So, after his trademarked #HartnellDown spill into the boards, Hartnell got up and whacked his team-leading 26th goal of the season behind James Reimer off what he called "a lucky bounce."
And then the melee ensued. Eddie Shore style.
"It was the best celebration of a goal I've seen," Max Talbot said. "It was no fist-pump, no anything. Just drop the gloves and go. It was pretty great."
With the flashing, red goal light giving them a tan, Hartnell and Phaneuf settled their differences just feet from the Maple Leafs net. The goal, meanwhile, got the Flyers started on their way to a 4-3 win over the surging Maple Leafs at the Wells Fargo Center.
It was the Flyers' first win in four games, snapping a season-high three-game winless streak.
"I thought it was just a typical 'Hartnell Down,' but he stayed in there and got a goal and a fight," Claude Giroux said. "When he gets [ticked] off, I think that's dangerous for the other team. He's on the puck, he's jumping. That was a great goal for him."
For Hartnell, it was just his second fighting major of the season - his lowest production in that category since 2005-06. He said it was his first to immediately follow a goal.
"I just went right after him," Hartnell said. "It was pretty standard. If someone does something to you like that, a cheap play or a slash, you stand up for yourself."
Otherwise this season, Hartnell has traded the fisticuffs for goals and assists. He added an assist a period later for his second "Gordie Howe hat trick"; that is, a goal, an assist and a fight in the same game.
Howe himself posted two such hat tricks in his career, a statistic that is officially recorded and kept by 10 NHL teams.
