The Finnish Liiga has decided to suspend Nick Richie for eight games after his vicious attack on Ottawa Senators 2016 sixth-round pick Marcus Nurmi.
The incident took place on Thursday evening and went viral on social as video showed the former NHL first-round pick getting ejected from the contest between between TPS Turku and Oulun Kärpät.
The incident occurred minutes after Nurmi scored the goal early in the second period. Ritchie got himself engaged in an altercation with Nurmi near the corner and grabbed his neck. He then dragged him down to the ice, and delivered a barrage of blows to the back of his head. Nurmi, who did not engage, was down on the ice and defenseless. It’s all here:
No teammate rushed to the defense of Nurmi as it was the officials who got there first and put an end to the one-sided scrap. They issued Ritchie a major penalty along with the game misconduct and now the former Flames forward will be banned for eight contests.
The game ended with the TPS Turku losing to the Oulun Karpat 5-3 as Ritchie clocked 8:54 minutes of ice time and recorded 29 penalty minutes in the matchup. He is now on pace for 252 penalty minutes in 36 Liiga games…
Before heading overseas, he recorded 26 career fights in the NHL. The eight-season NHL veteran, who was selected 10th overall by the Anaheim Ducks in 2014, also played for the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Arizona Coyotes and Calgary Flames.
He was acquired as a last-minute deadline acquisition in the first brother-for-brother trade in NHL history when he and Troy Stetcher headed to Calgary in exchange for Brett Ritchie and defenceman Connor Mackey on Mar. 3, 2023. He was without a contract heading into the 2023-2024 season and finally signed a professional tryout agreement with the St. Louis Blues. He was however released from his tryout and signing a one-year with Kärpät.
But now he will be out of their lineup for quite a while… So far this season in the Finnish Liiga, Ritchie has tallied a goal and four assists.
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