Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman has been fined $4,250 for unsportsmanlike conduct during Tuesday's game against the Edmonton Oilers, the NHL's department of player safety announced on Wednesday.
The incident occurred midway through the third period, when Hartman took exception with Oilers forward Evander Kane going after Wild superstar Kirill Kaprizov, who was engaged in a scuffle with Edmonton's Kailer Yamamoto.
Kane cross-checked Kaprizov in defence of Yamamoto, and multiple members of the Wild went after him, which resulted in a scrum.
Hartman attempted to pull Kane out of the crowd and engage in a fight, but the linesman would not allow the two players to drop the gloves. As they were separated, Hartman gave Kane the middle finger and the linesmen escorted both players off the ice.
"It goes to show, we had five guys in there. They didn’t have one guy in there to help him," Hartman told reporters about the incident. "I don’t think any of their guys are going to defend him.”
Hartman also said that if the NHL decided to fine him for his gesture toward Kane it would be, “well worth it.”
When asked about the scrum, Kane said he wished that he had a chance to respond to the Wild players challenging him.
"It took all five guys and they couldn't bring me down," Kane explained. "I definitely would have liked to get loose, put it that way."
When asked about Hartman wanting to fight him and then giving him the middle finger, Kane brushed it off with a smile, saying Hartman became a more willing combatant once the linesmen got involved.
"Yeah, these little guys, they wanna act tough," he said. "They wait for the linesmen to come in."
Kane and Hartman were given game misconduct penalties on the play.
