Hartnell / Letang - Ruutu / Peters -- No Difference, So Why the Different Outcomes?

Hartnell denied biting Letang, but told reporters: "A lot of stuff happens on the bottom of the pile. He had his hands in my face doing the facewash and we're rolling around. I can't say what happened."

Scott Hartnell and his agent, Allen Walsh, attended a disciplinary hearing yesterday morning for the incident that occurred between him and Kris Letang at the end of Thursday night's game between the Pens and Flyers. The decision was that there's no evidence so he didn't get fined or suspended -- WTF???!!!!!!! Even if there wasn't any evidence of "the biting," couldn't what Hartnell did be construed as 'sending a message' which I thought IS NOT ALLOWED near the end of a game?!!! COME ON NHL -- get your heads out of your asses!!!!

As far as evidence is concerned, my question is -- what great evidence did they have when Jarkko Ruutu got hit with a two-game suspension for the "incident" with Andrew Peters??? Really!!! I mean, was it because Letang didn't "pull it off" as well as Peters -- maybe he could've added the dramatics on the ice instead of waiting until he and Chris Stewart headed for the locker room. I'm serious - the video of the Ruutu / Peters incident is no different than the Hartnell / Letang incident -- did you ever actually SEE Ruutu bite Peters -- so where's the evidence in that case???!

My gripe isn't with it being BS that Hartnell didn't get fined / suspended or that they were wrong to suspend Ruutu, but my big gripe is with the NHL's inconsistency with disciplinary action - there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to any of it and that's just plain horse shit!!!

Why can't they just sit down and come up with a set of rules & guidelines that will enable them to treat each incident similarly so they can get past all this unequal crap? Wouldn't that make sense?

I guess the one good thing coming out of it is that this just strengthens the already heated rivalry between the Flyers and the Pens. The only other thing I can say is Hartnell better watch his ass and keep his head up on December 15th so he can watch out for guys like Rupp and Godard; if the NHL won't take care of it off the ice, the players will on the ice -- you gotta LOVE hockey!!!