The Bruins need to hand Matt Cooke his lunch

Penguins' head-hunting forward, Matt Cooke
(Photo: www.bluelandoutsider.blogspot.com)

On Feb. 26, 2004, Flyers' leading scorer Mark Recchi got his lip busted and stitched from a two-handed swinging stick to the kisser by Ottawa Senators' forward, Martin Havlat. The right-wing Havlat would receive a two-game suspension for his cowardly act; while Recchi, his teammates, and coaches awaited their next meeting for retaliation.

`He's a reckless player and someday someone is going to make him eat his lunch,'' said Flyers' head coach at the time, Ken Hitchcock. ``He's going to get it someday, and it's going to be harsh.

This is something in my opinion that the players should take care of.” added Hitchcock.

“He two-handed me across the face.” said the fat-lipped Recchi after the game. ``It might not come from our team, it might come from some other team, but he will because he's cheap and he does stupid stuff like that. He'd better learn to protect himself.”

On Mar. 5, 2004 – one-week after the Halvat cheapshot – Philly hosted Ottawa as the two top-teams in their respective Divisions' squared-off. Nonetheless, the bad blood carried over and escalated into an NHL-record-breaking 419 penalty minutes in the 60-minute contest. Five separate brawls took place – goaltenders included – and the ejections of 16 different players occurred within the final two-minutes of the third period. (The old NHL record for most penalty minutes in a game was 406, set by the Minnesota North Stars and Boston Bruins in 1981)

``My teammates didn't forget what happened,'' said Recchi after the battle. ``There was a lot of emotion.''

Fortunately for Havlat, he skated through the contest virtually unscathed, as he served Zdeno Chara's two-minute instigator penalty during the melle. But even though Havlat didn't “eat his lunch” that Friday night, Recchi and his teammates rallied around each other and made a statement to the Senators, to the rest of the league, and to their fans. The Flyers won that contest 5-3, all while keeping retribution in the back of their minds.

I write this story of six years ago in the recent wake of Penguins' Matt Cooke's headshot-hit on Boston Bruins' No. 1 center, Marc Savard, and the non-suspension decision of Cooke by NHL's Sr. V.P. and Director of Operations, Colin Campbell. In real-life hockey speed, it was clear that no referee saw the TKO-hit to No. 91. And it's still unclear if any of the players on the ice – other than Michael Ryder – actually saw it either. To much of the fans' dismay, the Bruins did nothing to avenge Savard's Grade 2 concussion on Sunday afternoon.

I, for one, was OK with the non-retaliation at the time. [OK as in not super-stoked, but not incredibly ticked-off either]. Not only with the aforementioned reasons, but also according to the NHL Rule 47.22, which states: “A player who is deemed to be the instigator of an altercation in the final five minutes or at any time in overtime shall be suspended for one game, pending a review of the incident. The Director of Hockey Operations [Campbell] will review every such incident and may rescind the suspension based on a number of criteria. The criteria for the review shall include, but not limited to, the score, previous incidents, etc...”

And with the Bruins past luck with Director Campbell [no suspension for Scott Walker's sucker punch to Aaron Ward in Game 5 of last year's Eastern Conference semifinals] and the Penguins fortunate calls with Campbell [no suspension for Evgeni Malkin's instigator penalty in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and now Cooke's no time off for his actions] it seems as though that the Sr. V.P. uses his “criteria” in mysterious ways.

The Black-and-Gold have been endlessly criticized since the hit on Sunday afternoon in Pittsburgh. From infuriated callers and hosts on local sports talk radio, Bruins bloggers, and even the most faithful of fans, the Bruins' heart and toughness have been called into question – as well as the man behind the bench. Even the general manager and the front office personnel has been constantly picked-apart since his stagnant effort to improve this year's squad on the Mar. 3 trade deadline.

But Thursday, Mar. 18 should be a different story. Milan Lucic, who has had his dinged-up nose [via Colton Orr] protected with a half-shield, will hopefully be cleared to remove the half Itech in time. Captain Zdeno Chara has been day-to-day with a lower-body injury, so the B's can only hope for a return before then. And Boston's enforcer Shawn Thornton may need to put "The Code" aside for a small portion of that game and right the wrong and earn his policeman's paycheck. The Bruins host the Penguins in their final meeting of this 2009-10 season and will still be without their top-center, as he remains at home: still “sensitive to light, sleeping, throbbing headaches.”

Four games still remain – all against Eastern Conference teams – for the Bruins between now and the 18th. While sitting in eighth-place in the Eastern Conference with 70 points, the B's are just four-points behind the Flyers, and three-points ahead of the ninth-place Rangers. So for the next week, it should be business as usual for Boston: aggressions in check, playing composed, and capturing as many points as possible while on their longest road trip of the season. 

I'm sure that Friday night game back in March of '04 is forever embedded in the minds of both Chara and Recchi. This isn't to say that the Bruins need to go out there on Thursday night at the TD Garden – their first home-game back from this recent seven-game road-trip – and break NHL penalty-minute records. But if they want to get their fans back on their side by gaining a whole bunch of respect, someone needs to hand Matt Cooke his lunch on Thursday night.