Tensions between the Edmonton Oilers and Minnesota Wild reached a boiling point Tuesday night when Ryan Hartman and his teammates took exception to Evander Kane going after Kirill Kaprizov.
Midway through the third period, Kaprizov and Kailer Yamamoto engaged with each other away from the play, which led to Kane coming to the aid of his teammate. As the Oilers forward cross-checked Kaprizov, multiple members of the Wild went after Kane, which resulted in a scrum.
Hartman attempted to pull Kane out of the crowd and tried to 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 towards Kane it would be, “well worth it.”
When asked about the scrum, Kane said 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 that Hartman became a more willing combatant once the linesmen got involved.
“Yeah, these little guys, they wanna act tough. They wait for the linesmen to come in.”
Kane and Hartman were given game misconduct penalties on the play.