Cooke will not be suspended.

Matt Cooke will not be suspended for his knee to knee hit on Eric Cole during game one of the Eastern Conference final. I have to admit that I am not a fan of Matt Cooke and his antics and this hit is a lot worse than the Ovechkin hit on Gonchar. In my opinion it looks more malicious. If we have learned anything during the Stanley Cup playoffs is that the league office is very inconsistent.

NHL decides not to suspend Penguins winger Cooke
Pittsburgh--- Penguins left winger Matt Cooke will not be suspended for a knee-on-knee hit on Carolina forward Erik Cole during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final Monday at Mellon Arena.

It was not immediately known if Cooke will be fined by the National Hockey League office.

Cole was injured on the hit, which occurred during the third period, and played sparingly after that.

Neither he nor teammate Tuomo Ruutu, who also was injured Monday, participated in Carolina's practice today. Hurricanes Coach Paul Maurice said their status for Game 2tomorrow night has not been determined.

Ward's side of the Walker sucker punch.

Very interesting look at the other side of the ugly game five incident from the person that was on the receiving end of the sucker punch by Scott Walker. So you have to wonder if Walker is lying, if Walker thought he was getting into a fight with Ward; why isn't his opponent ready to fight? If you watch the video you will see that Walker just grabbed Ward and punched him. You would think Ward would have thrown off his gloves and been ready to fight. If I am going to get into a fight I am sure as heck aren’t just going to stand there and get punched in the head.

Oh by the way; I like how Keith Jones from Versus didn't mention this last night when he was defending the non-league suspension for Walker's thuggery. If you’re a player that has had concussion issues in the past maybe he should think twice about hacking away at someone one else, what does he expect Ward to do? Kiss him? If I have learned one thing the Carolina fans and their media has done a lot of whining about the Boston Bruins that they didn't do during the 2006 Stanley Cup playoff run.

Ward: 'It's a joke' --- Aaron Ward, who is sporting a purple bruise under his left eye, spoke this morning for the first time since taking a punch from Scott Walker in the third period of Game 5.

"It's a joke. It's honestly a joke," Ward said of the situation.

Ward, who will play tonight, said he was tussling with Matt Cullen prior to Walker's punch. According to Ward, Cullen had slashed him across the legs. Ward was telling Cullen he didn't like the slash when Walker came in with a punch. Ward said he didn't see Walker and never exchanged any words with him.

"I don't remember a single word being said," Ward said of the exchange between he and Walker. "I was looking at Matt Cullen. The moment I saw his right hand was when it was about a foot away from my face."

Ward said a team doctor saw "something" on an X-ray and advised him to wear a shield.

"I haven't worn one in 16 years," Ward said. "I'm not going to start now."

Ward said he never spoke with Colin Campbell about the incident.

Scott Walker cheaps Aaron Ward.

Props to Paul from KuklasKorner for getting the video up this quickly. The league has to review this play, this is suspension worthy. I would say about 4-5 games at least. I don’t care what some homer writer from Carolina has to say, this was a cheap sucker punch. Back in 1995 when Rangers goon Tie Domi sucker punched the gutless puke Ulf Samuelsson and he got 8 games.

In my opinion Scott Walker broke the code by punching a guy that wasn't ready to fight, watch the tape Ward had no intention of fighting he still had his gloves on. That is a sucker punch. There is no sense to Scott Walker's act of thuggery and Walker is very lucky that Bruins tough guy Lucic wasn't able to get a hold of him.

Mike Brown's hit on Jiri Hudler.

This will be the next hit that is going to be looked at in the NHL. Some in the media are comparing it to the Donald Brashear hit on Blair Betts. It looked like a pretty rough hit and you can bet the NHL will look at the hit. The Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle didn't think the Hit was dirty.

"I'm sure they're going to say it was dirty, but this is a game that's played and physical contact is allowed," Carlyle said. "We timed the hit. From the time he passed the puck until Mike Brown made contact with him, there wasn't a second that went off the clock. It was at 8:36, and the clock did not move by the time he made contact. He didn't hit him with his elbow, he hit him with his shoulder. Hudler was admiring his pass.

"They can talk all they want about a dirty hit. That's not a dirty hit in hockey. You're allowed to take the body in this game."

The Slash that got Downie 20 games.

Someone made mention of Steve Downie getting suspended for 20 games for his slash on a linesman during a face off at center ice. You know, I dun no the video isn't that good but it appears that the ref was inadvertently hit by uber hack Steve Downie and received the suspension based on his preceding reputation.

Steve Downie sits again, this time for 20 games after slashing an AHL linesman during a Feb. 28 game against the Hershey Bears.

A member of the Norfolk Admirals, an affiliate of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Downie had been suspended indefinitely until being informed of yesterday's decision by the AHL. He is slated to return to the Norfolk lineup on April 11, although the Admirals are likely to miss the AHL playoffs.

Downie was assessed a game misconduct late in the third period of the Norfolk-Hershey game for deliberately striking an official with his stick. Admirals officials noted that the slash occurred before a faceoff and that Downie had meant to knock the stick out of the hands of an opposing player. Instead, Downie missed and struck the linesman.

Admirals general manager Mike Butters said his player was simply trying to knock the stick of the Bears player and - oops! - missed and struck Hamilton by accident.
(read the whole story here)

Rangers get the Star's sloppy seconds.

The soap opera continues. It will be interesting to see what happens next. You have to wounder if the Rangers are picking Avery up just so he can get into Martin Brouder's kitchen.

SPORTSNET.CA --- Sportsnet has learned the Dallas Stars will place Sean Avery on re-entry waivers as early as Monday.

Avery will play in both AHL Hartford Wolf Pack games this weekend. The New York Rangers have committed to claiming Avery providing he was still available.

In six games with the Wolf Pack, Avery has one goal and one assist.

Avery previously played in New York under coach Tom Renney, who was fired and replaced by John Tortorella on February 23, 2009. In December Tortorella commented on the Avery-Dion Phaneuf controversy while serving as a Canadian television analyst.

Tortorella said: "Enough is enough. He's embarrassed himself, he's embarrassed the (Dallas) organization, he's embarrassed the league and he's embarrassed his teammates, who have to look out for him. Send him home. He doesn't belong in the league."

Rangers GM Glen Sather told the New York Post on Monday of the potential conflict between the new coach and Avery: "He doesn't have the history with Sean that we do. Over time you learn to love him, just like I do."