Letang claims Hartnell bites

During the final seconds of the Flyers’ 5-4 loss to the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins Thursday night, Flyers’ forward Scott Hartnell attacked Pittsburgh defenseman Kris Letang, whom he thought shoved Mike Richards head first into the net.  The two grappling players tumbled to the ice in a heap of humanity.  Moments later after separation, Letang skated feverishly to his bench grasping his hand.

Letang returned to the bench with a trainer just seconds later to allow the referees to look closely at his towel-wrapped finger.   The problem?  Letang claims Hartnell bit him.

“My answer is going to be ask him. He knows what he did,” Letang told the media. “Go ask Hartnell.”

The refs did not seem convinced and skated away after taking the look.  However, when it comes to scenario’s such as this, the league will likely investigate.

“It sets up the whole season,” Letang said. “We have more games to play against them and we know they’re about doing stupid things like that at the end of the game.”

Hartnell denied all accusations.

“I don’t know what happened,” Hartnell said. “I know he went to the bench and I saw Pronger with Kunitz so I jumped over there. I was out there for two minutes so I don’t know what really happened.

“He had his hands in my face, doing the face wash and we were rolling around. I can’t say what happened.”