The Reformation of Matthew David Cooke
Matt Cooke was born on September 7th 1978. Just about everything else about him is hotly disputed and subject to fierce argument.
He is the type of player that you love playing for your team and hugely despise everywhere else. Cooke has been touted as the dirtiest player in the NHL, with a body of evidence to muster a great argument for that label. Over the past 3 seasons, he has topped over 100 penalty minutes and has ‘earned’ several suspensions for dubious (violent?) incidents. At the end of the 2010-11 season, Cooke vowed to change his ways. They all say that! Right?
65 games in to the 2011-12 season, Cooke has earned just 28 minutes of penalties. He hasn’t been involved in any fights, and suspensions are a mere spectre from his former self. A phenomenal turnaround that even his fiercest critics must acknowledge. In Cooke’s NHL career, his best penalty minutes per game average was 0.79 in 2006-07. This season, he’s running at 0.43 penalty minutes per game. The points tally (27) is on a par from last season so Cooke’s form hasn’t been negatively affected by his new on ice philosophy.
What then has changed? The seeds of change were sowed immediately after the hit on Ryan McDonagh: “I realize and understand, more so now than ever, that I need to change”. It would have been easy for the Pittsburgh Penguins to offload Cooke but his repentance and willing to change has been welcoming. Also, a near fatal illness suffered by Cooke’s wife Michelle seems to have been a cathartic episode that has engendered change. It was after the McDonagh hit that his wife noticed a change. “Matt was still upset for a couple of days after that hit. That was the difference I noticed. This (hit) bothered him.”
One thing that has always been there, but unrecognised or discounted, is the charitable work that Matt Cooke does for The Cooke Family Foundation of Hope. It’s a charity that was created after his sister-in-law gave birth to a child without a heartbeat. Professional sports people are fortunate to earn huge amounts of money so organizations like this are essential to remind us that they are people too. Matt Cooke isn’t a monster, he’s a person like you or I. He’s just made some really bad decisions. Like you or I.
I’m not an apologist for the beatification of Matt Cooke. He’s done some really stupid things that, as a Pittsburgh Penguins fan, I have been embarrassed by. However, I’ve been impressed by the way he’s changed his ways and attitude. On any ice outside of the Consol Energy Center, Matt Cooke will be greeted with hatred for his former indiscretions. Teams will try to goad him into retaliation or get penalties just on his reputation alone at times. However, so far Cooke has withstood the onslaught and remained true to his new self. I’m aware that fans will never forget incidents involving Artem Anisimov, Scott Walker, Marc Savard, Fedor Tyutin and Ryan McDonagh to name a few. Maybe they shouldn’t? However, it should be put into the context of a changed approach to the game with tangible results.
