mad l8 but somehow i totally missed this this past year and randomly stumbled upon its existence earlier and did some searching to find it. pretty personal feature on hartnell from this past february. article 4.

http://flyers.nhl.com/v2/ext/2-6-12.pdf

get fuked.

i've only ever had the beef sandwich there and it was one of the best sandwiches i've ever had.

edit:
- bradleyc4

i assure you i have respect for their operation over there sir

tbh, ive never been a huge extra sharp prov fan (even when i delivered for Primos, always opted for mild) so maybe that particular sandwich was not for me.

ill give the beef one a try tho

dp

dp
- Crimsoninja

livid about your distaste for xshrp prov

livid about your distaste for xshrp prov
- OrangeBlack27

youre not the first and wont be the last to give me poop for it

reading a q and a with west ham's manager and finding the differences between how they handle the press there compared to the way coaches here do is rather interesting. could you imagine a coach here saying some of this? they'd be skewered.

Q: Talking about those first few games, you might say the fixture list has been relatively kind to us?

A: I would agree with you; they are games we've got a chance of getting a result and a few points out of.

In this league, I always say to the players: "Lads, you're all looking forward to playing against Manchester United and Chelsea - and we're all looking forward to playing at Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford and The Emirates - but at the end of the day we should be looking forward to playing against the teams we've got a better chance of winning against."

We should all be at our best for those games and if we do that, then we will be a very strong Premier League outfit. You can play your very best against Manchester United; Chelsea; Arsenal; Liverpool; Man City - you could play a really good game - and still come off having lost 2-0, or 3-1.

You know that when you play your very best against somebody around you, somebody around the same level as you, you're probably going to come out with a win or at least a draw. That's the most important thing, the mentality of the players to get the results where we're more capable of getting [them] and not waiting to produce their best performance against the top boys.

reading a q and a with west ham's manager and finding the differences between how they handle the press there compared to the way coaches here do is rather interesting. could you imagine a coach here saying some of this? they'd be skewered.

Q: Talking about those first few games, you might say the fixture list has been relatively kind to us?

A: I would agree with you; they are games we've got a chance of getting a result and a few points out of.

In this league, I always say to the players: "Lads, you're all looking forward to playing against Manchester United and Chelsea - and we're all looking forward to playing at Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford and The Emirates - but at the end of the day we should be looking forward to playing against the teams we've got a better chance of winning against."

We should all be at our best for those games and if we do that, then we will be a very strong Premier League outfit. You can play your very best against Manchester United; Chelsea; Arsenal; Liverpool; Man City - you could play a really good game - and still come off having lost 2-0, or 3-1.

You know that when you play your very best against somebody around you, somebody around the same level as you, you're probably going to come out with a win or at least a draw. That's the most important thing, the mentality of the players to get the results where we're more capable of getting
- OrangeBlack27[them] and not waiting to produce their best performance against the top boys.

This is pretty cool.

I asked John Tortorella about this, he told me to go (frank) myself.

This is pretty cool.

I asked John Tortorella about this, he told me to go (frank) myself.
- nfph

lol

mad l8 but somehow i totally missed this this past year and randomly stumbled upon its existence earlier and did some searching to find it. pretty personal feature on hartnell from this past february. article 4.

http://flyers.nhl.com/v2/ext/2-6-12.pdf
- OrangeBlack27

is it poss to link the article plz? cannot click the pdf on my phone

is it poss to link the article plz? cannot click the pdf on my phone
- Don'tForgetTocchet

pdf was all i could find, ma. i'll just copy/paste it here. ps if you had an iphone, that pdf would have opened brilliantly.

4. Philadelphia Inquirer - Hartnell Up
Sam Donnellon
The game had been a painful piece of déjà vu, the booing inside Wells Fargo Center incessant.
Now, Scott Hartnell just wanted to forget about it for a while, forget about another tough start to
what was shaping up to be another tough season in Philadelphia.
He hit the bar near his Old City crib for a few pops with some teammates. A couple of men, 20-
somethings, eyed him up, stored up a sufficient quantity of liquid bravery, and started in on him.
"Giving it to me pretty good," he says. "Stuff like, 'We wish we could trade you for a bag of
pucks.' Something stupid, right? So I just said, 'Don't come to Broad Street this summer if we
win.' I called them out a little maybe, too. And then I left.
"So we'll see what happens."
This was in early October, when Hartnell - the Flyers' flopping, floppy-haired 29-year-old
winger - found himself buried on a fourth line, subject once again to the daily, multination trade
rumors that have pockmarked his five seasons in Philadelphia. That first season as a Flyer - after
signing a 6-year, $25.2 million deal - Hartnell did not score until his 16th game, and that was an
empty-netter. The next year, he set career highs in goals and assists. But then, the year after, his
very public and very ugly divorce reduced him to a zombie on blades, and his goal total hovered
in single digits for much of the season.
This has been Scott Hartnell's NHL life. Celebrated one season, scorned the next. Coveted as a
premier power forward one season, called a waste of cap space the next. This year is no
different: Considered trade bait at the start of this year's campaign, he's now having the best
season of his career. In fact, there may not be any athlete in this town's rich sports history - not
Andre Iguodala, not even Donovan McNabb - who has slid up and down the scale of fan passion
with the volatility Hartnell has, his free-spirited personality celebrated or scoffed at in equal
measure.
Fan favorite. Fan target.
Hero. Villain.
A loving soul. A lost one.
"I don't know if it's Philly but it seems people panic a little quicker here," he says. "They're
willing to cut you loose quicker here. You have one bad game and it's, 'Get out of here.' Whereas
in some markets they'll stay with you a little longer. So it's a little frustrating. But I know the way
I can play."
Elevated to play on the first line with Claude Giroux and Jaromir Jagr shortly after that Old City
encounter, Hartnell has responded with 25 goals and 19 assists, a pace that will greatly exceed
his previous season bests (30 goals and 30 assists). An all-star this year for the first time in his
11-season NHL career, his 6-2 220-pound frame and aggressive style has drawn comparisons to
John LeClair and Clark Gillies, large puck-loosening wingers with good hands and quick
releases.
Some have discounted Hartnell's numbers because he plays with Giroux, also an all-star, and
Jagr, a future Hall of Famer. But with Jagr out of the lineup over the weekend before the all-star
break and Giroux amid a pronounced scoring slump, Hartnell scored a total of five goals in
consecutive games against the New Jersey Devils and Boston Bruins.
"He's the one who worked on what he really needed to work on," says coach Peter Laviolette.
"He put himself in the position to be the player he is right now. I think Scott really deserves the
credit for what he's done."
It's something right out of a Dr. Seuss book, Scott Hartnell's hometown. Straddling the
Saskatchewan and Alberta border, Lloydminster is claimed by both Canadian provinces, yet falls
under one municipal government. For a while, you could smoke on one side of town but not the
other. The legal drinking age on the Alberta side is 18. On the Saskatchewan side, it's 19. Things
like property tax and auto insurance cost less on the Saskatchewan side. The dividing line is 50th
Street, a main drag in town. Thus, a 50th Street resident on the Alberta side who backs into his
buddy's car across the street pays almost 2 1/2 times more than his neighbor would for the same
transgression. Even time follows its own rules here. On the Saskatchewan side, they're on
Mountain Time and observe daylight savings time - even though the rest of the province does
not.
Confused? Understandable. Live there long enough, your hair might begin to look like Hartnell's,
too.
Truth is, there was no wild Hartnell coif growing up. Joy Hartnell, a teacher's aide who worked
with disabled children, mandated buzz cuts for all three of her boys. No exceptions. "I think
that's the reason he got out of there," says Scott's brother Devin. "So he could grow it out."
Truth is, Hartnell loved where he lived. Might not have ever left if not for hockey. The youngest
of Bill and Joy's four children, he was, even then, an oversized teddy bear, at least among family
and friends. Five years younger than Devin, his closest sibling, 9 years behind his eldest, Kyra -
the only sister - he was always bigger than his peers.
Even as a kid, the unbridled exuberance that has made him both a fan favorite and fan target in
Philly was part of his DNA. He was the family's kitchen-table clown, a dynamic that still exists
when they all get together, as they did for his first-ever NHL All-Star Game last week in Ottawa.
"The rest of them always cut him up," Bill Hartnell says of his siblings. "He tries to do it, tries to
get back. But it always seems to backfire on him."
He could hang with both Devin and older brother Chad athletically. He could also take his
beatings. Sometimes it seemed he even liked to take his beatings, the survival strategy for any
baby brother in a big family (just ask Eli Manning). Get up when knocked down, take your shots
when you can, never let them see your hurt. When the teasing and torment comes, as it inevitably
does within big families, laugh about it and bask in the attention.
"Scott grew up rough and tumble," says his father. "We didn't need to protect him."
Hartnell was 16 when he left home for good to play for Prince Albert of the Western Hockey
League. By then, both brothers had gone off to play hockey at Division I schools: Chad at
Colorado College, Devin at Michigan Tech. With good wheels and good hands, Chad was the
flashier of the two. Devin was more of a banger, and, his father says with a smile, "Always
willing to oblige," when it came to fighting. Scott was a combination of both.
At 17, he captained the Prince Albert team his way to an 82-point season and was named its
MVP. The Nashville Predators made him the sixth pick overall of the 2000 NHL draft. His first
game with the team took place in Japan. He was 18, the youngest player in the NHL. With
expectations high and his willingness to please, he flopped spectacularly, scoring just two goals
that first season. Over the next three, as his body matured and his mind was dragged along, he
averaged just over 15 goals and 100 penalty minutes. Not bad, but not the elite power forward
Nashville imagined when it picked him so high.
"He was so young," says Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen, then a Nashville teammate. "He
was still getting used to the league."
Timonen, who is 7 years older, asked Hartnell to room with him on the road that first year. Not
because he felt the kid needed guidance or an older brother, just because he liked him.
"He's one of those guys who is just so easy to be around," says Timonen. "Everyone likes him.
That's one of the reasons we really connected in Nashville. I came from Europe, didn't speak
much English at the time and he made it so much more fun. Sometimes he goes a little overboard
and I have to tell him to tone it down, but really, not too often."
After spending the lockout season of 2004-05 in Norway and winning a championship, Hartnell
scored 47 goals and tallied 87 points with the Predators over the next two seasons. But the NHL's
hard salary cap forced a fire sale in Nashville. He and Timonen were shipped to Philadelphia in
June 2007 for a first-round pick.
The deal was all about Timonen, a levelheaded defenseman, team leader, son of a hockey coach.
If Hartnell still seemed trapped emotionally at the end of that kitchen table in Lloydminster,
Timonen seemed wiser than his 32 years. "There are actually two Kimmos," says Timonen.
"There's a media Kimmo and then there is the other one." The other Kimmo had developed into
Hartnell's best friend. A man to whom he could pour out his soul.
Both men were signed to big contracts upon their arrivals. Timonen at 6 years for $37.8 million,
and Hartnell at 6 years, $25.2 million. Since then, Timonen has been a fan favorite, playing
smart, playing in pain, a calming presence on and off the ice. "The ultimate professional,"
general manager Paul Holmgren has called him.
Hartnell? "He's the class clown," says Holmgren. "I think every team has one. He has fun. He
enjoys life. For the most part, when he comes to the rink, he plays hard. But I think there's
always been that little bit more you'd like to get out of him."
"He's the ultimate power forward," says Danny Briere, who centered Hartnell's line when
Hartnell scored 24 goals last season. "What's funny about those guys, though, is that one year
they can score 20 and the next year they can score 35 depending on which line they're on, the
chemistry they do or don't build with certain players, and how well the other lines are playing."
After signing that big contract in 2007, he tried too hard to justify the money. The oddity - and
this has plagued him his entire career - is that the harder he tries, the more he seems detached and
disinterested. Hartnell rallied the second half of the '07-08 season and finished with 24 goals and
19 assists. In '08-09, his best season until this one, he amassed 30 goals and 30 assists and was so
popular that Hartnell wigs were part of a Flyers giveaway in March. When a taunting fan in
Pittsburgh wore one of those wigs and a replica Flyers jersey with "Fartsmell" across the back,
Hartnell autographed it, "To my biggest fan!! Your bud Scott Fartsmell 19."
But a month later, after the Flyers were eliminated in the first round by Pittsburgh, Hartnell was
fingered as a culprit. After a 60-point regular season, he had just two points in the six playoff
games. Turns out, the roller coaster wasn't confined to life on the ice. He was at the onset of a
very messy divorce.
Scott Hartnell met Lisa Renneke in 2005. A native of Brainerd, Minn. - the town that gave the
world Police Chief
Marge Gunderson in the movie "Fargo" - Renneke was a senior at David Lipscomb University in
Nashville when the two met. She was 5-10 with blond, wavy hair, and played basketball and
volleyball, and golfed. They married a couple of years later. And when Hartnell was traded to the
Flyers, the couple settled into an Old City loft. Life was good.
By the start of the 2009 season, life was not good. Rumors of Renneke's trysts, including one
with Flyer Jeff Carter, hit the Internet, and it worked like kryptonite on the player and his team.
Hartnell's goal total was still in single digits in December when he and Carter were forced to
publicly deny the rumor. It was first reported in a blog post by a Temple University senior, who
claimed he had gotten it from a Flyers employee. Hartnell did admit then that he was dealing
with some "personal issues." Later, he confirmed that they were about his marriage.
"It was pretty tough," he says now. "Somebody you love absolutely turns the switch and calls
you every bad name under the sun. Calls your family things, too. And making the money I do, I
lost a lot of money in the mix as well. People can blame me, whatever. But it was a really tough
year."
Tough on him. Tough on his friends. Tough on his family.
"When you have kids," says Joy Hartnell, "their pain is our pain, too. No matter how old they
are, or how young they are."
Says brother Devin: "It's funny how it affects all parts of your life when your home life isn't in
order with the way you would like it. It spills over into your relationships with your family. It
spills over into the way you play hockey. How good of a teammate you are. And a friend.
Everything you are."
The Flyers tanked early - they were 10th in the conference standings by the second week in
December - and it cost John Stevens, a popular coach with the players, his job. Those who liked
Stevens held Hartnell responsible, and filled the radio with talk of dealing him or simply cutting
him. Stevens was replaced by Laviolette, a Stanley Cup-winning coach with a reputation as a
taskmaster who quickly ran out of patience with Hartnell.
"It was a tough go there with Lavvy for a while," Hartnell says. "He challenged me. He called
me out pretty good a few times."
It came to a head in 2009-10, after the Flyers advanced past the Devils in the first round of the
playoffs without much help from Hartnell. His moribund regular season, in which he scored only
14 goals, had carried into the postseason. The Flyers coach called Hartnell into his office again.
It was, says Hartnell, "Probably the worst meeting I ever had. He wondered out loud if I even
wanted to play anymore. He challenged my character."
"Obviously we're really close friends," said Timonen. "And you share the painful moments with
your really close friends. We talked a lot. He was having a tough time. Everybody around him
was having a tough time. And the fans were really giving it to him. Sometimes you see that and
you'd like to tell the people what's going on but . . . you can't. It's personal stuff. And when
you're going through it and you have to play at the same time, it's so hard. It was really tough to
see that."
Says Hartnell: "One thing I've told my family is that I kind of forgot who I was in that marriage.
I lost myself for a couple of years there. And I'll be the first to admit it was my fault. My
priorities got a little messed up. My family kind of got put down. But you come through it. And
now, every time I see any of them it's an extra hug.
"I remember when it was over, my mom said to me that now she had her son back. I felt that
way, too. Like a big burden was off my chest. And obviously I could get back to my job and
playing the way I do."
Hartnell was one of the triggers in the Flyers' remarkable rally from a three-games-to-none hole
in the second round against Boston.Their 23-game playoff run finally ended in a 4-3 overtime
loss to Chicago in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals, but Hartnell had accumulated 17 postseason
points, including eight goals - more than half his regular-season total. His eighth goal, inside the
last 4 minutes of Game 6, had forced overtime.
When it was over, Laviolette had one last meeting with Hartnell.
"He said, 'I just want to apologize for what I said to you,'" Hartnell said, '"You do want to win.
You were a big part of our success. And you can be a player in this league. I can put you in a lot
of different positions.'
"I think he gets me now," Hartnell added. "I think he knows I help bring a team together."
As for the fans and the ebbs and flows of our civic mercury? Maybe the best way to monitor that
is through a Twitter trend that has, pun intended, gained legs over the last year.
"Hartnell Down" was a hashtag created by Seth Hastings during the playoff run two seasons ago
to poke fun at the winger's messy style. It counts the number of times Hartnell falls each game.
This year, it helped to create an endearing relationship between Hartnell and Flyers fans (and has
spawned a blog, a Tumblr and website, complete with a "down-o-meter" and online store). In
November, Hartnell joined in the count, and during his all-star appearance last weekend, he
pledged $1,000 to a charity for each time he hit the ice.
The charity collected $4,000.
"I love the fans here, I really do," he says. "They're intense. They want a championship here so
bad. And we feel the pressure, obviously. But it would be just the best feeling ever to bring a
championship here and have a parade down Broad Street, see them all out there in their orange
and black."
Even the guys from the bar that night?
"Yeah, they can come," Scott Hartnell says. "Life's too short, right?"

is it poss to link the article plz? cannot click the pdf on my phone
- Don'tForgetTocchet

Yeah, me either. All I got was this picture of the top of his head:



But seriously, romanesco is pretty tasty.

pdf was all i could find, ma. i'll just copy/paste it here. ps if you had an iphone, that pdf would have opened brilliantly.

4. Philadelphia Inquirer - Hartnell Up
Sam Donnellon
The game had been a painful piece of déjà vu, the booing inside Wells Fargo Center incessant.
Now, Scott Hartnell just wanted to forget about it for a while, forget about another tough start to
what was shaping up to be another tough season in Philadelphia.
He hit the bar near his Old City crib for a few pops with some teammates. A couple of men, 20-
somethings, eyed him up, stored up a sufficient quantity of liquid bravery, and started in on him.
"Giving it to me pretty good," he says. "Stuff like, 'We wish we could trade you for a bag of
pucks.' Something stupid, right? So I just said, 'Don't come to Broad Street this summer if we
win.' I called them out a little maybe, too. And then I left.
"So we'll see what happens."
This was in early October, when Hartnell - the Flyers' flopping, floppy-haired 29-year-old
winger - found himself buried on a fourth line, subject once again to the daily, multination trade
rumors that have pockmarked his five seasons in Philadelphia. That first season as a Flyer - after
signing a 6-year, $25.2 million deal - Hartnell did not score until his 16th game, and that was an
empty-netter. The next year, he set career highs in goals and assists. But then, the year after, his
very public and very ugly divorce reduced him to a zombie on blades, and his goal total hovered
in single digits for much of the season.
This has been Scott Hartnell's NHL life. Celebrated one season, scorned the next. Coveted as a
premier power forward one season, called a waste of cap space the next. This year is no
different: Considered trade bait at the start of this year's campaign, he's now having the best
season of his career. In fact, there may not be any athlete in this town's rich sports history - not
Andre Iguodala, not even Donovan McNabb - who has slid up and down the scale of fan passion
with the volatility Hartnell has, his free-spirited personality celebrated or scoffed at in equal
measure.
Fan favorite. Fan target.
Hero. Villain.
A loving soul. A lost one.
"I don't know if it's Philly but it seems people panic a little quicker here," he says. "They're
willing to cut you loose quicker here. You have one bad game and it's, 'Get out of here.' Whereas
in some markets they'll stay with you a little longer. So it's a little frustrating. But I know the way
I can play."
Elevated to play on the first line with Claude Giroux and Jaromir Jagr shortly after that Old City
encounter, Hartnell has responded with 25 goals and 19 assists, a pace that will greatly exceed
his previous season bests (30 goals and 30 assists). An all-star this year for the first time in his
11-season NHL career, his 6-2 220-pound frame and aggressive style has drawn comparisons to
John LeClair and Clark Gillies, large puck-loosening wingers with good hands and quick
releases.
Some have discounted Hartnell's numbers because he plays with Giroux, also an all-star, and
Jagr, a future Hall of Famer. But with Jagr out of the lineup over the weekend before the all-star
break and Giroux amid a pronounced scoring slump, Hartnell scored a total of five goals in
consecutive games against the New Jersey Devils and Boston Bruins.
"He's the one who worked on what he really needed to work on," says coach Peter Laviolette.
"He put himself in the position to be the player he is right now. I think Scott really deserves the
credit for what he's done."
It's something right out of a Dr. Seuss book, Scott Hartnell's hometown. Straddling the
Saskatchewan and Alberta border, Lloydminster is claimed by both Canadian provinces, yet falls
under one municipal government. For a while, you could smoke on one side of town but not the
other. The legal drinking age on the Alberta side is 18. On the Saskatchewan side, it's 19. Things
like property tax and auto insurance cost less on the Saskatchewan side. The dividing line is 50th
Street, a main drag in town. Thus, a 50th Street resident on the Alberta side who backs into his
buddy's car across the street pays almost 2 1/2 times more than his neighbor would for the same
transgression. Even time follows its own rules here. On the Saskatchewan side, they're on
Mountain Time and observe daylight savings time - even though the rest of the province does
not.
Confused? Understandable. Live there long enough, your hair might begin to look like Hartnell's,
too.
Truth is, there was no wild Hartnell coif growing up. Joy Hartnell, a teacher's aide who worked
with disabled children, mandated buzz cuts for all three of her boys. No exceptions. "I think
that's the reason he got out of there," says Scott's brother Devin. "So he could grow it out."
Truth is, Hartnell loved where he lived. Might not have ever left if not for hockey. The youngest
of Bill and Joy's four children, he was, even then, an oversized teddy bear, at least among family
and friends. Five years younger than Devin, his closest sibling, 9 years behind his eldest, Kyra -
the only sister - he was always bigger than his peers.
Even as a kid, the unbridled exuberance that has made him both a fan favorite and fan target in
Philly was part of his DNA. He was the family's kitchen-table clown, a dynamic that still exists
when they all get together, as they did for his first-ever NHL All-Star Game last week in Ottawa.
"The rest of them always cut him up," Bill Hartnell says of his siblings. "He tries to do it, tries to
get back. But it always seems to backfire on him."
He could hang with both Devin and older brother Chad athletically. He could also take his
beatings. Sometimes it seemed he even liked to take his beatings, the survival strategy for any
baby brother in a big family (just ask Eli Manning). Get up when knocked down, take your shots
when you can, never let them see your hurt. When the teasing and torment comes, as it inevitably
does within big families, laugh about it and bask in the attention.
"Scott grew up rough and tumble," says his father. "We didn't need to protect him."
Hartnell was 16 when he left home for good to play for Prince Albert of the Western Hockey
League. By then, both brothers had gone off to play hockey at Division I schools: Chad at
Colorado College, Devin at Michigan Tech. With good wheels and good hands, Chad was the
flashier of the two. Devin was more of a banger, and, his father says with a smile, "Always
willing to oblige," when it came to fighting. Scott was a combination of both.
At 17, he captained the Prince Albert team his way to an 82-point season and was named its
MVP. The Nashville Predators made him the sixth pick overall of the 2000 NHL draft. His first
game with the team took place in Japan. He was 18, the youngest player in the NHL. With
expectations high and his willingness to please, he flopped spectacularly, scoring just two goals
that first season. Over the next three, as his body matured and his mind was dragged along, he
averaged just over 15 goals and 100 penalty minutes. Not bad, but not the elite power forward
Nashville imagined when it picked him so high.
"He was so young," says Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen, then a Nashville teammate. "He
was still getting used to the league."
Timonen, who is 7 years older, asked Hartnell to room with him on the road that first year. Not
because he felt the kid needed guidance or an older brother, just because he liked him.
"He's one of those guys who is just so easy to be around," says Timonen. "Everyone likes him.
That's one of the reasons we really connected in Nashville. I came from Europe, didn't speak
much English at the time and he made it so much more fun. Sometimes he goes a little overboard
and I have to tell him to tone it down, but really, not too often."
After spending the lockout season of 2004-05 in Norway and winning a championship, Hartnell
scored 47 goals and tallied 87 points with the Predators over the next two seasons. But the NHL's
hard salary cap forced a fire sale in Nashville. He and Timonen were shipped to Philadelphia in
June 2007 for a first-round pick.
The deal was all about Timonen, a levelheaded defenseman, team leader, son of a hockey coach.
If Hartnell still seemed trapped emotionally at the end of that kitchen table in Lloydminster,
Timonen seemed wiser than his 32 years. "There are actually two Kimmos," says Timonen.
"There's a media Kimmo and then there is the other one." The other Kimmo had developed into
Hartnell's best friend. A man to whom he could pour out his soul.
Both men were signed to big contracts upon their arrivals. Timonen at 6 years for $37.8 million,
and Hartnell at 6 years, $25.2 million. Since then, Timonen has been a fan favorite, playing
smart, playing in pain, a calming presence on and off the ice. "The ultimate professional,"
general manager Paul Holmgren has called him.
Hartnell? "He's the class clown," says Holmgren. "I think every team has one. He has fun. He
enjoys life. For the most part, when he comes to the rink, he plays hard. But I think there's
always been that little bit more you'd like to get out of him."
"He's the ultimate power forward," says Danny Briere, who centered Hartnell's line when
Hartnell scored 24 goals last season. "What's funny about those guys, though, is that one year
they can score 20 and the next year they can score 35 depending on which line they're on, the
chemistry they do or don't build with certain players, and how well the other lines are playing."
After signing that big contract in 2007, he tried too hard to justify the money. The oddity - and
this has plagued him his entire career - is that the harder he tries, the more he seems detached and
disinterested. Hartnell rallied the second half of the '07-08 season and finished with 24 goals and
19 assists. In '08-09, his best season until this one, he amassed 30 goals and 30 assists and was so
popular that Hartnell wigs were part of a Flyers giveaway in March. When a taunting fan in
Pittsburgh wore one of those wigs and a replica Flyers jersey with "Fartsmell" across the back,
Hartnell autographed it, "To my biggest fan!! Your bud Scott Fartsmell 19."
But a month later, after the Flyers were eliminated in the first round by Pittsburgh, Hartnell was
fingered as a culprit. After a 60-point regular season, he had just two points in the six playoff
games. Turns out, the roller coaster wasn't confined to life on the ice. He was at the onset of a
very messy divorce.
Scott Hartnell met Lisa Renneke in 2005. A native of Brainerd, Minn. - the town that gave the
world Police Chief
Marge Gunderson in the movie "Fargo" - Renneke was a senior at David Lipscomb University in
Nashville when the two met. She was 5-10 with blond, wavy hair, and played basketball and
volleyball, and golfed. They married a couple of years later. And when Hartnell was traded to the
Flyers, the couple settled into an Old City loft. Life was good.
By the start of the 2009 season, life was not good. Rumors of Renneke's trysts, including one
with Flyer Jeff Carter, hit the Internet, and it worked like kryptonite on the player and his team.
Hartnell's goal total was still in single digits in December when he and Carter were forced to
publicly deny the rumor. It was first reported in a blog post by a Temple University senior, who
claimed he had gotten it from a Flyers employee. Hartnell did admit then that he was dealing
with some "personal issues." Later, he confirmed that they were about his marriage.
"It was pretty tough," he says now. "Somebody you love absolutely turns the switch and calls
you every bad name under the sun. Calls your family things, too. And making the money I do, I
lost a lot of money in the mix as well. People can blame me, whatever. But it was a really tough
year."
Tough on him. Tough on his friends. Tough on his family.
"When you have kids," says Joy Hartnell, "their pain is our pain, too. No matter how old they
are, or how young they are."
Says brother Devin: "It's funny how it affects all parts of your life when your home life isn't in
order with the way you would like it. It spills over into your relationships with your family. It
spills over into the way you play hockey. How good of a teammate you are. And a friend.
Everything you are."
The Flyers tanked early - they were 10th in the conference standings by the second week in
December - and it cost John Stevens, a popular coach with the players, his job. Those who liked
Stevens held Hartnell responsible, and filled the radio with talk of dealing him or simply cutting
him. Stevens was replaced by Laviolette, a Stanley Cup-winning coach with a reputation as a
taskmaster who quickly ran out of patience with Hartnell.
"It was a tough go there with Lavvy for a while," Hartnell says. "He challenged me. He called
me out pretty good a few times."
It came to a head in 2009-10, after the Flyers advanced past the Devils in the first round of the
playoffs without much help from Hartnell. His moribund regular season, in which he scored only
14 goals, had carried into the postseason. The Flyers coach called Hartnell into his office again.
It was, says Hartnell, "Probably the worst meeting I ever had. He wondered out loud if I even
wanted to play anymore. He challenged my character."
"Obviously we're really close friends," said Timonen. "And you share the painful moments with
your really close friends. We talked a lot. He was having a tough time. Everybody around him
was having a tough time. And the fans were really giving it to him. Sometimes you see that and
you'd like to tell the people what's going on but . . . you can't. It's personal stuff. And when
you're going through it and you have to play at the same time, it's so hard. It was really tough to
see that."
Says Hartnell: "One thing I've told my family is that I kind of forgot who I was in that marriage.
I lost myself for a couple of years there. And I'll be the first to admit it was my fault. My
priorities got a little messed up. My family kind of got put down. But you come through it. And
now, every time I see any of them it's an extra hug.
"I remember when it was over, my mom said to me that now she had her son back. I felt that
way, too. Like a big burden was off my chest. And obviously I could get back to my job and
playing the way I do."
Hartnell was one of the triggers in the Flyers' remarkable rally from a three-games-to-none hole
in the second round against Boston.Their 23-game playoff run finally ended in a 4-3 overtime
loss to Chicago in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals, but Hartnell had accumulated 17 postseason
points, including eight goals - more than half his regular-season total. His eighth goal, inside the
last 4 minutes of Game 6, had forced overtime.
When it was over, Laviolette had one last meeting with Hartnell.
"He said, 'I just want to apologize for what I said to you,'" Hartnell said, '"You do want to win.
You were a big part of our success. And you can be a player in this league. I can put you in a lot
of different positions.'
"I think he gets me now," Hartnell added. "I think he knows I help bring a team together."
As for the fans and the ebbs and flows of our civic mercury? Maybe the best way to monitor that
is through a Twitter trend that has, pun intended, gained legs over the last year.
"Hartnell Down" was a hashtag created by Seth Hastings during the playoff run two seasons ago
to poke fun at the winger's messy style. It counts the number of times Hartnell falls each game.
This year, it helped to create an endearing relationship between Hartnell and Flyers fans (and has
spawned a blog, a Tumblr and website, complete with a "down-o-meter" and online store). In
November, Hartnell joined in the count, and during his all-star appearance last weekend, he
pledged $1,000 to a charity for each time he hit the ice.
The charity collected $4,000.
"I love the fans here, I really do," he says. "They're intense. They want a championship here so
bad. And we feel the pressure, obviously. But it would be just the best feeling ever to bring a
championship here and have a parade down Broad Street, see them all out there in their orange
and black."
Even the guys from the bar that night?
"Yeah, they can come," Scott Hartnell says. "Life's too short, right?"
- OrangeBlack27

tldnr

pdf was all i could find, ma. i'll just copy/paste it here. ps if you had an iphone, that pdf would have opened brilliantly.

4. Philadelphia Inquirer - Hartnell Up
Sam Donnellon
The game had been a painful piece of déjà vu, the booing inside Wells Fargo Center incessant.
Now, Scott Hartnell just wanted to forget about it for a while, forget about another tough start to
what was shaping up to be another tough season in Philadelphia.
He hit the bar near his Old City crib for a few pops with some teammates. A couple of men, 20-
somethings, eyed him up, stored up a sufficient quantity of liquid bravery, and started in on him.
"Giving it to me pretty good," he says. "Stuff like, 'We wish we could trade you for a bag of
pucks.' Something stupid, right? So I just said, 'Don't come to Broad Street this summer if we
win.' I called them out a little maybe, too. And then I left.
"So we'll see what happens."
This was in early October, when Hartnell - the Flyers' flopping, floppy-haired 29-year-old
winger - found himself buried on a fourth line, subject once again to the daily, multination trade
rumors that have pockmarked his five seasons in Philadelphia. That first season as a Flyer - after
signing a 6-year, $25.2 million deal - Hartnell did not score until his 16th game, and that was an
empty-netter. The next year, he set career highs in goals and assists. But then, the year after, his
very public and very ugly divorce reduced him to a zombie on blades, and his goal total hovered
in single digits for much of the season.
This has been Scott Hartnell's NHL life. Celebrated one season, scorned the next. Coveted as a
premier power forward one season, called a waste of cap space the next. This year is no
different: Considered trade bait at the start of this year's campaign, he's now having the best
season of his career. In fact, there may not be any athlete in this town's rich sports history - not
Andre Iguodala, not even Donovan McNabb - who has slid up and down the scale of fan passion
with the volatility Hartnell has, his free-spirited personality celebrated or scoffed at in equal
measure.
Fan favorite. Fan target.
Hero. Villain.
A loving soul. A lost one.
"I don't know if it's Philly but it seems people panic a little quicker here," he says. "They're
willing to cut you loose quicker here. You have one bad game and it's, 'Get out of here.' Whereas
in some markets they'll stay with you a little longer. So it's a little frustrating. But I know the way
I can play."
Elevated to play on the first line with Claude Giroux and Jaromir Jagr shortly after that Old City
encounter, Hartnell has responded with 25 goals and 19 assists, a pace that will greatly exceed
his previous season bests (30 goals and 30 assists). An all-star this year for the first time in his
11-season NHL career, his 6-2 220-pound frame and aggressive style has drawn comparisons to
John LeClair and Clark Gillies, large puck-loosening wingers with good hands and quick
releases.
Some have discounted Hartnell's numbers because he plays with Giroux, also an all-star, and
Jagr, a future Hall of Famer. But with Jagr out of the lineup over the weekend before the all-star
break and Giroux amid a pronounced scoring slump, Hartnell scored a total of five goals in
consecutive games against the New Jersey Devils and Boston Bruins.
"He's the one who worked on what he really needed to work on," says coach Peter Laviolette.
"He put himself in the position to be the player he is right now. I think Scott really deserves the
credit for what he's done."
It's something right out of a Dr. Seuss book, Scott Hartnell's hometown. Straddling the
Saskatchewan and Alberta border, Lloydminster is claimed by both Canadian provinces, yet falls
under one municipal government. For a while, you could smoke on one side of town but not the
other. The legal drinking age on the Alberta side is 18. On the Saskatchewan side, it's 19. Things
like property tax and auto insurance cost less on the Saskatchewan side. The dividing line is 50th
Street, a main drag in town. Thus, a 50th Street resident on the Alberta side who backs into his
buddy's car across the street pays almost 2 1/2 times more than his neighbor would for the same
transgression. Even time follows its own rules here. On the Saskatchewan side, they're on
Mountain Time and observe daylight savings time - even though the rest of the province does
not.
Confused? Understandable. Live there long enough, your hair might begin to look like Hartnell's,
too.
Truth is, there was no wild Hartnell coif growing up. Joy Hartnell, a teacher's aide who worked
with disabled children, mandated buzz cuts for all three of her boys. No exceptions. "I think
that's the reason he got out of there," says Scott's brother Devin. "So he could grow it out."
Truth is, Hartnell loved where he lived. Might not have ever left if not for hockey. The youngest
of Bill and Joy's four children, he was, even then, an oversized teddy bear, at least among family
and friends. Five years younger than Devin, his closest sibling, 9 years behind his eldest, Kyra -
the only sister - he was always bigger than his peers.
Even as a kid, the unbridled exuberance that has made him both a fan favorite and fan target in
Philly was part of his DNA. He was the family's kitchen-table clown, a dynamic that still exists
when they all get together, as they did for his first-ever NHL All-Star Game last week in Ottawa.
"The rest of them always cut him up," Bill Hartnell says of his siblings. "He tries to do it, tries to
get back. But it always seems to backfire on him."
He could hang with both Devin and older brother Chad athletically. He could also take his
beatings. Sometimes it seemed he even liked to take his beatings, the survival strategy for any
baby brother in a big family (just ask Eli Manning). Get up when knocked down, take your shots
when you can, never let them see your hurt. When the teasing and torment comes, as it inevitably
does within big families, laugh about it and bask in the attention.
"Scott grew up rough and tumble," says his father. "We didn't need to protect him."
Hartnell was 16 when he left home for good to play for Prince Albert of the Western Hockey
League. By then, both brothers had gone off to play hockey at Division I schools: Chad at
Colorado College, Devin at Michigan Tech. With good wheels and good hands, Chad was the
flashier of the two. Devin was more of a banger, and, his father says with a smile, "Always
willing to oblige," when it came to fighting. Scott was a combination of both.
At 17, he captained the Prince Albert team his way to an 82-point season and was named its
MVP. The Nashville Predators made him the sixth pick overall of the 2000 NHL draft. His first
game with the team took place in Japan. He was 18, the youngest player in the NHL. With
expectations high and his willingness to please, he flopped spectacularly, scoring just two goals
that first season. Over the next three, as his body matured and his mind was dragged along, he
averaged just over 15 goals and 100 penalty minutes. Not bad, but not the elite power forward
Nashville imagined when it picked him so high.
"He was so young," says Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen, then a Nashville teammate. "He
was still getting used to the league."
Timonen, who is 7 years older, asked Hartnell to room with him on the road that first year. Not
because he felt the kid needed guidance or an older brother, just because he liked him.
"He's one of those guys who is just so easy to be around," says Timonen. "Everyone likes him.
That's one of the reasons we really connected in Nashville. I came from Europe, didn't speak
much English at the time and he made it so much more fun. Sometimes he goes a little overboard
and I have to tell him to tone it down, but really, not too often."
After spending the lockout season of 2004-05 in Norway and winning a championship, Hartnell
scored 47 goals and tallied 87 points with the Predators over the next two seasons. But the NHL's
hard salary cap forced a fire sale in Nashville. He and Timonen were shipped to Philadelphia in
June 2007 for a first-round pick.
The deal was all about Timonen, a levelheaded defenseman, team leader, son of a hockey coach.
If Hartnell still seemed trapped emotionally at the end of that kitchen table in Lloydminster,
Timonen seemed wiser than his 32 years. "There are actually two Kimmos," says Timonen.
"There's a media Kimmo and then there is the other one." The other Kimmo had developed into
Hartnell's best friend. A man to whom he could pour out his soul.
Both men were signed to big contracts upon their arrivals. Timonen at 6 years for $37.8 million,
and Hartnell at 6 years, $25.2 million. Since then, Timonen has been a fan favorite, playing
smart, playing in pain, a calming presence on and off the ice. "The ultimate professional,"
general manager Paul Holmgren has called him.
Hartnell? "He's the class clown," says Holmgren. "I think every team has one. He has fun. He
enjoys life. For the most part, when he comes to the rink, he plays hard. But I think there's
always been that little bit more you'd like to get out of him."
"He's the ultimate power forward," says Danny Briere, who centered Hartnell's line when
Hartnell scored 24 goals last season. "What's funny about those guys, though, is that one year
they can score 20 and the next year they can score 35 depending on which line they're on, the
chemistry they do or don't build with certain players, and how well the other lines are playing."
After signing that big contract in 2007, he tried too hard to justify the money. The oddity - and
this has plagued him his entire career - is that the harder he tries, the more he seems detached and
disinterested. Hartnell rallied the second half of the '07-08 season and finished with 24 goals and
19 assists. In '08-09, his best season until this one, he amassed 30 goals and 30 assists and was so
popular that Hartnell wigs were part of a Flyers giveaway in March. When a taunting fan in
Pittsburgh wore one of those wigs and a replica Flyers jersey with "Fartsmell" across the back,
Hartnell autographed it, "To my biggest fan!! Your bud Scott Fartsmell 19."
But a month later, after the Flyers were eliminated in the first round by Pittsburgh, Hartnell was
fingered as a culprit. After a 60-point regular season, he had just two points in the six playoff
games. Turns out, the roller coaster wasn't confined to life on the ice. He was at the onset of a
very messy divorce.
Scott Hartnell met Lisa Renneke in 2005. A native of Brainerd, Minn. - the town that gave the
world Police Chief
Marge Gunderson in the movie "Fargo" - Renneke was a senior at David Lipscomb University in
Nashville when the two met. She was 5-10 with blond, wavy hair, and played basketball and
volleyball, and golfed. They married a couple of years later. And when Hartnell was traded to the
Flyers, the couple settled into an Old City loft. Life was good.
By the start of the 2009 season, life was not good. Rumors of Renneke's trysts, including one
with Flyer Jeff Carter, hit the Internet, and it worked like kryptonite on the player and his team.
Hartnell's goal total was still in single digits in December when he and Carter were forced to
publicly deny the rumor. It was first reported in a blog post by a Temple University senior, who
claimed he had gotten it from a Flyers employee. Hartnell did admit then that he was dealing
with some "personal issues." Later, he confirmed that they were about his marriage.
"It was pretty tough," he says now. "Somebody you love absolutely turns the switch and calls
you every bad name under the sun. Calls your family things, too. And making the money I do, I
lost a lot of money in the mix as well. People can blame me, whatever. But it was a really tough
year."
Tough on him. Tough on his friends. Tough on his family.
"When you have kids," says Joy Hartnell, "their pain is our pain, too. No matter how old they
are, or how young they are."
Says brother Devin: "It's funny how it affects all parts of your life when your home life isn't in
order with the way you would like it. It spills over into your relationships with your family. It
spills over into the way you play hockey. How good of a teammate you are. And a friend.
Everything you are."
The Flyers tanked early - they were 10th in the conference standings by the second week in
December - and it cost John Stevens, a popular coach with the players, his job. Those who liked
Stevens held Hartnell responsible, and filled the radio with talk of dealing him or simply cutting
him. Stevens was replaced by Laviolette, a Stanley Cup-winning coach with a reputation as a
taskmaster who quickly ran out of patience with Hartnell.
"It was a tough go there with Lavvy for a while," Hartnell says. "He challenged me. He called
me out pretty good a few times."
It came to a head in 2009-10, after the Flyers advanced past the Devils in the first round of the
playoffs without much help from Hartnell. His moribund regular season, in which he scored only
14 goals, had carried into the postseason. The Flyers coach called Hartnell into his office again.
It was, says Hartnell, "Probably the worst meeting I ever had. He wondered out loud if I even
wanted to play anymore. He challenged my character."
"Obviously we're really close friends," said Timonen. "And you share the painful moments with
your really close friends. We talked a lot. He was having a tough time. Everybody around him
was having a tough time. And the fans were really giving it to him. Sometimes you see that and
you'd like to tell the people what's going on but . . . you can't. It's personal stuff. And when
you're going through it and you have to play at the same time, it's so hard. It was really tough to
see that."
Says Hartnell: "One thing I've told my family is that I kind of forgot who I was in that marriage.
I lost myself for a couple of years there. And I'll be the first to admit it was my fault. My
priorities got a little messed up. My family kind of got put down. But you come through it. And
now, every time I see any of them it's an extra hug.
"I remember when it was over, my mom said to me that now she had her son back. I felt that
way, too. Like a big burden was off my chest. And obviously I could get back to my job and
playing the way I do."
Hartnell was one of the triggers in the Flyers' remarkable rally from a three-games-to-none hole
in the second round against Boston.Their 23-game playoff run finally ended in a 4-3 overtime
loss to Chicago in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals, but Hartnell had accumulated 17 postseason
points, including eight goals - more than half his regular-season total. His eighth goal, inside the
last 4 minutes of Game 6, had forced overtime.
When it was over, Laviolette had one last meeting with Hartnell.
"He said, 'I just want to apologize for what I said to you,'" Hartnell said, '"You do want to win.
You were a big part of our success. And you can be a player in this league. I can put you in a lot
of different positions.'
"I think he gets me now," Hartnell added. "I think he knows I help bring a team together."
As for the fans and the ebbs and flows of our civic mercury? Maybe the best way to monitor that
is through a Twitter trend that has, pun intended, gained legs over the last year.
"Hartnell Down" was a hashtag created by Seth Hastings during the playoff run two seasons ago
to poke fun at the winger's messy style. It counts the number of times Hartnell falls each game.
This year, it helped to create an endearing relationship between Hartnell and Flyers fans (and has
spawned a blog, a Tumblr and website, complete with a "down-o-meter" and online store). In
November, Hartnell joined in the count, and during his all-star appearance last weekend, he
pledged $1,000 to a charity for each time he hit the ice.
The charity collected $4,000.
"I love the fans here, I really do," he says. "They're intense. They want a championship here so
bad. And we feel the pressure, obviously. But it would be just the best feeling ever to bring a
championship here and have a parade down Broad Street, see them all out there in their orange
and black."
Even the guys from the bar that night?
"Yeah, they can come," Scott Hartnell says. "Life's too short, right?"
- OrangeBlack27

..

I've typed the words "mckayla maroney" in my google search bos so many times in the past feew weeks they're burned on my screen

pdf was all i could find, ma. i'll just copy/paste it here. ps if you had an iphone, that pdf would have opened brilliantly.

4. Philadelphia Inquirer - Hartnell Up
Sam Donnellon
The game had been a painful piece of déjà vu, the booing inside Wells Fargo Center incessant.
Now, Scott Hartnell just wanted to forget about it for a while, forget about another tough start to
what was shaping up to be another tough season in Philadelphia.
He hit the bar near his Old City crib for a few pops with some teammates. A couple of men, 20-
somethings, eyed him up, stored up a sufficient quantity of liquid bravery, and started in on him.
"Giving it to me pretty good," he says. "Stuff like, 'We wish we could trade you for a bag of
pucks.' Something stupid, right? So I just said, 'Don't come to Broad Street this summer if we
win.' I called them out a little maybe, too. And then I left.
"So we'll see what happens."
This was in early October, when Hartnell - the Flyers' flopping, floppy-haired 29-year-old
winger - found himself buried on a fourth line, subject once again to the daily, multination trade
rumors that have pockmarked his five seasons in Philadelphia. That first season as a Flyer - after
signing a 6-year, $25.2 million deal - Hartnell did not score until his 16th game, and that was an
empty-netter. The next year, he set career highs in goals and assists. But then, the year after, his
very public and very ugly divorce reduced him to a zombie on blades, and his goal total hovered
in single digits for much of the season.
This has been Scott Hartnell's NHL life. Celebrated one season, scorned the next. Coveted as a
premier power forward one season, called a waste of cap space the next. This year is no
different: Considered trade bait at the start of this year's campaign, he's now having the best
season of his career. In fact, there may not be any athlete in this town's rich sports history - not
Andre Iguodala, not even Donovan McNabb - who has slid up and down the scale of fan passion
with the volatility Hartnell has, his free-spirited personality celebrated or scoffed at in equal
measure.
Fan favorite. Fan target.
Hero. Villain.
A loving soul. A lost one.
"I don't know if it's Philly but it seems people panic a little quicker here," he says. "They're
willing to cut you loose quicker here. You have one bad game and it's, 'Get out of here.' Whereas
in some markets they'll stay with you a little longer. So it's a little frustrating. But I know the way
I can play."
Elevated to play on the first line with Claude Giroux and Jaromir Jagr shortly after that Old City
encounter, Hartnell has responded with 25 goals and 19 assists, a pace that will greatly exceed
his previous season bests (30 goals and 30 assists). An all-star this year for the first time in his
11-season NHL career, his 6-2 220-pound frame and aggressive style has drawn comparisons to
John LeClair and Clark Gillies, large puck-loosening wingers with good hands and quick
releases.
Some have discounted Hartnell's numbers because he plays with Giroux, also an all-star, and
Jagr, a future Hall of Famer. But with Jagr out of the lineup over the weekend before the all-star
break and Giroux amid a pronounced scoring slump, Hartnell scored a total of five goals in
consecutive games against the New Jersey Devils and Boston Bruins.
"He's the one who worked on what he really needed to work on," says coach Peter Laviolette.
"He put himself in the position to be the player he is right now. I think Scott really deserves the
credit for what he's done."
It's something right out of a Dr. Seuss book, Scott Hartnell's hometown. Straddling the
Saskatchewan and Alberta border, Lloydminster is claimed by both Canadian provinces, yet falls
under one municipal government. For a while, you could smoke on one side of town but not the
other. The legal drinking age on the Alberta side is 18. On the Saskatchewan side, it's 19. Things
like property tax and auto insurance cost less on the Saskatchewan side. The dividing line is 50th
Street, a main drag in town. Thus, a 50th Street resident on the Alberta side who backs into his
buddy's car across the street pays almost 2 1/2 times more than his neighbor would for the same
transgression. Even time follows its own rules here. On the Saskatchewan side, they're on
Mountain Time and observe daylight savings time - even though the rest of the province does
not.
Confused? Understandable. Live there long enough, your hair might begin to look like Hartnell's,
too.
Truth is, there was no wild Hartnell coif growing up. Joy Hartnell, a teacher's aide who worked
with disabled children, mandated buzz cuts for all three of her boys. No exceptions. "I think
that's the reason he got out of there," says Scott's brother Devin. "So he could grow it out."
Truth is, Hartnell loved where he lived. Might not have ever left if not for hockey. The youngest
of Bill and Joy's four children, he was, even then, an oversized teddy bear, at least among family
and friends. Five years younger than Devin, his closest sibling, 9 years behind his eldest, Kyra -
the only sister - he was always bigger than his peers.
Even as a kid, the unbridled exuberance that has made him both a fan favorite and fan target in
Philly was part of his DNA. He was the family's kitchen-table clown, a dynamic that still exists
when they all get together, as they did for his first-ever NHL All-Star Game last week in Ottawa.
"The rest of them always cut him up," Bill Hartnell says of his siblings. "He tries to do it, tries to
get back. But it always seems to backfire on him."
He could hang with both Devin and older brother Chad athletically. He could also take his
beatings. Sometimes it seemed he even liked to take his beatings, the survival strategy for any
baby brother in a big family (just ask Eli Manning). Get up when knocked down, take your shots
when you can, never let them see your hurt. When the teasing and torment comes, as it inevitably
does within big families, laugh about it and bask in the attention.
"Scott grew up rough and tumble," says his father. "We didn't need to protect him."
Hartnell was 16 when he left home for good to play for Prince Albert of the Western Hockey
League. By then, both brothers had gone off to play hockey at Division I schools: Chad at
Colorado College, Devin at Michigan Tech. With good wheels and good hands, Chad was the
flashier of the two. Devin was more of a banger, and, his father says with a smile, "Always
willing to oblige," when it came to fighting. Scott was a combination of both.
At 17, he captained the Prince Albert team his way to an 82-point season and was named its
MVP. The Nashville Predators made him the sixth pick overall of the 2000 NHL draft. His first
game with the team took place in Japan. He was 18, the youngest player in the NHL. With
expectations high and his willingness to please, he flopped spectacularly, scoring just two goals
that first season. Over the next three, as his body matured and his mind was dragged along, he
averaged just over 15 goals and 100 penalty minutes. Not bad, but not the elite power forward
Nashville imagined when it picked him so high.
"He was so young," says Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen, then a Nashville teammate. "He
was still getting used to the league."
Timonen, who is 7 years older, asked Hartnell to room with him on the road that first year. Not
because he felt the kid needed guidance or an older brother, just because he liked him.
"He's one of those guys who is just so easy to be around," says Timonen. "Everyone likes him.
That's one of the reasons we really connected in Nashville. I came from Europe, didn't speak
much English at the time and he made it so much more fun. Sometimes he goes a little overboard
and I have to tell him to tone it down, but really, not too often."
After spending the lockout season of 2004-05 in Norway and winning a championship, Hartnell
scored 47 goals and tallied 87 points with the Predators over the next two seasons. But the NHL's
hard salary cap forced a fire sale in Nashville. He and Timonen were shipped to Philadelphia in
June 2007 for a first-round pick.
The deal was all about Timonen, a levelheaded defenseman, team leader, son of a hockey coach.
If Hartnell still seemed trapped emotionally at the end of that kitchen table in Lloydminster,
Timonen seemed wiser than his 32 years. "There are actually two Kimmos," says Timonen.
"There's a media Kimmo and then there is the other one." The other Kimmo had developed into
Hartnell's best friend. A man to whom he could pour out his soul.
Both men were signed to big contracts upon their arrivals. Timonen at 6 years for $37.8 million,
and Hartnell at 6 years, $25.2 million. Since then, Timonen has been a fan favorite, playing
smart, playing in pain, a calming presence on and off the ice. "The ultimate professional,"
general manager Paul Holmgren has called him.
Hartnell? "He's the class clown," says Holmgren. "I think every team has one. He has fun. He
enjoys life. For the most part, when he comes to the rink, he plays hard. But I think there's
always been that little bit more you'd like to get out of him."
"He's the ultimate power forward," says Danny Briere, who centered Hartnell's line when
Hartnell scored 24 goals last season. "What's funny about those guys, though, is that one year
they can score 20 and the next year they can score 35 depending on which line they're on, the
chemistry they do or don't build with certain players, and how well the other lines are playing."
After signing that big contract in 2007, he tried too hard to justify the money. The oddity - and
this has plagued him his entire career - is that the harder he tries, the more he seems detached and
disinterested. Hartnell rallied the second half of the '07-08 season and finished with 24 goals and
19 assists. In '08-09, his best season until this one, he amassed 30 goals and 30 assists and was so
popular that Hartnell wigs were part of a Flyers giveaway in March. When a taunting fan in
Pittsburgh wore one of those wigs and a replica Flyers jersey with "Fartsmell" across the back,
Hartnell autographed it, "To my biggest fan!! Your bud Scott Fartsmell 19."
But a month later, after the Flyers were eliminated in the first round by Pittsburgh, Hartnell was
fingered as a culprit. After a 60-point regular season, he had just two points in the six playoff
games. Turns out, the roller coaster wasn't confined to life on the ice. He was at the onset of a
very messy divorce.
Scott Hartnell met Lisa Renneke in 2005. A native of Brainerd, Minn. - the town that gave the
world Police Chief
Marge Gunderson in the movie "Fargo" - Renneke was a senior at David Lipscomb University in
Nashville when the two met. She was 5-10 with blond, wavy hair, and played basketball and
volleyball, and golfed. They married a couple of years later. And when Hartnell was traded to the
Flyers, the couple settled into an Old City loft. Life was good.
By the start of the 2009 season, life was not good. Rumors of Renneke's trysts, including one
with Flyer Jeff Carter, hit the Internet, and it worked like kryptonite on the player and his team.
Hartnell's goal total was still in single digits in December when he and Carter were forced to
publicly deny the rumor. It was first reported in a blog post by a Temple University senior, who
claimed he had gotten it from a Flyers employee. Hartnell did admit then that he was dealing
with some "personal issues." Later, he confirmed that they were about his marriage.
"It was pretty tough," he says now. "Somebody you love absolutely turns the switch and calls
you every bad name under the sun. Calls your family things, too. And making the money I do, I
lost a lot of money in the mix as well. People can blame me, whatever. But it was a really tough
year."
Tough on him. Tough on his friends. Tough on his family.
"When you have kids," says Joy Hartnell, "their pain is our pain, too. No matter how old they
are, or how young they are."
Says brother Devin: "It's funny how it affects all parts of your life when your home life isn't in
order with the way you would like it. It spills over into your relationships with your family. It
spills over into the way you play hockey. How good of a teammate you are. And a friend.
Everything you are."
The Flyers tanked early - they were 10th in the conference standings by the second week in
December - and it cost John Stevens, a popular coach with the players, his job. Those who liked
Stevens held Hartnell responsible, and filled the radio with talk of dealing him or simply cutting
him. Stevens was replaced by Laviolette, a Stanley Cup-winning coach with a reputation as a
taskmaster who quickly ran out of patience with Hartnell.
"It was a tough go there with Lavvy for a while," Hartnell says. "He challenged me. He called
me out pretty good a few times."
It came to a head in 2009-10, after the Flyers advanced past the Devils in the first round of the
playoffs without much help from Hartnell. His moribund regular season, in which he scored only
14 goals, had carried into the postseason. The Flyers coach called Hartnell into his office again.
It was, says Hartnell, "Probably the worst meeting I ever had. He wondered out loud if I even
wanted to play anymore. He challenged my character."
"Obviously we're really close friends," said Timonen. "And you share the painful moments with
your really close friends. We talked a lot. He was having a tough time. Everybody around him
was having a tough time. And the fans were really giving it to him. Sometimes you see that and
you'd like to tell the people what's going on but . . . you can't. It's personal stuff. And when
you're going through it and you have to play at the same time, it's so hard. It was really tough to
see that."
Says Hartnell: "One thing I've told my family is that I kind of forgot who I was in that marriage.
I lost myself for a couple of years there. And I'll be the first to admit it was my fault. My
priorities got a little messed up. My family kind of got put down. But you come through it. And
now, every time I see any of them it's an extra hug.
"I remember when it was over, my mom said to me that now she had her son back. I felt that
way, too. Like a big burden was off my chest. And obviously I could get back to my job and
playing the way I do."
Hartnell was one of the triggers in the Flyers' remarkable rally from a three-games-to-none hole
in the second round against Boston.Their 23-game playoff run finally ended in a 4-3 overtime
loss to Chicago in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals, but Hartnell had accumulated 17 postseason
points, including eight goals - more than half his regular-season total. His eighth goal, inside the
last 4 minutes of Game 6, had forced overtime.
When it was over, Laviolette had one last meeting with Hartnell.
"He said, 'I just want to apologize for what I said to you,'" Hartnell said, '"You do want to win.
You were a big part of our success. And you can be a player in this league. I can put you in a lot
of different positions.'
"I think he gets me now," Hartnell added. "I think he knows I help bring a team together."
As for the fans and the ebbs and flows of our civic mercury? Maybe the best way to monitor that
is through a Twitter trend that has, pun intended, gained legs over the last year.
"Hartnell Down" was a hashtag created by Seth Hastings during the playoff run two seasons ago
to poke fun at the winger's messy style. It counts the number of times Hartnell falls each game.
This year, it helped to create an endearing relationship between Hartnell and Flyers fans (and has
spawned a blog, a Tumblr and website, complete with a "down-o-meter" and online store). In
November, Hartnell joined in the count, and during his all-star appearance last weekend, he
pledged $1,000 to a charity for each time he hit the ice.
The charity collected $4,000.
"I love the fans here, I really do," he says. "They're intense. They want a championship here so
bad. And we feel the pressure, obviously. But it would be just the best feeling ever to bring a
championship here and have a parade down Broad Street, see them all out there in their orange
and black."
Even the guys from the bar that night?
"Yeah, they can come," Scott Hartnell says. "Life's too short, right?"
- OrangeBlack27

..
- aightwebang17

ty dan



oh i guess i should have quoted it too

- feelingkettle

I've typed the words "mckayla maroney" in my google search bos so many times in the past feew weeks they're burned on my screen
- dt99999

I've typed the words "mckayla maroney" in my google search bos so many times in the past feew weeks they're burned on my screen
- dt99999

still gotta wait a little more than a year, fella.

- feelingkettle

fuk michaels is/was such a faget

- aightwebang17

what. the. (frank). is up with that pinky?!?!

what. the. (frank). is up with that pinky?!?!
- dt99999

i have big hands but i'm pretty sure they're half the size of hers.

Congratulations to @wweraw on passing 1,000 episodes. @wwe is still going strong after all these years--@vincemcmahon is great!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2012

I still hold the all-time attendance and pay per view record at @wwe.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2012

what. the. (frank). is up with that pinky?!?!
- dt99999

- watsonnostaw