Senators embarrassed over video from Uber ride

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.”

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.

The video shows the players, including Duchene, Chris Wideman, Chris Tierney, Thomas Chabot, Alex Formenton (since sent down to his junior club in London), Dylan DeMelo and Colin White, discussing their ineffective penalty kill and mocking Raymond in what appears to be a recording from a camera mounted on the dash of an Uber driver’s van or SUV in Arizona last month.

In the video Duchene, who is 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.”