Anticlimactic Revenge Night in Boston as the Penguins Beat Bruins

I have some good news and I have some annoying news.

The annoying news: I’m changing the subject of my blog from profiling U.S. Olympic hockey players to general NHL news and analysis.

The good news: My blogs should be significantly more interesting this way.

For my first actual blog post, let’s take at the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-0 defeat of the Boston Bruins last night:

This was a game all hockey fans had their eye on. You may have noticed the recent ranting and raving in the media about all of the dirty hits NHL players have subjected each other to since the Olympics ended.

The worst of these recent hits was on March 7 with Penguins winger Matt Cooke’s elbow to the side of star Bruins center Marc Savard's head. Savard had just taken a shot so he was completely vulnerable and defenseless.

Savard was taken off the ice in a stretcher, and is out indefinitely with a severe concussion.

Cooke wasn’t penalized in that game, or by the NHL afterward.

The Penguins and Bruins met for the first time since the incident last night in Boston, and to say there was tension in the air would be an understatement. Everyone wanted to know: would the Bruins seek revenge? Would they be gunning for Cooke? Or would the Bruins hit the Penguins where it really hurt, by injuring franchise player Sidney Crosby?

Well, we found out the answer pretty quickly. Less than two minutes into the game, Bruins enforcer Shawn Thornton picked a fight with Cooke, with Thornton looking like the victor.

Later in the first period, Cooke was called on a blatant and pretty stupid tripping penalty, much to the delight of the Boston faithful.

However, as the Penguins took the lead, the Bruins’ (who are just barely hanging on to the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference) focus turned towards winning rather than enacting revenge.

In the end, the Penguins scored a goal in each period for their first shutout win of the season, Cooke made an ass out of himself, and Crosby left the game unharmed.

For the NHL, the lack of revenge against the Penguins shouldn’t hide the fact that the league still has no standardized system of punishment for cheap shots, and that the rules regarding finishing checks need to be clarified and modified to reflect the increasing dangers associated with collisions of increasingly bigger and faster athletes on the ice.

After all, there’s no way this Alex Ovechkin hit was more malicious than Cooke’s head-shot, yet Ovechkin was promptly suspended for two games by the league.

I am sure of one thing: If the NHL doesn’t fix this problem, someone is going to get seriously hurt in the playoffs.

For a sport that needs all the positive press it can get, it would be who of the NHL to take preventative action on this issue.