NHL Biting Incidents

Notorious biting incidents in NHL games.

SI Staff | Mar 26, 2015

NHL Biting Incidents /

NHL Biting Incidents

Andrew Shaw and Victor Hedman

Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman believes Chicago’s Andrew Shaw bit him on the torso during a scrum after the whistle in the second period of Game 1 of the 2015 Stanley Cup Final. Hedman lifted his jersey on the bench to show the bruise.

Mikhail Grabovski and Max Pacioretty

The NHL was unable to find enough evidence to suspend the Maple Leafs forward after he gave Pacioretty a reason to request a tetanus shot after their Feb. 9, 2013 game. The Montreal winger had wrapped his arm around Grabovski’s face during a third-period fracas and emerged from the scrum waving his alleged wound at the officials. However, Grabovski was handed a 10-minute misconduct and a roughing minor.

Alex Burrows and Patrice Bergeron

The Canucks forward dodged a suspension after allegedly snacking on Patrice Bergeron’s finger during Game 1 of the 2011 Stanley Cup finals. Though the bitten Bruin was seen sporting a bandage after the game, the NHL was unable to find enough conclusive evidence to convict.

Brooks Laich and Sean Avery

While ousting New York from the 2011 playoffs, Washington’s Laich was accused of putting the bite on the Ranger bad boy during a goalmouth scrum. Wearing a look of distress, Avery pleaded his case to an official, to no avail. Laich later claimed innocence, saying he’d been a victim in the past. “He was trying to eye gouge me, he was sticking his fingers in my mouth. But that play happened to me where somebody bit me and I thought it was a low, disrespectful, gutless play, and I’m not gonna do that.”

Marc Savard and Daniel Carcillo

Savard’s second course allegedly came during the 2010 playoffs when the Flyers’ pot stirrer put his hand too close to the Bruin’s pie hole. “Men don't bite men,” the man known as Car Bomb complained to reporters. Alas, the league’s investigation proved fruitless and Savard was not fined or suspended.

Matt Cooke and Arron Asham

It’s only fitting that a player named Cooke would be involved in a biting incident. On the menu during a January 2010 tilt was Flyers forward Asham, who claimed he’d been chomped on by the villain Penguin. A wag later wrote that the incident “raised the question of which of Cooke’s three teeth were used in the attack.”

Scott Hartnell and Kris Letang

During an Oct. 2009 game Pittsburgh defenseman Letang learned that applying a facewash to a bitter rival during a dust-up is an occupational hazard. Flyer Hartnell denied taking a bite of Penguin but admitted that, “a lot of stuff happens on the bottom of the pile. He had his hands in my face doing the face-wash and we’re rolling around. I can’t say what happened.” Certainly not.

Shaone Morrisonn and Brandon Dubinsky

Caps defenseman Morrisonn denied a taste for flesh after the Rangers forward claimed he’d been bitten on the arm during an April 2009 game. “I have no idea what he’s talking about, what that’s all about actually,” Morrisonn said. “It’s weird that they’re talking about that.” Well, given the league’s history, probably not.

Jarkko Ruutu and Andrew Peters

Another case of a facewash coming to no good end, Sabres enforcer Peters found himself turned into finger food during a Jan. 2009 game. Senator Ruutu received a two-game suspension for his gustatory exuberance.

Derian Hatcher and Travis Zajac

Zajac’s left middle finger was stitched and taped after New Jersey's contentious tilt against the Flyers on Jan. 4, 2008. Had the digit in question been Devils food for Flyers defenseman Derian Hatcher? That’s what Zajac claimed. Hatcher scoffed, saying, “If he’s cut, good, but I didn’t bite him.”

Jordin Tootoo and Tyler Wright

It’s only fitting that a Predator would be accused of using its incisors, and that’s what happened when Blue Jackets forward Wright pointed an aching pinkie at Tootoo after they scrapped during a January 2004 game. “He’s from way up north—that’s how they eat up there, I guess,” Wright told the Tennessean after the game. All Tootoo would admit to was, “There was a scrum and he was giving me a facewash. It all happened so fast. I'm pretty positive I didn't, but what am I supposed to do when he has a hand in my face?”

Marc Savard and Darcy Tucker

Few people, other than his teammates or family perhaps, liked Tucker, Toronto’s notorious agitator. Savard got a taste during a Nov. 2003 scrum when Tucker stuck his finger in the Thrashers forward’s mouth. Helping himself to a snack cost Savard a one-game suspension.

Dave Manson and Scott Stevens

Bruce Bennett Studios, Mitchell Layton/Getty Images

Both players drew blood and three-game suspensions—Manson the Blackhawk for biting; Stevens the Capital for eye gouging—during a particularly unsavory encounter in a Feb. 1990 game. Their pleas of self-defense fell on deaf ears at the league offices.

Claude Lemieux and Jim Peplinski

Lemieux inspired one of the game’s great quotes: “I didn’t know they allowed cannibalism in the NHL,” said Peplinski after the Canadiens’ pot-stirrer chowed down on the Flames forward’s finger and drew blood while they fought during the 1986 Stanley Cup finals. Peplinski, who got a postgame tetanus shot as a precaution, was unable to convince referee Denis Morel that a crime against humanity had been committed.

Ken Linseman and Lee Fogolin

Graig Abel Collection, Bruce Bennett Studios/Getty Images

Aptly nicknamed “The Rat,” the Bruins agitator was fined for sinking his teeth into Oilers defenseman Lee Fogolin during an October 1984 game.

Chris Chelios and Tomas Sandstrom

It took 15 years, but Chelios finally ‘fessed up to the Detroit News that he’d applied his bridgework to the Rangers’ abrasive Sandstrom during a 1984 game. “We were in a fight and he tried to gouge my eyes,” said Chelios, who was playing for Montreal at the time. “It was just a natural instinct to do that. Plus the fact it was him. Broke skin, blood, the whole works. The referee hated him so much, he just told (Sandstrom) to get out of there and go to the box.”

Published Mar 26, 2015

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