If you get past the laughable hypocrisy inherent in Pittsburgh Penguins' co-owner Mario Lemieux tossing a rock at the National Hockey League from inside the glass house he shares with Matt Cooke, the Magnificent One's much bigger sin is a lack of leadership.

For those who somehow missed it, Lemieux fired a missile at the NHL on Sunday, complaining the league did not properly punish the combatants in Friday's gang war on Long Island that produced 346 penalty minutes, 10 ejections, 15 fighting majors, 20 misconducts, three suspensions totalling 23 games and a $100,000 U.S. team fine to the Islanders for an obvious failure to control their players, who were out to avenge a beating in the teams' previous meeting.

"Hockey is a tough, physical game, and it always should be. But what happened Friday night on Long Island wasn't hockey. It was a travesty," Lemieux said in a statement on the Penguins website. "It was painful to watch the game I love turn into a sideshow like that. The NHL had a chance to send a clear and strong message that those kinds of actions are unacceptable and embarrassing to the sport. It failed.

"We, as a league, must do a better job of protecting the integrity of the game and the safety of our players. We must make it clear that those kinds of actions will not be tolerated and will be met with meaningful disciplinary action."

The suspensions and fine apparently weren't enough for his liking. That's certainly arguable and if his desire for more or sterner stuff out of NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell was the sum total of his shot across the league's bow, he wouldn't have cracked any new ground but the weight behind his opinion would have done the game a service.

Indeed, had Lemieux stopped right there, he would only have to answer for his willingness to employ Cooke, a stick-and-run artist currently under suspension for yet another attempt to injure, this one a hit from behind on Fedor Tyutin. The league's headshot rule was sparked, in part, by Cooke's unpunished hit that concussed Boston's Marc Savard, a man who hasn't been the same since.

Mere days before he hit Tyutin, Cooke kneed Alex Ovechkin and got away with it.

But Lemieux went a sentence too far and his lame threat to walk away from the league that made him rich and famous is impossible to accept.

"If the events relating to Friday night reflect the state of the league, I need to re-think whether I want to be a part of it."

Lemieux needs to rethink what it means to be a leader and a partner in the NHL. He needs to rethink what he can do to help the league eliminate the kind of thuggery that blackened TV screens on Friday night. He needs to make a serious attempt to join the competition committee -- five players and five owners or managers addressing on-ice issues -- and work on solutions from the inside out. Attend the meetings. Change the culture that promotes vengeance.

That's what the Friday night fights were all about. The Isles called up minor-league thug Micheal Haley -- 144 PIMs in 50 games for Bridgeport -- specifically for that game and he fanned the flames by fighting Pittsburgh's Max Talbot. Talbot, you may recall, delivered a blow nine days earlier that concussed Islander Blake Comeau, who is still unable to play. It went unpenalized by the refs and unpunished by Campbell. Justice denied by the league, vengeance invoked by the team; it's a pattern we see repeated every year and the violence is rarely contained to one act of retribution.

In the aftermath of Friday's goon show, Martin was tagged with a four-game suspension for punching Talbot in the head and fellow Islander Trevor Gillies got nine games for his brutal attack on Pittsburgh's Eric Tangradi in the third. A vicious Gillies elbow and charge knocked Tangradi's head into the glass and he fell to the ice, only to have Gillies start punching him in the head.

"The actions by the Islanders' Gillies and Martin were deliberate attempts to injure by delivering blows to the head of players who were unsuspecting and unable to defend themselves," Campbell said.

"The message should be clear to all players: targeting the head of an opponent by whatever means will be dealt with by suspension."

As that third-period melee spread, Haley beat up Talbot, then skated the length of the ice to fight a willing Pittsburgh goalie Brent Johnson, the man who nine days earlier had one-punched Islander netminder Rick DiPietro, leaving him with broken facial bones. In other words, another act of vengeance. Pittsburgh's Eric Godard was automatically suspended 10 games for leaving the players' bench to defend Johnson and tag-team Haley.

"Yes, I regret it, but no, I am going to try to defend my teammates. I am kind of torn with that," Godard said.

He did what comes naturally to tough guys and will pay the price. Generally speaking, Lemieux thinks the price is too low. Point taken. But his criticism of the league for its failure to protect players cannot be accepted without qualification because of Cooke's presence on the Penguins' roster.

If Lemieux wishes to be heard and respected on the issue of hockey violence, and there is every reason for that to happen, he must first clean out his own dressing room of its worst offender.

Cooke has been suspended by the league four times for a total of 10 games.

As his rap sheet attests, he's not an honourable guy. He's dirty, notoriously so in fact, and has been throughout his career.

The euphemism for Cooke's ilk is pest. But he's not a pest, he's a danger.

Lemieux is right when he contends the league has not done enough to protect its players from dangerous opponents.

The Penguins' co-owner is in a position to do the league a favour on that front. He ought to think about it.

dbarnes@edmontonjournal.com