The Matt Cooke hit: A Colorado view

Here's what the Denver Post wrote about Matt Cooke's Game 3 penalty and upcoming suspension hearing.

April 23, 2014 at 1:15PM

Here's the headline on the Denver Post story about Matt Cooke's knee-on-knee hit that knocked Tyson Barrie out of the Stanley Cup playoffs and is likely to result in a suspension:

Avs, Wild await word on suspension of Matt Cooke for dirty hit

The Post's Adrian Dater wrote: "The career baggage that he will bring to his supplemental disciplinary hearing with the NHL's office for player safety, however, would fill most of the overhead bins on a good-sized airplane."

Under the smaller headline "Bad Cooke," the Post detailed the list of Cooke's previous suspensions:

February 2004: Suspended two games without pay for spearing Minnesota's Matt Johnson.

November 2008: Two-game suspension for a check to the head of the New York Rangers' Artem Anisimov.

January 2009: Two games for a hit to the head of Carolina's Scott Walker.

February 2011:Four games for a hit from behind on Columbus' Fedor Tyutin.

March 2011: Seventeen games — 10 regular season, seven playoff — for an elbow to the head of the Rangers' Ryan McDonagh.

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There's also a lengthy section of "other incidents for which he was not suspended." You can see those here.

If you want a video recap of Cooke's hits, we direct you to this 2011 post from the Washington Capitals blog, "Russian Machine Never Breaks," that has more than a dozen videos of Cooke's nastiness, including the time in 2008 when he blind-sided Zach Parise when the Wild star played for New Jersey.

Should Cooke be suspended? You can vote in our poll here.

about the writer

about the writer

Howard Sinker

Digital Sports Editor

Howard Sinker is digital sports editor at startribune.com and curates the website's Sports Upload blog. He is also a senior instructor in Media and Cultural Studies at Macalester College in St. Paul.

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