Marc Savard: I Never Heard From Matt Cooke
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Marc Savard's career ended far too early. This much is not really a point of debate.
What could be argued is the exact moment or hit that led to his brain suffering trauma beyond the breaking point, but there's little question that the fateful hit delivered by Matt Cooke in March 2010 was the biggest factor.
Despite the fact that Savard would go on to play just 32 more NHL games while Cooke would add 370 more NHL games to his resume, the former Bruins star said that he's never received an apology of any sort from Cooke.
"I wasn't in any mood to talk to him that night, so I never talked to him," Savard told The Boston Globe. "I never heard from him."
That Savard never heard from Cooke is interesting but not at all surprising. Cooke made a career out of making such hits and continued to do so even after injuring Savard. (If you can get past the Don Cherry-ness of this video and focus instead on the reel of one dirty, dangerous hit after another, you can see it as plain as day. Or you can just watch this singular hit, a carbon copy of the one Cooke authored on Savard, to see that the hit was merely one weapon in his arsenal.)
Despite many articles written to the contrary, Cooke never changed his style of play, and he'd go on to get suspended three more times in his career (including a seven-game ban during the playoffs).
As it relates to Savard, Cooke likely felt little to no remorse because the NHL never held him accountable for it. He didn't so much as receive a two-minute minor penalty, and Colin Campbell -- at the time the chief of discipline in the NHL -- couldn't find any reason to suspend Cooke.
While Cooke never had to pay any price for the cheap shot (no, dancing around Shawn Thornton for 10 seconds and then turtling after seven seconds of fighting does not count), the incident did expose the significant flaws in the NHL's disciplinary process, particularly when multiple emails showing Campbell's open disdain for Savard was made public.
In that sense, the hit on Savard helped to usher in a new era in the NHL, one where the league at least makes an attempt to try to limit the damage NHL players are allowed to deliver on each other.
He's also looking to do more directly. Stan Grossfeld of the Globe reported in the feature that Savard plans to donate his brain to be tested for CTE after his death and that Savard is a member of the board for the Canadian Concussion Centre.
Of course, the Cooke hit didn't officially end Savard's career. He tried his best to return to the ice in a regular capacity, but seven postseason games in the spring of 2010 set him back in his recovery. He did manage to play 25 games the following season after sitting out the first couple of months, but a routine collision along the boards ended his career for good.
Since then, Cooke earned more than $10 million while injuring several other NHL players.
While Savard has been able to recover to a certain extent, he has spent much of the last six years battling headaches, depression, light sensitivity and memory loss, among other issues.
Through it all, though, he's always owned a telephone. The fact that it's never rang once with a call from Matt Cooke speaks volumes about the man who delivered, essentially, the knockout blow to a great hockey career.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
