9 second remaining
"Ortiz, asked if Nomar ranked with Jeter and A-Rod when he was in his prime. '[Expletive] yeah!'"
–Red Sox writer Ian Browne, via Twitter
"Viva Cuba!"
–Red Sox outfielder Mike Cameron, to rookie shortstop Jose Iglesias, after Iglesias hit a home run in a spring training game
"Somebody asked me after a bad start that Vic caught me and I said, 'Damn, if you’re blaming him for me pitching like [crap], I'll tell you right now he’s got a pretty good answer for you and that's, 'I've caught two Cy Youngs in two years.' Maybe it's the Indian [and] not the arrow."
–Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett, on WEEI.com, on conspiracies that he pitches poorly with Victor Martinez behind the plate instead of Jason Varitek
"My options. Considering that Brad wrecks me with no regard for anyones safety or hard work, should I: A-Keep letting him wreck me? B-Confront him after the race? C-Wait til bristol and collect other cars? or D-Take care of it now?”
–Roush Fenway driver Carl Edwards, on Facebook, on intentionally wrecking Brad Keselowski at Atlanta
