"Go after their best player!"
"Make the NHL regret not suspending him!"
These have likely been the most popular rallying cries of Bruins fans since Penguins forward Matt Cooke's blindsided hit to the head on star center Marc Savard and the subsequent lack of a suspension of Cooke by the NHL.
Bruins fans want blood when the Pens visit TD Garden on Thursday, whether it's that of Cooke or Sidney Crosby — Pittsburgh's star. If the NHL isn't going to punish anyone, the B's have to take matters into their own hands. An eye for an eye. Seems fair, right?
Wrong. First of all, anyone who wants the Bruins to go after Crosby needs to get his head examined. Crosby has nothing to do with this. He's never served up a cheap-shot to a Bruin. In fact, he actually denounced the hit himself after the game, telling reporters, "At some point, there's got to be a clear indication from the league because we've seen this so many times now."
You may be thinking, "but they took out our best player, so we should go after theirs, right?"
Again, no. Two wrongs don't make a right. Going Crosby hunting would be even worse than what Cooke did. Cooke's hit was certainly dirty and vicious, but it couldn't have been planned for more than a second or two before he delivered it. Taking out Crosby would be premeditated.
B's fans obviously have every right to be furious with Cooke. He knocked out arguably the team's best offensive player for the rest of the season with a Grade 2 concussion. Savard had no chance to defend himself, and Cooke clearly went for his head. The NHL, and specifically head disciplinarian Colin Campbell, screwed up royally by not suspending Cooke, a player who already had an extensive history of questionable hits.
The fact that he wasn't doesn't make it OK to cold clock him come Thursday night, though. There's no place in the NHL for dirty hits, period. One going unpunished doesn't make it acceptable to respond with another.
Take for instance Todd Bertuzzi jumping Steve Moore from behind. A disgusting act that resulted in three broken vertebrae and the end of Moore's career.
This incident had a buildup eerily similar to the current situation with Cooke. Earlier that season, Moore landed a brutal hit to the head of Markus Naslund that resulted in a concussion for the Canucks captain but no disciplinary action from the NHL. When Vancouver and Colorado played a month later, Bertuzzi went overboard.
Goonery was funny in Slap Shot. The Hanson Brothers clotheslining someone at center ice or Tim McCracken using his stick as a hook is funny in a movie.
It's not funny in real life.
But of course, the Bruins do need to respond. They need to show that they're not going to lie down, that they're going to stick up for Savard. But there's a right way to do that and a wrong way. Pulling a Bertuzzi is the wrong way.
The right way is to drop the gloves or lay a heavy shoulder or hip into him every time he touches the puck. Both are perfectly within the rules. What would be more satisfying, seeing someone go Marty McSorley with a stick upside his skull or seeing someone knock him into next week with a bruising yet clean open-ice check? The clean hit or fair fight is something of which a fan can be proud. A "McSorley," "Bertuzzi" or hit from behind is not.
One last thing to consider before you advocate a cheap shot: the Bruins are still fighting for their postseason lives. They're currently three points ahead of the Rangers for the eighth and final playoff spot in the East. Losing Savard from an already struggling offense makes a deep postseason run a difficult task, but crazier things have happened. Four years ago, the Edmonton Oilers reached the Stanley Cup finals as the Western Conference's eighth seed. Seven years ago, the Anaheim Ducks made it as the seventh seed.
Head hunting against the Penguins would, more likely than not, hurt the Bruins far more than it would hurt the victimized Pittsburgh skater. A lengthy penalty against a Crosby-led power play followed by an even lengthier suspension to the attacker would be short and long-term effects of a cowardly retaliation. The B's, fighting for their playoff lives, can't afford either.
