ST. JOHN’S, Newfoundland — The morning fog grows so thick exterior Mary Brown’s Centre that South Facet Hills, an imposing rock outcropping standing between St. John’s and the tough waters of the north Atlantic Ocean, isn’t seen just a few hundred meters away.
Contained in the empty area, the one voice just isn’t loud however nonetheless penetrating.
A coach is standing in the midst of a bunch {of professional} hockey gamers. He turns his head side-to-side, in search of recognition, any signal of life.
“Regardless of the f— is up,” he barks at gamers kneeling earlier than him, “be sure you’re able to go tonight.” After that, he turns and leaves the morning skate hours earlier than a sport.
The coach is Matt Cooke. He’s sporting a beige ball cap and he’s added just a few kilos from his personal taking part in days. However he hasn’t misplaced any of the vitality of his 16-season NHL profession. He’s the identical Matt Cooke who would rise to the highest of the listing of most reviled NHL gamers of the previous 20 years.
His unprovoked open-ice shoulder examine on Marc Savard in March 2010 continues to be one of the vital universally condemned hits in fashionable NHL historical past. It left the Boston Bruins ahead with a concussion, contributed to the top of his profession and led to a change within the NHL guidelines meant to discourage blindside hits.
A 12 months later, Cooke was suspended for 17 video games for a punishing elbow to the pinnacle of New York Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh.
Cooke additionally lacerated Erik Karlsson’s Achilles’ tendon when his skate got here down on the NHL All-Star’s left leg throughout a board battle. The questions on whether or not Cooke was a hard-nosed participant gave method to questions on whether or not he was a malicious one.
Then-Ottawa Senators proprietor Eugene Melnyk echoed many within the hockey world when he labeled Cooke a “goon” who “ought to by no means be taking part in on this league.”
Cooke’s remaining suspension was seven video games for a knee-on-knee hit on Colorado Avalanche defenseman Tyson Barrie within the 2014 playoffs.
Many believed he was incapable of adjusting. When his profession ended a 12 months later, any participant trying to skate by means of the center of the ice untouched breathed a sigh of reduction.
However now he’s a rookie head coach of the Newfoundland Growlers, the ECHL affiliate of the Toronto Maple Leafs. A pacesetter of younger males. The shaper of younger hockey minds.
For many who keep in mind Matt Cooke on the ice, it is likely to be a chilling thought.
“Matt Cooke the particular person has at all times been completely different from Matt Cooke the participant,” he says.
The primary trace of Cooke’s future got here when he was only a 5-foot-1 13-year-old taking part in minor hockey for the Quinte Crimson Devils, in Belleville, Ont. Bodily play was ingrained in his sport within the early Nineties, however he was by no means taught what that ought to appear like.
“My first sport, I’m scared. I’m flying on my knees attempting to cannonball guys as a result of I’m scared,” Cooke says. “I used to be taught to offer the most important hit doable. However I by no means deliberately tried to harm anyone, ever.”
Identical to lots of the gamers he now coaches, Cooke was neglected. He was not picked within the 1996 NHL Draft.
However he was tenacious. He refused to simply accept his destiny. As an undrafted 18-year-old, he attended Toronto Maple Leafs coaching camp on an expert tryout and earned a contract. He impressed the Leafs teaching workers together with his decided fashion of play and surprisingly sturdy set of arms.
An unlucky clerical error meant his three-year contract supply with the Leafs wasn’t filed to the league workplace in time, forcing him to return to the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires. Armed with confidence from his tryout success, Cooke confirmed a brand new facet to his sport. After scoring simply eight objectives throughout his draft 12 months, he led his Spitfires workforce with 45 objectives.
“I used to be at all times undersized, not quick sufficient, not expert sufficient,” Cooke says proudly. “And I beat the percentages.”
On the 1997 draft, he wasn’t forgotten. The Vancouver Canucks picked him within the sixth spherical, 144th. He had a nine-season stint with the Canucks earlier than transferring to the Penguins, creating into not only a dependable aim scorer however a gregarious teammate. Coaches couldn’t escape particular groups conferences with out being peppered with questions from Cooke.
“He was not a man who was quiet within the room,” Cooke’s former teammate Tyler Kennedy says.
However even together with his capability to search out the again of the web, Cooke made his title turning the center of the ice right into a hazardous place for the opposition.
That’s when the dangerous hits piled up.
Within the aftermath of his headshot on Savard, because the hate towards him swelled, he realized he wanted to alter.
Kennedy observed his once-chatty teammate rising reticent. “Once you harm somebody, regardless of who you’re, you concentrate on it,” Kennedy says.
It led Cooke to then-Penguins bench boss Dan Bylsma. After the 2010-11 season, Bylsma took Cooke below his wing for repeated one-on-one video and on-ice periods.
“It was some extent of reflection about his profession, who he was as a participant and the way he was perceived,” Bylsma says. “He had a need to alter that.”
Cooke says if he may, one factor he’d change is that March 7, 2010, hit on Savard.
“On the time, to outlive within the sport, I felt like Matt Cooke the participant was the man that made the center of the ice tougher for individuals to get to,” he says.
“Now there’s a selected rule in place that I might have been suspended for lots of video games for that hit. However on the time, legally inside the sport, I didn’t do something improper. I didn’t get a penalty and I wasn’t suspended. I hate the truth that Marc was harm.”
When Savard returned to the ice, he sustained one other concussion in successful from Matt Hunwick on Jan. 23, 2011, ending his profession.
Cooke has by no means spoken to Savard. He stated he tried to get in contact for a month after the hit. “You’ll be able to solely get rejected so many occasions,” Cooke says softly.
Savard, now an assistant coach for the Calgary Flames, didn’t reply to a textual content message looking for remark.
For Cooke, it’s part of his previous.
“I haven’t considered it in a very long time,” he says. “Again then, I needed to apologize. I needed to inform him it wasn’t private. It may have been Milan Lucic who crossed the center. The play would have been the identical.”
When his taking part in profession ended after the 2014-15 season, Cooke ran a hockey academy in Minnesota and coached at two excessive colleges. If Cooke’s gamers anticipated him to show them easy methods to ship thunderous checks, they have been upset.
“The fact is completely different from the notion (of Cooke),” Bylsma says.
As a substitute, he careworn easy methods to compete relentlessly with out trying to find heads.
Cooke would throw his previous gear on and mingle with gamers on the ice. They may have complained he talked an excessive amount of. However Cooke was undeterred. “Regardless that you don’t see it along with your eyes, I need you to listen to it along with your ears, so that you will be profitable,’” Cooke would inform them.
His NHL experiences have been solely vital in the event that they have been shared.
“Most individuals don’t know, however by means of the final six or seven years, Matt has been doing a number of work together with his teaching,” Bylsma says.
He additionally has stayed busy doing different issues. Cooke paid for suites for underprivileged kids to look at NHL video games in a number of stops throughout his profession. He traveled to war-torn Haiti to donate money and time to charities and assist construct orphanages. However none of that obtained him any nearer to a return to the league. When he utilized for dozens {of professional} teaching vacancies throughout North America, he felt like his legacy adopted him.
“Not even a dialogue with some groups,” Cooke says.
On a whim, he utilized for the Toronto Marlies head teaching emptiness within the AHL this offseason. He shrugged when he realized the group went with the uber-experienced John Gruden, recent off an assistant teaching cease with the Bruins. However he was inspired when he acquired a cellphone name from Marlies GM Ryan Hardy, who questioned if Cooke would have an interest within the Growlers’ emptiness.
“All of us had some form of preconceived notion of how (Cooke) is likely to be as a coach based mostly on how he was as a participant,” Hardy says. “We discovered him to be a extremely clever man who had a ardour for educating. He was in a position to mirror on his expertise as a participant.”
The shoreline of St. John’s, Newfoundland. (Jeff Parsons / Particular to The Athletic)
Cooke had by no means been to Newfoundland when he and his spouse traveled east to start his second act.
“We’ve at all times had resistance to dwell within the second,” Cooke says. “In doing this, the 2 of us made the choice to be current extra. I’ve put a number of boots within the floor to earn respect.”
Cooke understands the ebbs and flows of a season in a spot like Newfoundland can suck gamers of their mojo. The inexperienced professionals are largely recent out of school or junior hockey.
However the Leafs take the Growlers critically. Leafs common Bobby McMann, for instance, developed in Newfoundland in 2021.
“There are guys on this workforce who will play within the NHL,” Cooke says. “It might take them three years, however they’ll play.”
The group is trusting Cooke, 45, to show gamers easy methods to develop into professionals.
And he’s studying easy methods to do exactly that.
When Cooke has to halt a special-teams drill to inform his gamers to guard the center of the ice, he’s finally sniffing out a scarcity of effort. He believes his workforce is “going by means of the motions.”
“That is your apply for tonight’s sport,” he warns them. “Don’t do it half-assed.”
That angle and method is what drove Cooke as a Stanley Cup winner with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
“(Cooke) earned my respect as a result of he was at all times trustworthy together with his choices,” Kennedy says. “Everybody he performed with had his respect. He was the definition of a man who everybody hated to play in opposition to however liked to play with.”
Matt Cooke is working to attach together with his gamers, on the ice and off of it. (Jeff Parsons / Particular to The Athletic)
Cooke is over an hour late for lunch when he enters a darkish restaurant, shaking his head with embarrassment. He’s nonetheless studying the realities of teaching two steps beneath the NHL.
Like how after a 3 p.m. sport on a Sunday exterior of Montreal, industrial flight delays imply his workforce can’t fly out till 9:30 p.m. Monday, arriving dwelling at 2:30 a.m.
A apply on Tuesday, regardless of three video games on the horizon? No likelihood.
Or how — an hour earlier — Cooke had one foot out of the sector when he needed to flip round. The Growlers’ younger Russian goalie Vyacheslav Peksa was known as as much as the AHL for the primary time.
Cooke needed to coordinate with the sector workers and guarantee doorways wouldn’t be locked so Peksa, 21, may return to gather his gear. Cooke answered Peksa’s questions and reminded him to convey a go well with, a tie and sufficient garments for what might be a multi-week journey.
Oh, and right here’s the time you in all probability must get up and be out the door to catch the 5 a.m. flight.
“They don’t know,” Cooke says. “I must make it possible for as he’s leaving right here we now have at the least considerably ready him.”
To return to hockey’s largest stage, he desires Matt Cooke the communicator to interchange the picture of Matt Cooke ingrained within the hockey world.
“Speaking is one factor I really feel I overdo at occasions,” he says, tongue planted firmly in cheek.
His workplace door is open. He extends his arms to 2 plush off-white couches for discussions. Throughout apply, Cooke buzzes round, chattering and smiling.
“It’s my job to verify (gamers) perceive little nuances I’ve realized all through my taking part in profession,” Cooke says. “It is probably not {that a} participant can’t grasp these nuances. They may not even know they exist.”
Cooke hopes to comply with two of his former assistant coaches, Tony Granato with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Darby Hendrickson with the Minnesota Wild. They backed him whereas additionally delivering vital route from teaching and administration. Traces have been by no means crossed and belief was by no means damaged.
“I view myself as that man,” Cooke says. “I really feel like I’d be an superior assistant coach within the NHL.”
Satirically, Cooke’s most significant affect might be if his gamers don’t comply with his lead.
Earlier this season, 2018 second-round NHL Draft decide Serron Noel threw successful that seemed like a Matt Cooke particular. Noel skated from behind into the again of Trois-Rivières Lions ahead Anthony Beauregard. The boards shook violently from the pressure of it.
Noel vehemently protested his two-game suspension to Cooke, who listened patiently. “But it surely’s the best name,” Cooke instructed him. “You might have the power to restrict the danger (to different gamers) and nonetheless be bodily.”
Cooke positioned an arm across the participant as they slowly reviewed clips of Noel’s bodily method. Cooke instructed. Noel listened. Completely different skate positioning and improved motion will result in higher outcomes. The aim: Apply physicality with out malice.
“If a man wants route on easy methods to rein in physicality, then it’s my duty to verify he will get that assist,” Cooke says. “As a result of which may be the one factor holding him again.”
Matt Cooke is hopeful his work in Newfoundland creates a pathway again to the NHL. (Jeff Parsons / Particular to The Athletic)
The two,693 raucous followers at Mary Brown’s Centre who welcome the Growlers are a fraction of the variety of followers Cooke used to play in entrance of. However on this cheerful coastal city, the Growlers are beloved.
“Our followers put up with us taking part in horribly the final time we have been right here,” Cooke tells gamers earlier than puck drop on a Thursday night time in opposition to the Worcester Railers. Veterans nod to his messages about duty. He stresses that with out the followers within the small city, his gamers wouldn’t have a job.
Followers bark at referees, gamers and Cooke, and $5 beers disappear when the “Chug Cam” flashes onto a video display above the sheet of ice.
The followers’ anger on the workforce is justified. The Growlers weren’t able to go and trailed 2-0 after the primary interval.
Typically, that form of efficiency would lead an NHL coach to keep away from the dressing room, leaving gamers to type out their failures. Cooke contemplates that method.
However he reminds himself that almost all of those gamers have not often confronted off in opposition to veterans clawing for paychecks to feed their households. So Cooke wonders aloud if his gamers are ready to be professionals.
“The worst half?” Cooke says to his workforce. “This could trouble you.”
His youthful gamers hold their eyes glued to the ground.
“Except you place your satisfaction on the road,” Cooke says, “the outcome would be the identical.”
The message lands: The Growlers storm again to tie the rating earlier than they offer up a late aim and lose 5-4. The loss is a blow for a workforce on the ECHL playoff bubble.
Cooke is aware of he wants their ears at a extra non-public second quickly sufficient.
“That feeling whenever you’re lacing your skates needs to be, ‘I can’t wait to go on the market and compete,’” he says of his workforce. “A few of them have it. A few of them, it needs to be at an entire different stage.”
Properly previous midnight, Cooke stays in his workplace delivering updates to the Leafs group. His voice grows hoarse because the hours pile up. He contemplates sleeping on the sofa in his workplace.
“Interact. Be current,” he tells himself as his eyes develop heavy. “After they are available within the morning, I will be the primary particular person they see. I must get to know the place they’re at and get to know them personally.”
And in order the ultimate revelers depart close by pubs, Cooke stays in his workplace, interested by how he might help every participant advance on their hockey journey.
Cooke desires them to craft tales they’re pleased with. Perhaps after they do, his personal story will change.
“There comes a cut-off date,” he says, “when individuals know you’re on this realm for the best causes.”
(Illustration: Daniel Goldfarb / The Athletic. Images: Current-day Matt Cooke photographs, Jeff Parsons / Particular to The Athletic; with Penguins, Gregory Shamus / NHLI through Getty Pictures)