Letang and his jersey

Source
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11066/1130245-61.stm?cmpid=penguins.xml


Penguins Notebook: Letang now tied to Rule 47.13


The question of why Kris Letang's sweater wasn't tied down when he fought New Jersey's Travis Zajac this past Friday has been answered.

And it turns out there wasn't much of a mystery about it, after all.

Letang did not have his sweater tied down -- a violation of Rule 47.13, which mandates an automatic game misconduct penalty for offenders -- when the scuffle began because, well, that's something he never did.

Not until the Penguins' 3-2 overtime victory in Boston Saturday night, anyway.

"I just didn't do it," Letang said. "I never have. Usually, the referee doesn't say anything ... unless the jersey would have gone over my head during the fight, then it would have been an advantage, but it just went over when I was going down on the ice."

Zajac pulled Letang's sweater over his head as their fight progressed. It is not known if he was aware before they squared off that Letang did not, as a matter of course, tie down.

The rule was instituted to prevent fighters from shedding their jerseys so that they would be less restrained while throwing punches. That probably wasn't what Letang had in mind, but it is not a mistake he plans to repeat.

"It's tied down inside my pants now," he said.