What the hell are you doing Hartnell? Has become a common phrase to scream during Flyers games, however, one surprising thing about this season is that Hartnell actually started well. He had 19 points (9 goals, 10 assists) through the first 26 games, however, since December 5th Hartnell has only 5 goals in 53 games. Hes gone through stretches of 10, 13 and 17 games without lighting the lamp.
The lack of production is no doubt troubling.
The last time Hartnell had a shooting percentage this low (8.3) was in 2002-2003 when he shot 5.4 percent.
This years goal total (14) is the lowest since 2002-2003 when he scored only 12 times.
His +/- of -5 this season is the lowest since 2002-2003 when he was also -5.
Hartnell is second in the NHL with 53 minor penalties (hes trailing ex Flyers dipstick Steve Downie who has 59).
Hartnell has 45 giveaways which ranks him only behind Richards (49) when it comes to Flyer forwards, but Richards has 41 takeaways, Hartnell has only 26.
Add the scoring troubles to the talk amongst Flyers fans that Hartnell’s wife was sleeping with Carter (unproven rumor), and the extremely undisciplined play Hartnell has shown on the ice and you get one hell of an ugly season, almost as hideous as his hair.
The question is though, what happened to that early season play? Is Hartnell injured? Did he lose confidence? Is something going on off the ice we don’t know about?
Its a very puzzling situation, and a very unfortunate one for the Flyers since Hartnell was depended upon to fill the shoes of Knuble.
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