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Penguins Cooke: ‘I can’t control other people’s opinions’

Pittsburgh Penguins v New York Islanders

at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on March 22, 2013 in Uniondale, New York.

Bruce Bennett

Matt Cooke’s devastating hit on Marc Savard remains a contentious issue in hockey circles and the storyline isn’t going away with the Eastern Conference final between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins set to begin.

In March of 2010, Cooke, the Penguins’ forward, hit Savard in the head with a blindside check as the Bruins’ forward went to take a shot.

As a result, Savard’s on-ice hockey career has ceased due to concussions. In October of 2012, the 35-year-old Savard, who last played an NHL game on Jan. 22, 2011, tweeted that there was “no comeback in the foreseeable future.”

Cooke isn’t liked in Boston - a bit of an understatement. And members of the Bruins, like Milan Lucic, have not forgotten about the hit on Savard.

This spring, Bruins play-by-play man Jack Edwards of NESN got into hot water during a broadcast after comparing Cooke to Robert Kennedy’s assassin Sirhan Sirhan. Edwards, who was confronted by Penguins’ GM Ray Shero, apologized for his remarks.

But, you get the idea.

“I can’t control other people’s opinions,” Cooke told Scott Burnside of ESPN.com.“I’ve learned that fans have emotions towards certain things and they’re going to be attached to them.

“I need to go out and prepare to play against the Bruins to the best of my ability. If I’m worried about that, it’s going to affect me in a negative way.”