Matt Cooke DESTROYS Marc Savard (HD - Full Incident)
5:34 March 07, 2010
Sports
HockeyWebCast
PITTSBURGH -- Boston Bruins centre Marc Savard was carried off the ice on a stretcher after being levelled by Pittsburgh forward Matt Cooke with 5:37 remaining in Sunday's game.
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Savard had just taken a shot from above the slot when Cooke raised his shoulder and struck Savard in the head. Cooke was coming from behind on the play and Savard did not see him.
Savard was on the ice for several minutes, being attended to by a Penguins team doctor, before being carried off. He was moving his legs while on the ice and his arms while on the stretcher.
No penalty was called on the play.
"It's pretty obvious that was definitely a dirty hit," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "That's probably the classic blind-side hit to the head ... I'm usually reserved in making comments, but definitely the league will take care of it."
"A guy like that has to be suspended," Julien said. "That's the way I see it because it's an elbow to the head from the blind side, and that's exactly the example they show, what we've got to get out of this game. We got a guy who's got a concussion, our best player, and he's going to be out for a while. He was out on the ice for a bit and that's unacceptable."
Cooke, a player with the reputation of taking borderline hits, insisted he was only finishing his check. TV replays appeared to show Cooke had enough time to pull up and not slam into Savard, and that he raised his arm before the hit.
Several Bruins players said they liked how the team didn't spend the rest of the game trying to retaliate, but focused instead on trying to get the tying goal.
"It's always hard to see one of your teammates go down," defenseman Zdeno Chara said.
"At some point there's got to be a clear indication from the league because we've seen this so many times now," Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. "You don't like to see anyone, their own teammate or an opposing player, lay on the ice like that. That was scary."
Savard suffered a grade two concussion. A team spokesman said Savard will remain under the care of Bruins medical staff until further notice, with no timetable set for his return.
UPDATE: Darren Dreger at Twitter reported via Peter Chiarelli in Florida that Marc Savard could be done for the season.
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