… I’m not the kind of guy who would make something up like that. “That’s a pretty awful thing that he did. “I don’t think that anyone really wants to admit to biting somebody,” Peters said. It’s hard to believe there’s anything wrong with him.” (Peters) shoved a glove in his face and came out of a pile jumping around. “I don’t think he bit him,” Hartsburg said in Boston before the league announced the suspension. Craig Hartsburg doesn’t think his player did, either, and the Senators’ coach repeated his belief Wednesday. Ruutu obviously denied he bit Peters after the game. “You know, things happen on the ice, and that’s part of the game. “We’re supposed to be role models,” he said. There’s a lot of kids out there watching, and it sets a bad example. “ … It just doesn’t look good on the game is what it comes down to. “We need a lot more attention on “SportsCenter” than biting,” he said. Peters, still shocked he was bitten, said Ruutu’s antics set a poor example. “Games need a little bit of spice and they get a little spice.” “It’s something good to talk about,” Ruff said of why it garners so much attention. It’s generating almost as much interest as the Sabres/Senators brawl from two seasons ago, which featured goalies Martin Biron and Ray Emery fighting. ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” which mostly shuns hockey, dedicated 2 ½ minutes to the incident. Clips posted on had about 300,000 views as of early Wednesday night. “Even in my role, I would never even think of doing something like that, especially when I’ve had probably more opportunities to do that when you’re in a fight and in tight with a guy.” “It’s weird to even think that happens in hockey,” Peters told another horde of reporters at HSBC Arena.

Peters returned to the game with a bandage, something he’s still sporting. The tough guy then skated away in agony, shaking his hand and howling. Maybe that’s why the incident stunned so many and is generating scads of attention.Ībout 13 minutes into the Sabres’ 4-2 win over the Senators here, after Ruutu received a face wash as the two started fighting, the Finn bit Peters’ gloved thumb. Few people, including Peters, had seen one hockey player bite another, let alone in view of more than 18,000 spectators and a North American television audience. Having viewed some biting prior to Tuesday puts Ruff in the minority. There was no intent to hurt him, just get his thumb out of my mouth.” “I feel that (Peters) put his glove in my mouth with intentions to injure me. “I accept the ruling,” Ruutu said through a team official. The veteran forfeits $31,707.32 in salary, according to an NHL press release. Cannibalism was (around) back then, too, and it’s here, too.”Ĭolin Campbell, the league’s discipline czar, conducted a phone hearing Wednesday morning with Ruutu, who’s in Boston for the Senators’ game tonight against the Bruins, before making his decision. I saw one teammate get bit right in the back. “There was bites in the 80s,” Ruff said Wednesday, hours before the NHL suspended Ruutu two games without pay for the incident. Here’s what I wrote also six years ago during the aftermath of Ruutu’s chomp.īUFFALO – Sabres coach Lindy Ruff, a tough, scrappy NHL battler for 12 seasons, claims he witnessed on-ice bites long before Ottawa’s Jarkko Ruutu chomped down on Andrew Peters’ right thumb Tuesday. When Ruutu played for the Ottawa Senators, the Sabres’ opponent tonight, he bit tough guy Andrew Peters’ thumb on Jan. The 39-year-old Finn left the NHL almost four years ago after 652 games and an indelible mark as a supreme agitator. Jarkko Ruutu has retired from his European team, according to, meaning one of the greatest NHL pests of the last 15 or so years is finished.

Andrew peters and craig rivet