Chiarelli: ‘Surprised and angered’ by lack of suspension
Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli just completed a conference call with the media, and it’s safe to say he’s not too happy with just about anyone involved in the events surrounding Matt Cooke’s cheap shot on Marc Savard.
Chiarelli was particularly displeased with NHL senior vice president Colin Campbell’s decision today to not suspend Cooke for the hit.
“I’m both surprised and angered,” said Chiarelli. “The last couple days I’ve been lobbying Colin Campbell and the (NHL) hockey ops staff in regards to this shot on Savard.”
Campbell defended his inaction by citing the lack of a suspension to Philadelphia forward Mike Richards for a similar hit earlier this year on Florida’s David Booth, all while ignoring two similar hits by Cooke that did draw a pair of two-game suspensions in the past 14 months. Campbell also claimed there was nothing illegal about Cooke’s hit with the way the NHL rulebook currently reads. The NHL general managers did vote today to change the rules regarding headshots, but that does the Bruins and Savard little good right now.
“The issue here is that right now there’s no infraction for what Cooke did,” said Chiarelli. “He didn’t leave his feet. He didn’t charge. He didn’t use an elbow. It was a shoulder hit to the head. It was a very surgical shoulder hit to the head. What I tried to convince the hockey ops staff was to take it outside the current rule and to use the repeat offender criteria and implement an infraction of an intent to injure, so there you have your infraction. And that should distinguish this from the Richards-Booth hit. And that was the issue here. They didn’t want to and they couldn’t distinguish it from the Richards-Booth hit. So I’m disappointed.”
Chiarelli tried to keep his comments about his own team’s lack of an on-ice response to the hit on Sunday in check, but his displeasure with his own club’s action, or lack of action, was also evident.
“I’m not going to comment on that, I want to talk to them first,” said Chiarelli. “I was bewildered at the fact that one, there wasn’t a penalty called, and I guess I was disappointed that there wasn’t a reaction. I want to talk to the team.
“I know it’s been frustrating, and it’s been frustrating for me,” added Chiarelli later in the call when asked about the fans’ discontent with the lack of response on the ice. “I said earlier that I was disappointed and I’m going to speak with the team. … With regard to the team and their lack of response, that’s something that I’m going to deal with.”
Chiarelli was also asked to update Savard’s condition, but didn’t have any good news to report on that front.
“I haven’t even talked to him,” said Chiarelli of Savard, who was diagnosed with a Grade 2 concussion. “You can’t talk to him. He’s been sleeping every day and there’s nothing to show from it.”
