Ruutu Gets Two For Biting

The NHL suspended Ottawa Senators agitator Jarkko Ruutu two games for biting Buffalo Sabres enforcer Andrew Peters through his gloved thumb during a game Tuesday night.

Ruutu, according to a statement released by the NHL, is "considered a repeat offender under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement," and will forfeit more than $31,700 in salary.

Ruutu will miss Thursday's game at Boston and the Jan. 10 game against the New York Rangers.

The incident took place at 13:13 of the first period Tuesday night in a game between two bitter rivals. The force of Ruutu's bite ripped Peters' glove off and broke the skin on Peters' right thumb. It happened in the first period of Buffalo's 4-2 win when Peters was giving Ruutu a prolonged facewash in front of the Senators' bench.

Ruutu denied that he bit Peters despite replays showing he chomped down on the player's glove.

"I don't think anyone really wants to admit to biting somebody," Peters said on Wednesday, according to the Buffalo News. "That's a pretty awful thing that he did. You guys know me and I'm not the kind of guy who would make something up like that. I'm a pretty honest guy. Obviously he's going to deny it, the old deny-till-you-die type thing. That's his choice. I don't think if I did something that stupid, I would really be admitting to it either."
Peters, who doubled over in pain and clutched his thumb, was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct for sparking the altercation. Ruutu was not penalized.

"I didn't bite him," Ruutu said after the game. "He had his glove in my mouth but I didn't bite him."
With his thumb bandaged after the game, Peters referred to what happened as bizarre and added he had never been bitten. He managed to spin some humor into the situation, saying it was his "texting" thumb that got cut and now he'll have to actually talk to people on the phone instead of text messaging them, the News reported.

Ruutu has already been disciplined once by the NHL this season, when he was suspended for two games without pay in November for elbowing Montreal's Maxim Lapierre.

((HT: the youtube and MSG))