Not yet, anyway.

"I've got to jump in the shower and do my hair,'' he said as he left the ice during an optional skate yesterday morning.

Hartnell's hair is a mass of curl that mirrors its owner's non-conformity. But image is everything. You look like a Will Ferrell character, you act like one on and

off the ice, you better present your best side to your public. So disregard the two mending wounds across his nose from that high stick in Pittsburgh a few weeks ago. Disregard the new scrape on the side of the face, too.

Focus on the hair. Or not.

"I can just look at him and laugh, to be honest with you,'' teammate Derian Hatcher said yesterday. "I'm doing it now. I think most guys can.''

Well, most guys in that room. After Sunday's 2-0 Flyers victory, the second game in which Hartnell all but lit a campfire in front of the Washington net, the Capitals found the Flyers' forward as unfunny as Ferrell in a stock car. Especially when he literally ran over Cristobel Huet during a first-period power play, then whispered sweet nothings in his ear as he laid on top of him and pushed the goalie's head into the ice.

"We know what they're doing,'' Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said. "Sometime you play a little safer in the playoffs. But we have to protect our own.''

They are not doing that, at least not yet. Hartnell appears agitated when you ask him about being an agitator in this series, and with 24 goals and 19 assists during the season, you can

understand why. His favorite player is Wayne Gretzky, not Claude Lemieux.

"I wouldn't consider myself a pest,'' he said. "But you finish your checks and hopefully in a long series they'll get frustrated and worn down. And maybe you finish a check and you get a slash in the legs. It's all posturing.''

To him, and to his coach, he is simply continuing the role he had this season, especially on the power play. To him, and to his coach, he is simply a physical player whose scoring prowess is directly linked to his proximity to the net.

"Like Mike Knuble, he understands that a lot of his success comes around the net,'' Flyers coach John Stevens said. "We tell them both, if they can't touch the blue paint, they're

too far from the net.''

Like those locks of his, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Back in the old NHL, sticks would be laid across Hartnell's back nonstop, especially at this time of year. Such actions now draw penalties, which is why Rangers forward Sean Avery was allowed to conduct that ridiculous stick-waving in Martin Brodeur's crease the other night. (That was before the NHL yesterday made such antics an unsportsmanlike-conduct minor.)

Can you imagine what Scott Stevens or Scott Niedermayer thought watching Avery?

As a defenseman for Dallas, Hatcher saw a lot of Hartnell as he made a name for himself with the Predators. He didn't like him then, but in a way different from more weasel-like troublemakers like Matthew Barnaby, or even the more talented Avery.

"As much as he's an agitator, he's a very good hockey player,'' Hatcher said of his teammate. "And he's tough. I've seen him fight a lot of tough guys. He's willing to back it up. So as much as I think guys on other teams can't stand him, they might respect him more than some guys.''

They do in the Flyers' dressing room, for sure. Before Patrick Thoresen made the ultimate sacrifice in Game 1 by blocking a shot with, well, you know, Hartnell had taken one off the face.

"Block with your face, it doesn't matter,'' he said. "As long as it doesn't get in your net. This time of year, everything is hugely important and every play is magnified.''

That what-me-worry attitude is a practice staple as well. Earlier in the season, when Stevens made him redo a drill because he didn't shoot when he got to the blue line, Hartnell responded by shooting from the far blue line.

"He'll just go to the extreme as much as he can,'' Knuble said, smiling.

Said Stevens: "We didn't know each other that well. Now we do. He's the kind of guy, he kind of brings life to the group. He makes it fun. But he plays hard, too.''

There's a big hint of that in that scarred-up, smiling mug of his. Watch either of the first two playoff games and you would have learned that, too. The ledger says he has just an assist, but he has been on the ice for three of the Flyers' six goals in the series, mixing it up, pouncing on loose pucks and sticking his butt into Huet's face as often as he can.

And sharing a few thoughts with him along the way.

"Really, he's very engaging,'' said Hatcher, laughing. "That's just how he is. He plays the same way. He enjoys it. He enjoys being in there. He enjoys being the center of attention. He's like that in the locker room as well.'' *

Send e-mail to donnels@phillynews.com.