Philadelphia Flyers forward Jakub Voracek came to the defense of the seven Ottawa Senators players who appeared in a video during an Uber ride while the team was on the road in Arizona.
During the ride, the seven players - Matt Duchene, Chris Wideman, Chris Tierney, Thomas Chabot, Alex Formenton, Dylan DeMelo, and Colin White - bashed their assistant coach, Marty Raymond, and the team's poor penalty kill, among other topics.
Voracek argued that similar dialogue between colleagues happens very often.
"I guarantee that every single person who has a boss, every sports team in the world can guarantee it happens everywhere," Voracek told NBC's John Boruk. "And I can guarantee that the coaches behind the door talk about the players. It happens everywhere all the time.
"You go out for a beer, you go out for dinner, it happens. The coaches vent about the players when they go out to dinner about who f---ing sucks, who's playing bad, who's playing better. It happens everywhere. So now it comes out, they're making a big deal. I don't think they said anything bad, just that their PK and their PP sucks."
The general manager of Uber Canada released a statement shortly after the video went public, stating that filming or recording passengers without their consent is "totally unacceptable" and that the company has made efforts to have the video taken down.
More recently, the Ottawa Citizen rejected the Senators' request to have the video taken down.
The seven players in the Uber have since issued an apology to Raymond, their coaches, and teammates.
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