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Bylsma doesn’t think Cooke deserved major penalty

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Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma seemed to agree that Matt Cooke deserved a penalty for his hit from behind on Adam McQuaid, but maybe not a game misconduct.

“Clearly it’s a hit right through the numbers,” Bylsma said. “I don’t think it was a rough hit. I think he was going into the boards, it was right from the numbers. I’m not sure I thought it warranted a five-minute penalty. But, you know, he did come right behind the guy, was going in with the guy. There you have it.”

It’s common for coaches to stand up for their guys in these situations - or simply be biased due to a variety of factors - and some might say that Bylsma is guilty of that to an extent.

Still, at least he’s willing to admit there was something wrong with the hit.

More than anything else, though, he seemed upset that the Penguins lost their cool toward the end of the second period.

“I don’t think the situation at the end of the second period was in our favor,” Bylsma said. “We had a power-play. We had a power-play coming out of the third period. We got two of our power-play guys off the ice with those altercations.”

“Starting really at that point in time, with those guys going off the ice, it did I think get us off our game. I think we could have come out and scored a power-play goal, it would have been different. We weren’t able to get back at our game after that power-play.”