Jacked Up

A subplot of the Bruins--Penguins playoff series centers around Pittsburgh winger Matt Cooke and partisan Boston TV play-by-play man Jack Edwards. During an April 20 broadcast, Edwards (left) noted that last year the Pittsburgh media nominated Cooke for the Masterton Trophy—for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey—because the erstwhile cheap-shot artist had reformed. Edwards accused Cooke of "basically assassinating" Bruins center Mark Savard, who played only 25 more regular-season games after he suffered a concussion from a Cooke head shot on March 7, 2010. Edwards compared Cooke's Masterton nomination to a nomination for Robert Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, as "prisoner of the year." (He later apologized on Twitter.) It's not the first time Edwards, who in '02 worked soccer's World Cup for ESPN, has entered the hyperbole zone.

April 10, 2010

SETUP The Bruins beat the Hurricanes to clinch a playoff spot.

JACKED UP "Torn asunder by crippling injuries. Abandoned and insulted by the arbiters of NHL justice. Darn near starved to death by a lack of goal scoring. Deserted by the faint of heart. The Boston Bruins never lost their faith, and when the roll is called for the playoffs, they will be there, present and accounted for."

April 20, 2009

SETUP Boston beats the Canadiens in Game 3 of a first-round playoff series.

JACKED UP "Two hundred thirty-four years ago yesterday, a bunch of rag-tag foreigners stood up against the greatest fighting force in the world. And today schoolchildren in Massachusetts had Patriots Day off because of that. Well, a bunch of modern-day Bostonians have turned back hockey's royalty, and they have sent their faithful on a red-coated retreat to the exits."

June 5, 2002

SETUP The U.S. men's soccer team, behind a goal from Brian McBride (below) upsets Portugal in its opener at the World Cup.

JACKED UP "Mine eyes have seen the glory! The United States has shocked Portugal! Game over! 3--2! Final."

PHOTO

STEVE BABINEAU/NHLI/GETTY IMAGES (EDWARDS)

PHOTO

SHAUN BOTTERILL/GETTY IMAGES (MCBRIDE)