There have been some strange incidents in the NHL in the past few days. First we see Sidney Crosby jump Brett McLean, then we witness Alexander Semin try and play the bongos on Marc Staal's face. However, not to be outdone, superpest Jarkko Ruutu was involved in an even more bizarre incident tonight as his Senators faced the Sabres. Ruutu apparently took exception to Andrew Peters giving him a facewash, so he chomped down on Peters' hand. Peters still had his glove on, but apparently Jarkko bit down hard because you can see the surprise and pain on Peters' face, and he immediately drops the glove and wrings his hand.

Peters was interviewed about the biting incident after the game, and was justifiably irked, stating that he hadn't seen anything like that since the Tyson Holyfield fight, and that the league would be looking at the incident.

As for Ruutu, who knows what was going on in his head. Was the bite purely reactionary, or is he trying to fill the shoes of Sean Avery as the NHL's new most hated player? At least Ruutu keeps his shenanigans on the ice, but if he keeps pulling stunts like this one it won't be long before the NHL's disciplinarians straighten him out.

Here is the video of Jarkko Ruutu biting Andrew Peters:

 

I finally saw the video footage of Sidney Crosby ball-punching Atlanta's Boris Valabik, and I've got to say it is one of the cheapest things I've ever seen watching hockey. Absolutely bizarre that Crosby would be involved in such an incident. It certainly didn't look like the act of a grown man, let alone one that supposedly follows the hockey code.

Valabik was questioned about the incident and admitted that he didn't feel anything, but that he felt a little bit embarrassed for Crosby when he watched the replay on video. That's got to sting Crosby's pride a bit. Not only does he punch a guy in the nuts from behind, but the recipient doesn't even feel the blows. Crosby has been on the highlight reel plenty of times in his career, but this is one I bet he wishes the cameraman would have missed. Check out the video footage of Sidney Crosby's cheapshot on Boris Valabik below:

 

Has there been a sudden leap in skate sharpening technology in the past few years? Over the last couple of seasons skate blade related injuries seem to be on the rise. We saw the horrible injury to Richard Zednik when a skate blade cut his throat, Kevin Bieksa had most of a season wiped out when a skate lacerated his calf, and now Teemu Selanne has suffered what appears to be a serious leg injury after his own skate blade sliced him as he went awkwardly into the boards. This isn't even the first recent skate blade injury to a Ducks' player. Corey Perry missed 15 games in last year's regular season and playoffs after he was cut. Of course these recent injuries aren't the first in NHL history. Anybody who has been watching hockey for a while remembers the scary incident when Clint Malarchuk had his throat cut by Steve Tuttle's skate, and Donald Audette suffered severe damage to his wrist when his arm was slashed. However, the past few years it seems to be happening more and more frequently .Of course it could be just a statistical anomaly, but if the trend continues the NHL will be taking a hard look at player protection.

You can check out the video footage of what happened below. It isn't until the mid-point of the video that you can actually see what happened. I won't warn the squeamish since it really isn't gory footage, and if you are that squeamish then you shouldn't be hitting the play button on a video titled, Selanne Suffers Freakish Skate Cut Injury :)

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