All-Star Scott Hartnell News: Zdeno Chara Doesn't Like Harts Very Much, Over $15,000 Worth of #hartnelldown T-Shirts Sold

That sounds weird– All-Star. ‘Tis true, though. 

Scotty Hartnell made the media rounds these last two days. Without actively looking, I have heard or seen him on WIP, 97.3 ESPN, WMMR and Action News. And as you might expect from Hartsy, there were a few highlights.

Last night on 97.3 ESPN in South Jersey, Hartnell talked with our friend Mike Gill* about campaigning for draft position to Joffrey Lupul, who is the alternate captain of big Zdeno Chara’s team (the NHL will hold the All-Star Game fantasy draft tonight).

It seems Chara might not be a big fan of Hartnell:

…

Joffrey Lupul, he’s assistant captain to Chara, let’s see how much pull he has. I just texted him, said, “Where am I gonna go here? Number one, two overall?” He’s sitting there laughing at me and said, “I think the Big Z doesn’t like you very much, playing you all the time in the playoffs.”

*I’ll be a guest on Gill’s show tonight at 5:30… which means his Wednesday ratings will probably come in much higher than they will for Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Hartnell spoke with Anthony Gargano and Glen Macnow on WIP. The conversation quickly turned to Hartnell’s use of (and success with) Twitter, specifically the #hartnelldown hashtag, which I believe was created by (@sethDH):

I saw it in warmups a couple years ago, Hartnell Down 145. I forget what the number was, but I was like “What the heck is that, Hartnell Down?” I didn’t get it, but I saw it a couple weeks later, Hartnell Down 158. I was like “What the heck is going on?” So finally I got wind that it was how many times I fell down. I’m like “Jeez, is this guy chirping me or what? Is it bad? Is he a Ranger fan, or who is this guy?”  I ended up finally getting on Twitter, and these guys messaged me, #hartnelldown. It’s actually pretty funny, and me and my agent got talking and I thought this would be kind of cool to make up a shirt, #hartnelldown, and give the proceeds to charities or whatever. 

It just started off, he ordered a few hundred shirts and they were sold in the first four or five days. This is bigger than we thought, so we ordered a bunch more and I think we’ve sold right around $15,000 worth of stuff. It’s hilarious, now I’m making new ones for Valentine’s Day, for all the ladies out there. It’s pretty funny, and people are already tweeting "how many times are you going to fall in the All-Star Game" or if I’m going to have a #hartnelldown in the fastest skating competition and crash into the boards. 

Awesome.

You can pick up one of those shirts at HartnellDown.com. Listen to the WIP interview here.

Pics via Scott's Twitter