After seeing his Minnesota Wild teammate Kirill Kaprizov fall in action on Saturday against the Winnipeg Jets because of several double-checks from Brenden Dillon, Ryan Hartman had a message to convey.
The two teams met the next day for a rematch and he made it clear to his opponents that they should not try to attack the team’s star. Except that his dirty gesture at the expense of Cole Perfetti did not go unnoticed.
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Hartman hit him in the face with a stick during a faceoff and the young Jets player explained to the media on Tuesday that his rival told him he was going to hurt him in retaliation. Additionally, Perfetti wore a microphone for this match.
“It’s a shame that players get intentionally injured,” he said, whose comments were relayed Tuesday by journalist Mike McIntyre. […] He said it in a respectful manner. There was no lack of respect, but it had to happen, given what happened with Kaprizov.
“It’s kind of strange to admit it like that,” he continued. [Hartman] made it very clear that it was for what happened on Saturday, even though I had nothing to do with the incident in question.”
In the case of the player from the Manitoba team, he escaped with a scratch on his face, while the National Hockey League (NHL) fined Hartman $4,427.08.
Furthermore, the NHL could not use the recorded sequence in question to penalize the former Chicago Blackhawks, since an agreement dating from 2005 prohibits the Bettman circuit from using it to impose a punishment, according to the Sportsnet network.
Following his lower body injury suffered on Saturday, Kaprizov will be absent from the ice for one to two weeks.