So Scotty Hartnell wanted his old Pac-Man cereal. It looked very apparent that Hartnell did bite Kris Letang last night. Letang does not say it in the video but basically all but implies it. Roll the film please.
Mr. Letang speaks about his hand.
Now a little more from Dave Molinari (Post Gazette):
The game was typically nasty at times, but took a particularly bizarre turn with less than two seconds left in regulation, when the Penguins contend that Flyers forward Scott Hartnell bit defenseman Kris Letang on the right ring finger during a scuffle behind the Penguins’ net.
No Penguins official or player would make that accusation on the record; the company line was to “Ask Hartnell what he did.”
For his part, Letang, whose finger was heavily bandaged, said simply, “I think he knows what he did.”
Hartnell told reporters that he did not bite Letang and had “not ever, really” been accused of biting an opponent before last night.
He also said, however, that “a lot of stuff happens on the bottom of the pile. He had his hands in my face doing the face wash and we’re rolling around. I can’t say what happened.”
Asked if the Penguins will ask the league office to look into that incident, Bylsma responded that “the league investigates every incident that happens within a game.”
Hartnell received a roughing minor for his role in the scrum, but nothing that would be expected if he had been caught biting an opponent.
“It was in a scrum,” Letang said.
“[The referees] really didn’t have a chance to see what happened. It was a wrestling kind of thing. They couldn’t see any details.”
Now Hartnell insists he did not bite the finger/hand area of Letang but the bleeding and the way Letang came out of the scrum otherwise. To be fair we have the Philly take from the Philly Daily News site.
Here is the Frank Seravalli take on what Hartnell said after:
He bit me!
After Danny Briere’s shot was blocked in the final seconds, Mike Richards crashed into the net and a full-on melee ensued around him. Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang contended after the game that Scott Hartnell bit him while the two were wrestling on the ice, allegedly causing his hand to bleed.
“No,” Hartnell said when asked if he bit Letang. “He had his hands in my face, doing the face- wash. We were rolling around on the ice. A lot of stuff happens at the bottom of a pile.”
The NHL suspended Ottawa’s Jarrko Ruutu for two games last season for biting Buffalo’s Andrew Peters in a similar scrum. Hartnell isn’t the first Flyer to be accused of biting, either. The retired Derian Hatcher was accused of biting New Jersey’s Travis Zajac but he was not fined or suspended.
Okay it is obvious something happened here and the NHL will investigate it. I am sure of that. The Flyers reputation will hurt them in this case and unlike Hatcher…Hartnell may see something here. What that is…fine…suspension…I do not know.
These are the kind of things that make a rivalry extra nasty. What the NHL really does not want to see but what the fans WANT to see. Whether anyone wants to admit this or not. This rivalry has one thing over the football version of the Battle Of Pennsylvania. What is that? This one has some serious bite.
Update: Hartnell got no fine and no suspension but here is a tribute for him anyway of sorts.
