Truer words have never been spoken!

What an owner!

What a class act. Right on the money, to the point and without hesitation. We are blessed in this town to have a hockey icon like this gentleman leading the way into the future for this franchise. Thank you Mario for speaking out on this.

Gotta love Mario. I am watching the Mike Yeo led Houston Aeros today. They are 0-2 in the piwerplay.

Matt Cooke's employer is complaining about league discipline? Seriously?

Yeah, this statement is nice and all, but no one outside of Pittsburgh will take it seriously because of Cooke.

Cooke toes the line all the time, and crosses it sometimes. Bylsma said as much last week. But there's a huge difference between a hit gone bad during the run of play (i.e. Cooke on Savard, Cooke on Ovechkin, Ovechkin on Gonchar...) and jumping a guy and pummeling him while he's down AFTER you've already elbowed him in the head. One is very bad, yes, but the other is inexcusable.

I don't see what this has to do at all with Cooke. He makes some questionable hits, especially when he really should pull back (hate to say it, sometimes players put their backs to incoming checks on purpose-- Cooke needs to stop seeing that as a challenge). But I don't recall Cooke dropping his gloves and attacking somebody from behind, or elbowing somebody and beating them senseless while they are down.

That's the difference between a tough player, and criminal thugs.

If the League is not willing to listen to Mario Lemieux, than it probably doesn't deserve Mario Lemieux being a part of it. It's that simple.

I agree that what Cooke does is completely different than what happened Friday but that's not how Lemieux's statements are being viewed by other people, including other reporters. All it's being seen as is someone who employs a repeat offender complaining about how there's no player safety.

"It starts at home," "Look at your own players first" type of comments.

Kevjac, if dropping Cooke from the Pens' roster is what it takes to make the league ACTUALLY PROTECT guys like Crosby so they can be on the ice and be awesome at playing hockey and we can watch them do so, I say drop Cooke in a heartbeat. But for my entire lifetime, the NHL has allowed dirty players (Avery, Cooke, Bertuzzi, every player to ever don a Flyers jersey...) to be in the league and to take liberties with skill players. The Penguins' management believes (and evidence would corroborate) that they NEED players like Cooke and Godard on the roster, otherwise the goons from many other teams will take cheap shots at Crosby, Malkin, Letang, and other superstars and the league will not do enough to protect them.

I'm all for the skilled and beautiful game, but until the league finds a way to eliminate cheap shots, I don't think that things will change. Teams will have goons / dirty players, and continue to target other teams' skill players.

The organization and Shero have already told Cooke he has the change the way he plays. At some point its on him to take responsibility. The team is encouraging change in his game.

And then you have Garth Snow's comments today.

All in all, Lemieux seems well within reason to question the direction of the league if players are going to use a hockey game as means for assaulting other players.

Let's get this straight. What happened on Friday had nothing to do with Matt Cooke. When he throws dangerous hits he gets punished. That's the way the system works.

What happened on Friday was a disgrace to the league. Whether or not it was deliberate on the part of team officials, the Islanders organization stood by while several of their players assaulted others. Gilles punched and then mocked an injured Tangradi, which breaks every written and unwritten rule of hockey. Talbot was attacked from behind, which could have easily resulted in a much more serious result. Those are the hits we are talking about here, NOT Matt Cooke. Those who say anything about Matt Cooke when having a conversation about what happened on Friday is building a straw man argument, which takes away all its validity.

Gilles, Martin and Haley deserved more punishment for their reckless and embarrassing actions. Mario Lemieux's statement is completely called for considering the impotence of the NHL.

I'm glad he spoke out. I think it is silly, though, to suggest he is going to walk away from it if things don't change. He uses this time again ... when he was playing, when he wasn't getting the arena he wanted. I find it an immature ploy to garner attention.

On a different note, many are saying that this is the reason that hockey doesn't have a large following - mainly on Smizik's blog, not so much here. But I don't think that argument holds water. If anything, games like this bring more attention to the sport. I don't like these kinds of games, but I don't think this is the reason that the NHL is well behind the NFL, NBA, and MLB. In no particular order:

1) Kids don't play much hockey throughout much of the country.
2) The regular season is mostly meaningless.
3) The Trap - although that is mostly gone, it was throughout the league during the ESPN era.
4) There is little offensive creativity - few exceptions noted.

In terms of fan base, this type of game is not the problem.

4) There is little offensive creativity - few exceptions noted.

That's an unfair criticism. Hockey, because it's a contact, in-flow sport, requires more creativity than the other games.

What people fail to see in this statement:
1) He didn't call out Matt Cooke, but he didn't condone his actions either. Cooke has met with management/coaching staff to fix his game, they are taking the steps they can.

2) No other owners or dignitaries have bothered to step up and call the league out for it's inconsistent and ineffective supplemental discipline. That includes Cooke's current and previous actions.

Someone had to say something, and it's sad it will be brushed under the carpet because Cooke happens to play for the Pens.

Further: If what Mario did was hypocritical, how do you explain Garth Snow's statements?

Yeah, whaa, whaa, whaa. Quit your crying. Where was the outrage when Comeau was put out with a blind side hit and Johnson broke DiPietro's face, putting him out for the season? Your team and worthless announcers all thought is was funny. Wasn't so funny Friday night, was it? Lucky the NHL has 2 sets of rules, one for the Pens and one for the rest of the league or else your coach would have been suspended too, as he should have been. I didn't see any Islanders leaving the bench, yet the Penguins team doesn't get fined for that? Johnson was able to fight his own battles against a much smaller goalie, how come he needed protection on Friday? Unbelievable, you guys started it and we finished it. You reap what you sow.

You sure are asking a lot of questions. Maybe you should call Gary Bettman and ask him instead.

(ps no one in the world outside of Long Island will answer those questions how you want)

If DiPietro doesn't want his face broken, maybe he shouldn't start anymore fights.

Tale of the tape:
DiPietro: 6'1", 190
Johnson: 6'3", 199

"Smaller goalie." Right.

How exactly did he start it? He wasn't the one who skated the length of the ice. Pens coach should have gotten 5 games for failure to control his players and the team should have been fined as well. Would have happened to any other team in the league.

The Pens are the most penalized/suspended team in the league. Your logic is flawless!

DiPietro seemed really excited about fighting until he got his lights put out.

@eman41:
By little offensive creativity, I am comparing it to the European game - although, admittedly, I don't see very much of it. It seems that most goals are scored by big blasts from the point that get tipped in or are the product of rebounds. Much of the offensive (and defensive) play is simply grinding it out along the boards and, at best, passing it across the crease. In the transition game wingers are basically skating in straight lines. During the power play, skaters are standing around passing it back and forth with one in the middle jockeying for position.

Detroit's power play at the time we met them in the playoffs seemed to stray away from this formula successfully.

I understand what you mean by being an in-flow game and the athletes skills and response time are not questioned. But I'm talking about creativity - doing something new and/or unexpected. Few players have that ability - Malkin, Kovalev, Finnish players during shoot outs. Given the speed and the size of the players, it is more important to dump the puck and win battles along the boards than it is to make a behind the back pass or criss cross your wings.