WHAT THE *#$%@&?  THE FLYERS AND THEIR FANS ARE PIECE OF SHOTS CHEAPSHOT ARTISTS

Posted by adam on 11/26/07 at 08:58 PM ET

I love being a piece of shot!

Posted by Jon from Philly on 11/26/07 at 09:06 PM ET

they’re just making up for the eagles not hurting tom brady last night

Posted by Mike from Philly on 11/26/07 at 09:13 PM ET

enough is enough. Make an example out of him and suspend him for 41 games. This is disgusting.

Posted by bsalamon on 11/26/07 at 09:25 PM ET

Haven’t seen the video, obviously, but the still photo looks pretty darn incriminating.  Not that you can really tell anything from a still photo.

Oh wait-

Is that Scott Hartnell?

Suspend the sonofabitch.

Posted by mudshark from Denver, CO on 11/26/07 at 09:33 PM ET

I’ve seen the replay from the CSN feed in Philly but it was not shown in real time. The puck was chipped out of the Flyers d-zone up the ice. Alberts went down to block the puck along the boards between his blue line and the red line. Hartnell was coming from the center of the ice looking to make a hit. By the time he got there, Alberts was on his knees blocking the puck and his head was at the top of the boards, right where it meets the glass. In the slow-mow replays, Hartnell’s skates are turned with spray so it looked like he was at least trying to stop. It should be noted Hartnell took one stride towards the boards as the play developed initially. I’m not 100% sure Hartnell tried the best he could to stop. He even said after the game he was going to finish his check on the d-man and said that he realized at the last moment the guy was in a vulnerable position. Again, I didn’t see the hit live and they didn’t show any full-time replays on the post-game show.

Posted by phillyd from New Jersey on 11/26/07 at 10:30 PM ET

Note for my comment above: full-time should be full-speed.

Posted by phillyd from New Jersey on 11/26/07 at 10:33 PM ET

I was watching the game while it happened, full speed and live. Scott did try to stop but had already built up too much momentum. Had Alberts not gone to his knees it would have been a clean hit. Alberts back isn’t towards the boards like the Jones hit as you can see in the picture. In my opinion there should be no suspension but under the rule of the current NHL administration expect a large suspension and possibly a penalty against the Flyer’s organization.

Posted by Mark from Philly on 11/26/07 at 11:00 PM ET

Hartnell stuck his butt out, and I’m not sure whether that’s an old Predators trick—let’s just say that Hartnell had a tendency to sprain knees (Fischer, Legace) and plow into (not bump, plow) Red Wings goalies with alarming regularity-or whether it was a case of momentum carrying him through despite his attempts to stop. 

TSN’s got a clip up, as does Sportsnet, and both do a good job of establishing context in that it was a game involving both a scrap and a bit of a cheap shot-and-retribution thing going on between Chara, Eager, and Ward, so…

It’s hard to say.  Obviously, given the teams’ history, I think there will be a suspension, but whether it was truly an intent to injure issue, I think it’s a case of a “bang bang play” going wrong, fast.

Here’s what the gents had to say in the recap:

Philadelphia’s Scott Hartnell was given a five-minute boarding penalty and a game misconduct for hitting defenceman Andrew Alberts at 14:22 of the second period. Andrews left the game with an unspecified head injury and will be evaluated on Tuesday.

Boston’s Zdeno Chara said that his team decided not to retaliate after Alberts was injured.

“It’s something we talked about,” Chara said. “We probably ended up with some bruises, but we have two points and that’s the most important thing right now. It’s up to the league to address things like that.”

Hartnell said that the hit on Alberts was not deliberate.

“I did not try to hurt him,” Hartnell explained. “There was no intent at all. I am not that type of player. If you look at all the games this year and past years, I finish my checks every time I have an opportunity.”

The game was the first between the two teams since Philadelphia’s Randy Jones was suspended for two games after checking the Bruins’ Patrice Bergeron hard into the boards during the Flyers’ 2-1 win at Boston on Oct. 27. Bergeron remains on injured reserve with a severe concussion.

Murray said that the Bruins had no intention of retaliating.

“It’s unfortunate it happened and obviously we don’t have Bergy back,” Murray said. “But we were focused on making sure we came back after our loss on the Island and getting two points because there’s a lot of teams winning and we don’t want to get behind the eight ball and we want to keep climbing in the standings.”

The “finishing my check” argument is probably the worst one to have.  He’s got a history of “finishing checks” that have led to player injuries, and I speak as a Wings fan who’s seen the guy stick his knees out to clip players and nail people when vulnerable, so I’m not inclined to give him a quarter, but this instance is so fast that even I can’t say that the guy should be suspended outright, and I really don’t like the guy at all.

TSN said that Alberts was able to walk out of the rink on his own.

Posted by George Malik from South Lyon, MI on 11/27/07 at 01:17 AM ET

McErlain posted the Youtube clip:

<object width=“425” height=“355”></param></param><embed src=“http://www.youtube.com/v/HIg8_Ls6oSU&rel=1&border=0” type=“application/x-shockwave-flash” wmode=“transparent” width=“425” height=“355”></embed></object>

As well as an extended quote from Hartnell…

Posted by George Malik from South Lyon, MI on 11/27/07 at 02:25 AM ET

Damn Youtube…

Anyway, there’s also photographic evidence...

Posted by George Malik from South Lyon, MI on 11/27/07 at 03:23 AM ET

Did the fans boo when he got up? If they did that is pretty classless.

Posted by Josh from Mich on 11/27/07 at 11:46 AM ET

He let up by driving his hip into the guys head along the dasher. Good thing he wasn’t going all out to cripple him. If you are truly easing up on a player in a vulnerable position you put your hands up against the glass and absorb the impact that way. Instead his arms are tucked in to ensure he transfers all of his momentum. Just chalk this up to finishing your check.

Posted by Hockey1919 from Montreal on 11/27/07 at 12:53 PM ET

It’s hockey, get over it and move on.
Alberts was ok the minute he hit the ice, I would even dare to use the word malingering, which was pretty obvious if you were sitting close enough to the hit, he lifted his head to see how close the ref was. Stop picking on the flyers, it’s not like they got mcsorely out of retirement yet.

Posted by freddie from philadelphia on 11/27/07 at 02:29 PM ET

He got two games.

I don’t believe this is a case of headhunting. Hartnell is slowing down into the hit and he lifts his elbow so it doesn’t make contact with Alberts’ head.

It’s hockey, it’s a collision sport and unfortunately injuries sometimes occur. Not everyone is worthy of a suspension.

Posted by Art from Philadelphia on 11/27/07 at 03:01 PM ET

I agree not everyone is worthy of a suspension but this isn’t the first time.  He didn’t get 20 games and I don’t think he intended to hurt Alberts.  But having this 2 game suspension might make him think a little more next time he’s in a situation like that instead of “finishing his check”.

Posted by Matt Fry from Winnipeg on 11/27/07 at 03:12 PM ET

Hartnell is a scumbag POS who is known for begin dirty. I’m sure he could have pulled up. I can’t stand him!!

Posted by Jason on 11/27/07 at 03:48 PM ET

Yeah. Who’s dirty?

We’re still waiting for the penalty for the blatant elbow Perezhogin threw into Primeau’s head. The penalty—not the suspension. All that cheap shot did was end a guy’s career.

We’re also still waiting for the penalty on Dirty Darcy Tucker’s leap into J.R. in the playoffs that same year. Another concussion case and not even a 2-minute minor. Tucker is a noted career-killer (look no further than Michael Peca, who hasn’t been the same player since the Tucker-Corson doublecheapo).

Posted by bob from pa on 11/27/07 at 11:27 PM ET