Scott Freaking Hartnell

It seems that every time a new signing occurs it’s a good idea to profile said player. So today I want to talk about Hartnell. This time I might get a bit more personal, and use a new journalist style for this one,because frankly I really like Scott Hartnell and I hope he wears the black and orange for a very long time.

One of the reason I like that he’s a flyers is that he has a great attitude and really has fun with the game. As fans we sometimes take the game too serious, and I think Hartnell brings us back to when the game was fun for everyone. A few years back a Penguins fan bought a customized flyers jersey with the name “Fartsmell” on the back. It was an obvious shot at Scott Hartnell, but Hartnell being the fun loving down to earth guy he was thought it was funny. He was such a good sport about the joke that he even sighed it as “Fartsmell.”  That’s what makes him such a class act, and why he has such a good attitude as a player in the NHL.

Hartnell has been a Flyer since 2007. He came to the team in the trade with the Predators that included Kimmo Timonen.  This past season was his best season with the Flyers. Not only did he have an all time career high of 37 goals, but there seemed to more of a maturity of the player  when looking at his PIMs. Hartnell has been known as an enforcer in the past and through his tenure with the Flyers he has ranked up a lot of penalty minutes, but this past season he had the least compared to his previous seasons. While 136 is still a lot, it is less than his last season.  Hartnell really has shown better focus this past season. In addition to his 37 goals, his shots were 232 and he had 30 assists. Hartnell was among the top line for the Flyers by being just behind linesmate Giroux, with 67 points.

If Hartnell continues to have focus on the ice, he’s going to continue to succeed as a member of the Flyers top line.  With Voracek and Giroux expected to be on the “Ginger line” with Hartnell, the three players will most likely bounce off of each other.

Thanks for reading!

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