Scott Hartnell’s charging major a result of Ben Bishop’s acting? (Video)
Something is about to happen on this site that is extremely rare and thought to be impossible to do – go to bat for Scott Hartnell.
In Saturday’s tilt against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the ginger-bearded one went behind the net as goaltender Ben Bishop played the puck. Hartnell makes contact with Bishop and the netminder’s head snaps backwards.
For this play, Hartnell was assessed a five minute major penalty and a 10 minute misconduct. The point leader for the Columbus Blue Jackets – yes, Hartnell – was sent to the showers.
Should Hartnell have received a penalty? Yes. Should it have been as harsh as it was? Take a look at another angle on the play and see if the changes your mind at all:
Hartnell definitely makes contact with Bishop; however, it appears the goaltender makes it look a bit worse than it actually was. As scrums formed away from the crease, Bishop was up and skating around, seemingly uninjured on the play.
To the officials credit they see this incident in real time and aren’t allowed the opportunity to review. They enforced the rules of charging, which are as follows:
With those lengthy rules in mind, it seems unlikely Hartnell will face any supplemental discipline. Plus, Bishop has a track record of embellishing. In the most recent Eastern Conference Final, TVA Sports reported the netminder received a warning from the NHL regarding his propensity to overreact.
Tampa scored one goal on the major penalty and went on to win the game 5-2. In his post-game presser, John Tortorella was relatively calm, for Torts, when speaking to reporters:
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Jen Neale is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter! Follow @MsJenNeale_PD.
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