The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

SBP,

You should watch Cherry more often and you will see he's right on many other things (no touch icing to name one).

He eluded to the instigator rule indirectly when he talked about Probert looking after Yzerman and Semenko looking after Gretzky.

I'll go on record here and say that I agree with Grapes again. The insitgator rule has allowed this type of hit to flourish in hockey and it's really a shame.

Cooke would never have survived this long if someone made him eat his lunch after a hit like that.

Bill Guerin is on record saying that the players can't take care of themselves so I'm not surprised at his comments. He's waiting for the league to look after this and he is right. It's time to enforce the rules that aleady exist.

Unfortunately Colin Campbell handles all questions about his actions with stupid one liners aimed at insulting the person asking the question. He's completely ineffective in the job he's being asked to do and it seems that Bettman won't do anything about it.

Not sure therefore what the solution is but it will come to a head (pardon the pun) when a cash cow (Crosby, Ovechkin, Heatley)gets hit this way.

RBP
 

Well, I'm not sure if the answer to this type of violence is condoning more violence, but I personally think the instigator rule is a scapegoat hockey traditionalists use when these sorts of things happen. I don't think the instigator rule hasn't been called that much, if at all this season, and I also think that if serving a 2 minute penalty is a detriment to a team going after a player like Cooke as retribution, then they can't be too mad at him to begin with.

That was actually the only point I disagreed with Cherry. He talks like there are no enforcers in the game anymore. Tonight TSN is hyping round 5 of Orr-Carkner in the Sens-Leafs contest. I honestly think that, since players are told it's okay to bash each other's heads in with bare knuckles, a small percentage of players think that a result, everything else is pretty much okay.

Now Colin Campbell failed the NHL, Savard, the players and the fans by not suspending Cooke. I think we need a no-nonsense guy handing out punishments to the players that cross the line like Cooke does, and I think Campbell's firing would be a good start. The NHL will continue to be considered a third tier sport in my estimation for those outside Canada, so long as players continue to drop the gloves and players like Cooke get away with those intent to injure plays.
 

SBP,

There is no instigator in an Orr-Carkner fight. There would be if someone made Cooke eat his lunch.

You may disagree but the facts agree with me on this one. Yzerman suffered his most serious injuries after Probert retired. And it was not because Yzerman had lost a step, he played in two olympics after Probert retired and refused to play in the olympics after he lost a step.

Waiving the instigator rule is not condoning more violence. As you point out, there is already ample violence in the game right now.

Waiving the instigator rule will eliminate the blind side head shots though.

I'd love to be proven right on this but I know it will never happen. All I can do is point to the history of this issue and clearly see that it started when the instigator rule did.

Based on the reaction from around the league and from his own team, I would say many people are mad at Cooke. The problem is that nothing gets a coach more than a stupid penalty. Could you imagine if Cooke takes out Savard and then the Bruins are shorthanded for 2 minutes while the player who went after Cooke sits in the box?

RBP