Duchene apologizes for viral player video

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, most notably assistant coach Marty Raymond, appeared online on 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,” said Duchene.

“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 that 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.

Stone said that the video showing seven Senators players insulting the team and Raymond during an Uber ride is an internal matter.

“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.”