OTTAWA
Conor Timmins Jersey Womens , Ontario (AP) — Matt Duchene and the Ottawa Senators are attempting to put the drama behind them after a viral video of him and some teammates criticizing the club and assistant coach Marty Raymond emerged online Monday.Duchene spoke publicly about the incident for the first time Tuesday night after the Senators beat the New Jersey Devils 7-3 in Ottawa.“I want to take this opportunity to extend my absolute sincere apologies to Marty Raymond. He’s a heck of a person and coach and he did not deserve what we said. I sincerely, sincerely mean that on behalf of myself and my teammates,” Duchene said.“It’s been a tough couple of days for a lot of people and we needed to respond and we did (with a win). We’ve dealt with things and everything in (the room) is good. We’re moving forward and it’s hard for me to even talk about because it makes me emotional and it’s not the person I am, or any of us. We’ve done a heck of a job bouncing back tonight as a whole group and I’ve said it all season and I’m going to keep saying it, we have a heck of a group in here.”Ottawa forward Mark Stone said earlier in the day the latest bit of turmoil in the ongoing saga of the Senators is a “hiccup,” and that the team has already done work to repair the frayed relationship between players and coaches that was laid bare in the video.The video showed seven Senators players during an Uber ride in Phoenix last month insulting the team and Raymond. Stone said Tuesday the matter already was addressed before the five-minute clip surfaced.“It’s disappointing the way the video got released,” he said. “We dealt with this long before this video was released. As a coaching staff, as management, as players it was dealt with internally and the way it should be, and we’re going to move forward and grow from it.“We don’t want negative stuff surrounding our team and this is a hiccup. I think guys have made a great effort to repair relationships. This is only going to make our team stronger going forward.”The video was the latest humiliation for the organization over the past two years: owner Eugene Melnyk threatening to move the team; alleged cyberbullying involving the wife of former star captain Erik Karlsson; and harassment allegations against former assistant general manager Randy Lee.The players in the Uber were Duchene, Chris Wideman, Chris Tierney
http://www.ducksshoponline.com/authentic-jakob-silfverberg-jersey , Thomas Chabot, Alex Formenton (since sent down to the juniors), Dylan DeMelo and Colin White.They were discussing the team’s ineffective penalty killing and mocking Raymond in what appears to be a recording from a camera mounted on the dashboard.Uber Canada’s General Manager Rob Khazzam said on his Twitter account that video taken of a private conversation without passenger consent is a “clear violation of our terms of service.” He said such conduct is “totally unacceptable” and merits investigation.None of the players involved discussed the video Tuesday.“As a leader of this team I want to be supporting my teammates,” Stone said. “It’s something I never want anyone to go through with it. As a coaching staff and management and players, we’re trying to form a bond that turns this team into the right direction and this is a hiccup, but I think we’re on the right track of doing that.”Defenseman Mark Borowiecki acknowledged the Senators would have to deal with the “consequences” and “ramifications” of the video.“But we want to keep this in house as much as we can and deal with it appropriately,” he said.In the video, Duchene, one of the Senators’ alternate captains, is heard saying: “Marty Raymond, the only coach in NHL history to have the worst power-play and the worst PK within a calendar year.”Duchene later adds that he hasn’t “paid attention in three weeks” in Raymond’s meetings.The players apologized to Raymond in a statement Monday.Raymond, in his third season with the Senators
Womens John Gibson Jersey , was responsible for the power play for much of last season and is in charge of the team’s penalty-killing this year. Ottawa’s penalty killing ranks 30th in the league.Senators coach Guy Boucher said the team is trying to move forward and concentrate on Tuesday night’s home game against New Jersey.“I don’t know who makes decisions to put things like that out there, but when you purposely try to hurt another human being, I don’t want to spend too much time on that, and especially probably the best human being I know (Raymond), that’s personal,” Boucher said.During the morning skate Duchene was seen talking and laughing with Raymond as the two held a brief conversation at center ice.The matter has raised concerns about player privacy.“We’re all totally aware that any time someone says to you this is off the record … nothing is off the record in your life. So let’s get that straight,” Toronto coach Mike Babcock said at the Maple Leafs’ morning skate Tuesday.Many Maple Leaf players said it’s imperative for players to be aware of their surroundings when having a private conversation. And defenseman Travis Dermott expressed some sympathy for the Ottawa players.“I mean, tough bounce for them. They’re going to have to deal with that, but it could happen to anyone, really.”Added Vegas Golden Knights winger Ryan Reaves: “I would never expect a cab ride conversation to be made public, but that’s the world we live in right now. Everybody’s a snitch.” After Bill Foley agreed to pay a whopping $500 million for the right to put a hockey team in the middle of the Mojave Desert, the NHL decided his Vegas Golden Knights deserved a chance for a swift return on that investment.If the other NHL owners had known just how huge Foley’s reward would be – and how incredibly quickly he would get it – they probably wouldn’t have been quite so nice to the new guy.It’s too late now
Authentic Josh Manson Jersey , though. After reaping a bonanza from one of the most generous expansion drafts in sports history, the Golden Knights are two victories away from an unbelievable Stanley Cup Final berth.A brand-new team in a league that has been around for 101 years already has a Pacific Division title, two playoff series victories and a 2-1 lead on the Winnipeg Jets in the Western Conference finals.”I don’t think anybody saw us here,” Vegas goalie Marc-Andre Fleury said. ”It’s been a lot of fun to be part of it. Really proud of this team and the way these guys have been working. We deserve to be here.”Fleury and the other players accomplishing this feat refer to themselves as the Golden Misfits, yet few of Vegas’ expansion draft selections were truly undesired by the clubs that lost them 11 months ago.Instead, general manager George McPhee took full advantage of his opportunities to compile an uncommonly talented roster, and coach Gerard Gallant turned that roster into a brilliant team in shockingly swift fashion. But it all started with the draft that allowed McPhee to build this monster in less than a year.”It had a big impact,” McPhee acknowledged. ”The (expansion draft) rules were favorable. Gave us something to work with, and gave this team an opportunity to be a good team.”The NHL allowed its teams to protect only seven forwards, three defensemen and one goalie, or eight skaters and one goalie. By way of comparison, when the NHL last expanded in 2000
http://www.ducksshoponline.com/authentic-ondrej-kase-jersey , teams were allowed to protect a whopping nine forwards, five defensemen and a goalie, or seven forwards, three defensemen and two goalies.The league also required teams to expose players with significant NHL experience who were under contract through next season, closing loopholes and helping Vegas even more. Third-line forwards and top-four defensemen were available from almost every team.The easiest acquisition was Fleury, of course. The Knights got a three-time Stanley Cup winning goalie with 375 career victories for nothing, and he has largely stayed healthy while playing at a formidable level.The Knights also landed the likes of James Neal, a proven veteran talent with nine consecutive 20-goal seasons. He scored 25 goals while providing steady veteran leadership.They plucked William Karlsson, a clearly gifted forward who had yet to reach his full potential with two NHL teams. The Swede swiftly became one of the NHL’s best players, racking up 43 goals – an NHL record for an expansion team’s first season – and 35 assists along with a plus-49 rating.And the expansion draft terms allowed McPhee to get creative in trades with teams hoping to keep players who couldn’t fit under the protection umbrella. For instance, the Knights ended up with Reilly Smith in a trade because Florida wanted them to draft Jonathan Marchessault – and the two ex-Panthers became two of the Knights’ top four scorers.The draft bounty isn’t the only reason these upstart Knights have immediately entered their Golden years.All of this talent wouldn’t have won so many games without Gallant. He built a balanced, disciplined team that has rolled four lines and played relentless two-way hockey while mining untapped talents such as Karlsson and Eric Haula
Rickard Rakell Jersey , who scored 29 goals after never managing more than 15 in Minnesota.”Gerard has done a terrific job of making this a team,” McPhee said. ”He has really brought a lot of players along, and they’ve played better than they’ve played anywhere else.”Foley bought this opportunity with his $500 million expansion fee, yet nobody in the sports world expected the Golden Knights to put it all together so swiftly. That includes the 73-year-old Foley, who raised eyebrows around the league when he set a public goal of bringing the Stanley Cup to Las Vegas within six years – a goal he later revised to maybe eight years.Instead, there’s an increasingly strong chance the Golden Knights will parade the Stanley Cup down the Strip one month from now. There are 12 other NHL teams that have never won a championship, along with seven franchises that haven’t raised the Cup in at least 23 years.Potential NHL expansion owners in Seattle and Houston are probably thinking $500 million was a bargain, since the expansion fee is likely to go up when the league eventually awards its 32nd franchise. It also seems improbable that the NHL would ever make it this easy to build a team again.But nothing will erase the Golden Knights’ remarkable embrace of this unusual moment in hockey history.”It was important to the league and to Las Vegas and to Bill Foley that this franchise had a chance to work,” McPhee said. ”That people that were coming to the games could enjoy the product and become real fans, and we could grow some deep roots in this marketplace. So I didn’t mind the rules.”—AP freelance writer W.G. Ramirez in Las Vegas contributed to this report.—
