Cooke's new mindset.

Well, last night's loss to the Rangers was a tough one. We started catching up, but just couldn't quite reach them as the Rangers went on to win 4-3. The Pens took too many penalties and their penalty kill was not as stellar and consistent as it can be and the Rangers capitalized on some opportunities. Things to address and correct before tomorrow night's game against the Washington Capitals.

Though, after a tough loss, I would now like to direct attention to something positive for the Pens and that would be the play of Matt Cooke so far this season. Matt Cooke has been a player I loved to have on our team in the past, but I will admit, also in the past, there have been times when I wished that Matt Cooke was not a member of the Pens. Some of his hits in the past were dirty and I was tired of the antics and the suspensions and the way it refelcted on the Pens. However, Matt Cooke has made a change to the way he approaches playing and the results so far are pretty great.


NHL.com staff writer Dave Lozo recently wrote an article about how Cooke is a changed player and the link is available above by clicking on the title of the post.

It was last season's elbow hit to the head of Ryan McDonagh, a Rangers defenseman, and the suspension that ended up lasting 17 games that made Cooke truly evaluate his style of play and change his ways. He spent that suspension and the summer watching video of himself and vowing that he would be a different player. So far, Cooke has delivered. He only has four minor penalties so far this season and his scoring output is on track for a career high. He is leading the team for blocked shots among forwards and only has 32 hits.

Now, this is a change that needs to be carried through because one wrong move or hit and we know that the suspension that would follow would be a monumental one this season. Whether he had a good start to the season or not. He'll have the label of his dirty hits for quite a while.

I am happy to see Cooke acknowledge that his style of game needed to change as he saw the risk in his appraoch and now has made some changes for the better. I would love to see hits to the head completely eliminated, but things happen in such a fast-paced game. Until that happens, I'm just glad that Cooke is consciously doing his best to try and avoid from delivering those hits.