Bryan Rust caught making one of hockey’s most frowned-upon moves on Porter Martone
This one is headed for the highlight reels for all the wrong reasons: Bryan Rust grabbed Porter Martone’s hair in a playoff scrum, and cameras caught it all.
You can see the rookie's head yanked sideways while a referee tries to separate the bodies. It's not a hockey play. It's not even a hockey moment. It's just bad.
The Penguins are down 3-1 in the series and apparently looking for any spark. Pulling a 19-year-old's hair was not the answer.
Hair-pulling sits in a small group of plays the league universally frowns on. It rarely gets reviewed because it rarely happens at this level. When it does, it typically comes from a player who's run out of better ideas.
Rust is not that kind of player. The 33-year-old veteran posted 29 goals and 65 points across 81 regular-season games. He's been Pittsburgh's most consistent forward all year.
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Player Safety could take a long look at one of hockey's cheapest moves
The Department of Player Safety doesn't typically hand out suspensions for hair pulls. It's more of a fine territory, and usually quiet.
But the visual is loud enough that they may take a second look anyway.
Martone has been the story Philadelphia didn't see coming.
The 19-year-old has 2 goals through 2 playoff games, both game-winners, against an experienced Penguins lineup that should know how to handle rookies.
Maybe that's the problem. Pittsburgh hasn't handled him on the scoreboard, so a frustrated veteran went to a level the rulebook barely covers.
Is this the kind of thing that flips a series? No. But it tells you everything about Pittsburgh's emotional state heading into Game 5. Cracks are showing.
Dan Muse will not address it directly. No coach wants to dignify hair-pulling with a postgame breakdown. Behind closed doors, the conversation is different.
Rick Tocchet's Flyers don't need to do anything. The video does the work. The Penguins handed Philadelphia a free PR win in the middle of a series Pittsburgh is supposed to be fighting to extend.
| POLL | ||
AVRIL 25 | 439 ANSWERS Bryan Rust caught making one of hockey’s most frowned-upon moves on Porter Martone Should the NHL Department of Player Safety review Bryan Rust's hair pull on Porter Martone ? | ||
| Yes | 348 | 79.3 % |
| No | 91 | 20.7 % |
| LIST OF POLLS | ||
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HIER
5 MAI 2026
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| B | P | PTS | ||
| Nathan MacKinnon | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Gabriel Landeskog | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Martin Necas | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Brett Kulak | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Marcus Johansson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Kirill Kaprizov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Valeri Nichushkin | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nicolas Roy | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brent Burns | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ross Colton | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ryan Hartman | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Daemon Hunt | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nazem Kadri | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brock Nelson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Danila Yurov | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mats Zuccarello | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nick Blankenburg | - | - | - | |
| Matthew Boldy | - | - | - | |
| Jack Drury | - | - | - | |
| Brock Faber | - | - | - | |
| STATS COMPLÈTES | ||||