The NHL announced that Minnesota Wild forward Matt Cooke has been suspended seven games for his hit to Colorado Avalanche defenseman Tyson Barrie's knee during Game 3 of their best-of-seven Stanley Cup Playoffs series on Monday.
Due to Cooke's tumultuous history with doing illegal things on the ice and committing dangerous penalties that injure other players, the Department of Player Safety announced that a seven-game ban was just.
The incident occurred at 2:02 of the second period when Cooke used his knee to take out Barrie's knee. It was reported after the game that Barrie --one of the Avalanche's most competent defenseman this season --would miss 4-to-6 weeks with an MCL injury.
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The decision for a lengthy suspension was obvious given Cooke's history with getting in trouble by the league via fines and suspensions, the severity of the injury sustained to Barrie and the fact that Cooke knowingly stretched out his leg in order to complete the hit and injure the Avalanche blueliner.
If Minnesota doesn't go deep enough in the playoffs for Cooke to sit seven full games, the rest of the suspension will be forwarded to the 2014-15 NHL season and Cooke will sit out the remaining games on his suspension at the start of next year's season.
The Wild went on to win Game 3 by a 1-0 score and cut into Colorado's series lead by chipping the series to a 2-1 Avalanche advantage.
Avalanche first-year coach Patrick Roy called the hit on Barrie "the play of the game" afterwards and said he believed the league would do what was right.
"I think it would've broke their momentum. There's a key moment in those games. And now we believe that the league will make the right call," Roy said of the hit via NHL.com.
Barrie logged an average ice time of 19:33 for Colorado this season while notching 38 points off of 13 goals and 25 assists.
Cooke has tried to clean up his game over the last couple of years after gaining a reputation as a dirty player by amassing fines and suspensions for his dirty hits. This season, he had 28 points off of 10 tallies and 18 helpers while logging 54 penalty minutes.
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