In every sport, some teams have a Woody Woodpecker on their team. What I mean by this is the old red-headed woodpecker cartoon bird was an agitator. In the NBA, when Dennis Rodman was not on your team, you just hated this guy. Rodman was one of the best defenders during his time on the floors in the NBA. Rodman had that Woodpecker mentality where he could get in your head & throw your game off. When Rodman was with the Bulls and they faced the Utah Jazz in the finals in the 1990’s, Karl Malone fell into his traps more than once. Last Saturday, the LA Kings in the NHL had their own version of agitator. Left winger Brendan Lemieux is not paid to score goals. Lemieux’s job on the ice is to get penalties drawn from the other team. Help his team get into the power play and use the extra man advantage. These guys that do this type of work probably do whatever it takes. Words can hurt.

Sticks can break bones. Maybe even goon it up with a cheap shot or throw down the gloves and go Blades of Steel on the other guy. Some of these goons’ jobs are to protect their own play-makers, the guys that can score goals and get all the glory.

Last Saturday, Brendan Lemieux threw down the gloves with Ottawa Senators left winger Brady Tkachuk. Both of them squared off and eventually both fell to the ice. The referees were trying to untangle them as they kept going at it both on the ice with Lemieux on top of Tkachuk. Eventually Lemieux took a bite out of Crime. Took a Chuk out Tkachuk’s hand.

It all started when Brady Tkachuk pushed the Kings’ center, Blake Lizzotle, in the back after the whistle. It was in the third period & the Kings had the lead on the Senators. When the referees finally broke up the tangled web on the ice between Lemieux and Tkachuk, you could see blood on Brady’s hands. Tkachuk immediately complained to the referee that he had been bitten by a guy needing a snickers bar in Lemieux. Tkachuk said the cannibal bit him on both hands when they fell to the ice. Lemieux said Tkachuk’s hands were bloody from punching him in the teeth during that scuffle. Like any car accident, everyone seems to have a different story. Video evidence shows Lemieux having a biting motion on Tkachuk’s left hand. That evidence matches up with the puncture marks on the left hand of Tkachuk after the game in which the Kings held on to a win, 4-2.

After the game, the Senators’ Brady Tkachuk spoke about Brendan Lemieux.

“The guy is just a joke.

He shouldn’t be in the league.

This guy is gutless.

No other teams want him

He’s going to keep begging to be in the NHL.

But no other team wants him.

He’s an absolute joke.

i can’t even wrap my head around it.

People don’t do this.

He’s a bad guy.

It’s outrageous.

Kids don’t even do that anymore.

Babies do that.

I don’t even know what he was thinking.

He’s a complete brick head.

He’s got nothing up there.

Bad guy, bad player, but what a joke he is.”

We get it a joke and a Brick head is the gist of what Brady Tkachuk had to say after the game about his BFF, Brendan Lemieux.

The NHL has suspended the biter, Brendan Lemieux, for five games without pay. All his salary goes to the Emergency Assistance Fund which is money to help players in unfortunate situations. In 14 games this season, Lemieux is ranked number 14 among overall in the NHL skaters with 32 penalty infraction minutes. After the game, someone would miss and be concerned for his guy if he would be suspended. Kings Coach Todd McLellan said,

“We need him playing every night.

We need him playing every minute he gets.

Offensively, defensively, physically, emotionally.

And if we happen to lose him for any period of time we’ll miss him,

and he has to understand how important he’s become.”

The LA Kings got Brendan Lemieux in a trade in March from the New York Rangers for a 4th round pick. Brendan Lemieux is the son of former NHL player, Claude Lemieux. Brendan Lemieux is 25-years-old and has been in the NHL for 5 seasons playing with three teams: the Jets, Rangers, and now the Kings. This season Lemieux has 4 goals and 1 assist which is 5 points in 14 games for the Kings. Lemieux has 194 games in the NHL and has tallied 27 goals dishing out 25 assists good for 52 points. The dirty work is what Lemieux does well. During the 2019-20 season, Lemieux had 7 penalties in which he was caught and sent to the box while he drew 19 penalties from the opponents that season..

It may take the personality of a brick head to be this type of guy in sports doing things to get the other team’s goat. Hoping cheap shots and not being caught will draw the opponent to attack you to then draw the penalty for your team over something you orchestrated. Mind games have been played in sports since the games were invented. In football these days, roughing the quarterback is a big NO NO. Especially if the quarterback got rid of the ball. Defenders still fall on the quarterbacks on purpose lunging at them in the air. Sure you get caught. The times you do not get caught and hits on quarterbacks, can throw off their timing. When it comes to biting a player that is crazy, but it has been done before. In the sport of football in the trenches many things occurred such as eye gauging, scratching, biting, punching, elbowing, especially during a fumble where players are all piled up on each other. In basketball, players take the charging foul. In basketball, there’s the power of the elbow going for a rebound. Do you compare Brendan Lemieux snacking on Brady Tkachuk’s hand to Mike Tyson gobbling off Evander Holyfield’s ear? Totally different levels of hunger.

Many people love watching fights in hockey. In any sport, especially with violence, someone will take things a bit far like Mike Tyson in boxing. Same with Lemieux and many other guys that used their hockey stick as a weapon of mass destruction. Brendan Lemieux will now always be known, maybe even more now, as a brick head who likes to bite. At the end what comes around goes around and somebody might knock out all his teeth which would make Brady Tkachuk a happy camper.