Skip to content

Kadri feels 'terrible' about penalty-box incident

YouTube/Sportsnet

Nazem Kadri wants to make it clear that he didn't mean to hit the penalty-box attendant with the butt end of his stick Wednesday night.

"I feel terrible about it," the Toronto Maple Leafs forward told reporters on Thursday, via TSN. "It's an emotional game and I kind of got out of control. I didn't even realize I hit him until I saw the replay afterward. I must have apologized to him a thousand times in the penalty box... There's no excuse for it. It won't happen again."

The incident took place late in Wednesday's shootout loss to the Florida Panthers, when Kadri couldn't control his frustration after taking a cross-checking penalty in the final minute of regulation time.

"It was a total accident," he added. "I didn't mean to hit him at all. That's the last thing I was thinking about. I was just trying to take out my frustrations on a water bottle. I was super apologetic. I feel bad and it's never going to happen again."

NHL director of hockey operations Colin Campbell and his department took "a good look" at the incident Wednesday night, but will likely issue nothing more than a warning, TSN's Darren Dreger reports.

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox