Scott Hartnell, the long-maned Broad Street Bully, was called many things in the past -- scrappy, tough, hard-hitting and passionate -- you can now add "dirty" to the list.
His peers named him one of the dirtiest players in hockey and it wasn't because of his hair.
Hartnell was fifth on Sports Illustrated's list of the “Dirtiest Players” in the NHL. The poll appears in the latest issue of the magazine, which came out Wednesday.
SI asked 324 current NHL players who they thought was the "Dirtiest Player" on the ice. Hartnell received five-percent of the vote -- good for fifth place.
But what does Hartnell think?
“I don’t actually consider myself too dirty of a player. I play the game hard. I think I play it fair. But, I guess maybe after the whistles and stuff, that’s where I might get a bad name,” said the Flyers' winger.
The craziest part is that other guys on the lists like the Ducks' Chris Pronger and Rangers' Sean Avery are widely considered dirty. Players who let their antics sometimes overshadow their play on the ice. The same can't be said for Hartnell -- he scores, skates, hits and plays hard all the time but still mixes in the occasional fight.
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The "dirty" distinction isn't necessarily a bad thing.
“I will take it. I guess any press is good press... the players are talking about me, I think that’s a good thing,” he said.
And Flyers fans shouldn't expect Hartnell to strive to make it to the top of the list.
“I don’t know if my coaches would like me for going for No. 1. I think a couple of these guys are going to be disliked for a long time. I will just keep chirping and getting in players faces. I guess that’s why I am called dirty,” Hartnell said.
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