NHL suspends Kings' Brendan Lemieux for five games for biting hand of Senators' Brady Tkachuk

Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk said last weekend that the Los Angeles Kings’ Brendan Lemieux bit his hand.

On Tuesday, the NHL clamped down, suspending Lemieux for five games for the infraction that occurred during Saturday’s 4-2 Kings victory. Lemieux also will forfeit $38,750.00 in salary.

The two players got involved in a prolonged third-period altercation that continued with both on the ice and the linesmen trying to separate them. Tkachuk pointed to his bleeding hand as he got up and told the referee, "He bit me."

The play was reviewed and Lemieux was ejected.

Though Tkachuk had cuts on both hands, the league focused on the bite that occurred as both went to the ice and didn't buy Lemieux's argument that Tkachuk had hit his tooth.

"This is not a hockey play," the league said in a video. "This is a player delivering a forceful, intentional and potentially dangerous bite to the bare hand of another player with sufficient force to puncture the skin. Such actions will not be tolerated."

Lemieux, then with the New York Rangers, was suspended for two games in 2018 for an illegal check to the head. He also was suspended for two preliminary-round games in 2020 for interference.

"It’s outrageous," Tkachuk said after Saturday's game, according to the Ottawa Sun. "Kids don’t even do that anymore. Babies do that. I don’t even know what he was thinking, he’s just a complete brick head. He’s got nothing up there. Bad guy, bad player, but what a joke he is."