Matt Cooke Suspended 4 Games

February 9 2011 Last updated at 01:50 PM ET

In news that is sure to come as no surprise, Penguins forward Matt Cooke was involved in another questionable play on Tuesday night.

There were no shortage of opinions about the play in question -- or about Cooke in general -- in the aftermath, but the only one that matters is the one from the NHL. The league suspended him for four games for hitting Columbus' Fedor Tyutin from behind during the Blue Jackets 4-1 win in Pittsburgh.

As Tyutin went into the corner to play the puck, Cooke hit him from behind drawing a five-minute major for charging. This came just one game after he sparked debate and outrage for his knee-on-knee hit against Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin. Here's a look at the hit on Tyutin...

Following the game, the Penguins placed the blame on Tyutin for putting himself in that position. Said Cooke, via Seth Rorabaugh of the Post-Gazette's Empty-Netters blog, "It used to be you were responsible for yourself if you turned, but that's not the way anymore.That call's been called on us four or five times this year. It's the same thing. He turns and looks and sees me coming. The other defenseman is slowing me down, so I'm not skating full speed at him."

Coach Dan Bylsma shared a similar point of view, also pointing out that Tyutin saw Cooke coming. The argument against that, however, is that Cooke still left his feet to deliver the hit from behind.

Tyutin told Tom Reed of the Columbus Dispatch it was the worst hit he's had from behind, and that he "wasn't surprised, not when you see (Cooke) in the highlights all the time for dirty hits."

With Cooke out of the lineup for four games the Penguins depleted group of forwards takes another hit. Already playing without Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Mark Letestu and Arron Asham, the Penguins also lost Chris Kunitz before Tuesday's game with an undisclosed injury, and will now be without Cooke for the next four games. All of that put together means the Penguins will have to continue to fight on with a number of minor league call-ups (Dustin Jeffrey, Eric Tangradi, Tim Wallace) playing significant minutes.

Cooke is signed for two more years at an average annual salary of $1.8 million per season, and while he's a productive enough player when he's not in the news for stuff like this, you have to wonder if the Penguins will ever grow tired of dealing with these situations.

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