It's not that complicated. The comments were reckless to the extent that they directly lead to a reenactment of one of the most thuggish assaults in the recent memory of the league, against the memory of that assault and the lawsuit involved. Do you want to lay odds on that happening, or can we just agree that the guy who wanted Cooke to get a trophy for not killing anyone lately was being more than a little hyperbolic?
Or is it splitting hairs to assume that the absolute worst case scenario probably won't come to pass while the thing that happened when Cooke faced Thornton is just a bit more likely?
I never, ever said Matt Cooke deserved the Masterton Trophy. I said I didn't have any problem with him being the Penguins nominee for the award - you know, one of 30 guys to be up for it - based on his commitment to play a cleaner and less reckless game. If it was "easy" to change the way Cooke has, why don't amoebas like Rinaldo, Torres, etc. ever change?
The alternative for the Penguins was Sidney Crosby and I can only imagine the uproar had the "media's golden boy" won it.
Edited by Greg29fan, 20 February 2013 - 08:33 PM.
