Pulling hair, to my knowledge, wasn't actually illegal in the NHL when Dave Schultz did it to Dave Rolfe in 1974. It might have been, but I wasn't born, so I'm allowed to claim ignorance here. Anyway, it is illegal today, and Tom Sestito very obviously did it to Brandon Prust on Sunday at Madison Square Garden.

You can see it there around the :43 second mark. Should have been a match penalty, according to the NHL rulebook, but the officials missed it and it wasn't called. According to the New York Post, Sestito won't be penalized at all for it. The league has decided not to penalize him in any way for the incident.

Strange. I mean, we'll take it... but uh, he probably deserved something for that.

Kevin Marshall had his NHL opportunity in the Philadelphia Flyers organization, but in the end, he failed to stick on a depleted blue line, outgunned by Marc-Andre Bourdon and sent back to the Adirondack Phantoms.

Paul Holmgren apparently saw enough in the 10 NHL games Marshall played this season to realize he wouldn't be a contributor for the team over the long-term, as as a result, the Flyers' second round pick from the 2007 draft is headed south to the Washington Capitals.

In exchange for Marshall, the Flyers have acquired minor league forward Matt Ford. Ford, 27, was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks in Round 8 of the 2004 NHL Draft, and he never signed with the organization.

He began his professional career in 2008-09 following a four-year college career at the University of Wisconsin and he's mostly been an AHL player since, although he has played 37 games in the ECHL. Ford's never played in the NHL. Not even a sniff. At age 27, it doesn't seem like he has much of a shot at that, either.

This is strictly an AHL move with little consequence on the Flyers. Marshall had some upside, but the Flyers apparently do not think it's all that high. I didn't think he was awful or anything during his time in the NHL this season -- not noticeably worse than Bourdon, at least -- but with his contract up at the end of the season, it appears as though his time was short here anyway.

We'll always remember Marshall's victory dance, but this seems like a classic case of getting something in return for a piece that would have walked for nothing in July. Hopefully Ford, also a UFA in July, can contribute to the Phantoms out a bit and add some veteran presence. He's played in Hershey so he knows all about winning in the AHL, and maybe he can bring that to Glens Falls.

Scott Hartnell is an NHL All-Star. No, this isn't us saying he's an All-Star despite not being named an All-Star. According to Bob McKenzie, Hartnell actually is an NHL All-Star. He's going to Ottawa this weekend. (NHL confirmed it, too.)

He deserves it. The only other players I can think of who could have potentially deserved the nod over him (who haven't been named to the team yet) are James Neal from the Penguins and Patrik Elias from the Devils, and that's all very debatable. Hartnell's having the best season of his NHL career, and he's absolutely deserving of the honor.

As are the four other Flyers All-Stars. Five total participants from the orange and black makes us better than every other team in the NHL -- because as good as the Senators are, they don't have five legitimate All-Stars. I thought we traded away all our star power?

Flyers GM Paul Holmgren announced after the game that center Danny Briere has a concussion and will miss tomorrow's game against the Bruins.

There isn't much to say. The Flyers are now missing Ian Laperriere, Chris Pronger, James van Riemsdyk, and Danny Briere with concussions. This is in addition to previous concussions to Brayden Schenn, Claude Giroux, and Andreas Nodl.

Yeah. Sucks.

There were trade rumors surrounding James van Riemsdyk. Probably not so much anymore. The 22-year old has joined the ever-growing list of NHL players with a concussion. Via the Flyers and Paul Holmgren:

"James was hit in the head in each of our last two games. He reported yesterday, not feeling like himself. He will be out indefinitely with a concussion."

Hit in the head in two straight games. Talk about some awful luck. van Riemsdyk played just 10:31 in Thursday's game against the Islanders. This sucks.

NBC Philadelphia had the story first overnight: An arrest has been made by Philadelphia Police surrounding that Winter Classic fan attack outside of Geno's Steaks two Monday's ago.

One of the three assailants, Dennis Veteri of Glassboro, N.J., turned himself in around 2 p.m. yesterday after an arrest warrant was issued by the PPD. He's now out on bail. Apparently, Mr. Veteri appears to be just as big a scum bag as we could have originally assumed.

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You know, when this happened live, I wasn't exactly sure if it was a hit to the head. It only took one replay for me to realize how blatant a Rule 48 violation this was though.

Steve Staios elbowed Max Talbot right in the face in the third period of tonight's Flyers vs. Islanders game at The Dump (not the furniture store), and on the bench afterwards, you can clearly notice a smirk on the face of the 38-year-old. It's not a toothy smile or anything, but there's definitely something there.We'll wait while you look for it on the video.

Check the 1:45 mark. He looks about 60 years old, not 38, so we understand if you missed it.

There was no penalty on the play, and Peter Laviolette told the media after the game that the referees said they weren't sure if the head was the principal point of contact. We'll let that slide; officials miss things in live action. What we can't let slide is a lack of suspension, and it will be utter BS if Brendan Shanahan doesn't do something about this hit.

We suspect he will -- after all, it's textbook Rule 48, and elbow right to the noggin. It shouldn't be this difficult to get this stuff out of the game, but, well, maybe NHL players need a lesson they can comprehend. All this "principal point of contact" stuff can be pretty confusing, after all.

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We use advanced stats quite a bit around here. We don't believe it to be gospel, but then again, nothing is gospel. (Except for what Claude Giroux says. That's gospel.)

Everything from save percentage to PDO to scoring chances to goal differential to watching Giroux rip apart an opposing defenseman helps us form our collective knowledge about a game or a player or a team or a season. Our general philosophy is to include all the information we possibly can when trying to frame the full picture.

Corsi and Fenwick numbers -- plus/minus-style stats that track shot differential -- are included in that, because it's proven that they correlate strongly with puck possession, which is obviously good. And over the course of a season, the numbers correlate strongly with scoring chances and goals. And hey, winning!

Most NHL teams don't dabble in these things just yet, and they're really only analyzed consistently in certain corners of the Internet, Broad Street Hockey and several other SB Nation blogs included. But we know that several NHL teams do analyze these things too, or that they contract consultants to do so for them. Fear The Fin interviewed San Jose Sharks general manager Doug Wilson last year, who basically admitted that the Sharks study this stuff without actually saying as much. Other teams dabble, too.

What about the Flyers? Are they ahead of the curve, too? Doesn't seem like it.

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