Matt Cooke

It was a confluence of stories when the Pittsburgh Penguins took on the Washington Capitals Thursday.

Lost in Sidney Crosby's near return, Evgeni Malkin's wonky knee, James Neal's unlimited goals and injuries to just about everyone else on the team, Matt Cooke's conduct—one of the biggest offseason question marks hovering over the Pittsburgh Penguins—has gone quietly under the radar.

Which is exactly how those in Pittsburgh would have it.

The NHL, more than ever with its new rule restrictions, is full of dirty plays. 

Brendan Shanahan has done his job in really enforcing these rules and handing down steep but acceptable punishments.

Here is a list of the five dirtiest players in today's NHL, and in turn, the players that can expect a call from Shanahan the most often.

As always, feel free to comment about what players you think should be included on this list. I am always interested in hearing other people's opinions. 

Anybody seen Andrew Ladd around lately?

You'd definitely notice him, though you might not recognize him thanks to facial injuries sustained from a puck during a recent game against the Ottawa Senators. For his next game, Ladd is reportedly planning to don a visor for the first time

It's learning from mistakes that separates some from those who end up in those clever Darwin Awards books. Ladd appears to have heeded the lesson: pucks hurt.

Hockey is one of the fastest, hardest hitting sports invented. With multiple hits in each game and tons of hits every week, it is hard to pick just 10 that no doubt belong on this list.

Some major hits didn’t look bad at all and some hits make fans hurt just by watching them. But here are some of the best and toughest hits seen this season that show just how tough these players are.

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Ray Shero and Mike Gillis have plenty in common.

The General Managers of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Vancouver Canucks, respectively, their teams are among the best in the game. Each commands a front office which performs some of the most masterful managerial work in the NHL salary cap era, and their clubs are among the favorites to win the Stanley Cup.

Ol' Matty Cooke did it again.

Straight off a page from the Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka handbook, Cooke dished out another dangerous blow to an opponent. This time, a flying elbow to the head of New York Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh. He received a a five-minute major penalty and game misconduct for his efforts. 

In the wake of Matt Cooke's long suspension, rumors have sprung up that Penguins owner Mario Lemieux and team president David Morehouse have decided that Matt Cooke needs to be traded. 

By now we have all seen the Matt Cooke hit on New York Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh.

The NHL responded by handing out a minimum 14-game suspension (10 regular season games followed by up to seven games in the first round of the playoffs) to Cooke for what is widely regarded as one of the ugliest hits in all of hockey—the head shot.

Last season, the NHL felt forced to do something about the increase in blatant hits to the head.

After losing high-profile players such as Marc Savard and David Booth to head shot-related concussions, the NHL saw that, left unchecked, hits to the head would not only continue, but perhaps even increase.

Their response was Rule 48.

The so-called "head shot rule" states: "A lateral or blind side hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and/or the principal point of contact is not permitted."