Cogliano moves on after controversial suspension
Anaheim winger’s ironman streak ends with dubious player-safety ruling
Andrew Cogliano extended his ironman streak to 10 games Friday.
Which is why everyone in Anaheim is still pretty down on George Parros and the NHL’s department of player safety, and will be for a very long time.
Cogliano had the fourth longest ironman streak in NHL history (830 games) snapped last month by a controversial two-game suspension for his borderline hit on L.A.’s Adrian Kempe, a decision he and his teammates are still struggling to come to grips with.
“It’s unfortunate,” the Anaheim winger and former Oilers said Friday morning. “I still can’t figure the whole thing out, to be honest. You just have to move on at some point.”
The suspension was not a popular one around the NHL. In fact, Parros was called on at the NHL Board of Governor’s meetings in Florida to explain it, along with why he let the Kings’ Dustin Brown off with a fine a few nights later for cross-checking Justin Schultz face first into the boards.
“The disappointing thing, the thing I can’t figure out, is they (player safety) seemed to think that it was this awful predatory hit, which I don’t see,” said Cogliano. “And I don’t think a lot of people do, either.”
Cogliano hit Kempe less than two seconds after he made a pass, with part of his shoulder catching him in the face. The penalty was two minutes for interference. Kempe was none the worse for wear afterwards and with Cogliano’s longstanding reputation as one of the most gentlemanly players in the NHL, most people thought a fine would suffice.
Instead, Parros ruled that Cogliano, who’d never missed a game in his entire NHL career, deserved two games, ending one of the most incredible streaks in sports.
“I tried to handle it the right way,” said Cogliano, who was bitterly disappointed and emotional when the ruling came down. “At the time there was disappointment and wondering what was really happening.”
Players around the league are firmly in Cogliano’s corner. When Parros made his ruling, countless NHLers reached out to offer their sympathy and support.
“The most important thing that’s happened for me is the reaction of the players,” said Cogliano, who played 890 straight if you include playoffs. “I’ve been approached by a lot of players, players I’ve never talked to or didn’t even really know.
“I wouldn’t be able to get through warm-ups sometimes without them expressing what they think of the suspension and how it was wrong.
“That’s the most important thing. You want to know what your peers think and I’ve got a lot of good feedback from guys around the league.”
The feeling among some is that Parros overcompensated because he spent most of his NHL career in Anaheim, so rather than be viewed as favouring a former teammate, he went the other way.
It just highlights the absurdity of a player just three years into retirement being named judge and jury of former teammates, rivals, friends and enemies.
“I’ve never really thought about that side of it,” said Cogliano. “He played here, I’ve roomed with him and I was friends with him. I think deep down he’s the only one who knows if that came into play.”
Cogliano’s clean record, the streak, and his reputation as one of the classiest players in the league did not come into play, and some will argue that it shouldn’t, that a player’s actions on the ice need to stand alone.
But the NHL absolutely does make exceptions from time to time. Sidney Crosby, for example, chopped off the end of Marc Methot’s finger, speared Ryan O’Reilly in the groin and slammed P.K. Subban’s head into the ice and didn’t miss a shift. So it does happen. It just didn’t this time.
Parros and Cogliano, who used to be friends, haven’t spoken since.
“I haven’t talked to him. At the end of the day I need to move on. You get over the disappointment part and the upset part and get moving on,” Cogliano said.
FATHER KNOWS BEST
Coaches have to beg and plead, or even bring out the whip, when trying to get their players to commit to both sides of the puck.
And then there are guys like Ryan Kesler, who actually embrace the defensive game. He has long been one of the best two-way players in the game, a style he took to at a very early age.
“My dad was the dad who was always yelling ‘Backcheck!’ at the rink,” chuckled Kesler. “He really didn’t preach scoring or anything like that. He wanted me to play hard and compete and have fun. Eventually you learn to love playing on that side of the puck.”
It’s harder to play the way Kesler does, and two-way players don’t get half the glory that offensive superstars enjoy, but ask any coach in the league how many guys like him they’d like on their roster.
“That’s the way I came into the league,” he said. “My game has kind of transformed into a two-way game ... I hate getting scored on.”