Dallas Stars captain Jamie Benn has reportedly reached out to Vancouver Canucks stars Henrik and Daniel Sedin, to apologize for comments made on a Texas radio morning show Tuesday morning.
Benn – a native of Victoria, B.C., who played his junior hockey for the WHL's Kelowna Rockets – was a guest with teammate Tyler Seguin on Dallas station 1310 The Ticket, when the two were asked whether they roomed together, like the hosts assumed the Sedins did on the road.
"Who knows what else they do together?" was Benn's response, a comment seen as homophobic by some but certainly disrespectful to a peer by all. The show's hosts – Bob and Dan – went on to call the Sedins relationship "creepy", and derided the twins for the fact they were identical.
"In fact, it's a good example to future brothers in the NHL on how not to do things," one of the hosts said.
On Wednesday morning, Stars president Jim Lites issued a statement on behalf of the organization and his captain (via Sportsnet):
"Jamie Benn has reached out to Henrik and Daniel Sedin to apologize for the radio interview that he was a part of on Monday. The Dallas Stars have the utmost respect for their contributions that the two have made to both the game and to their community over the course of their great careers. We will not be commenting on the situation further."
Henrik responded to the comments, after hearing about them, in an interview with TSN 1040 radio's Scott Rintoul on Tuesday.
"I think it says more about them than it does about us," Sedin said.
Canucks face Chicago Blackhawks: 5 p.m. PST (Sportsnet Pacific)
This behind us, the real action's actually on the ice tonight, not in some booth in the Lonestar State.
The Canucks take on the Chicago Blachawks tonight in Illinois, the second game in their current road trip. Vancouver dropped the first game of their trip, 5-3 to the Minnesota Wild on Monday.
"Special teams got us into a little bit of trouble tonight," said head coach Willie Desjardins after the loss. "They're a hard team to generate (offence against), so you gamble a little bit, especially when you get behind. It's different."
The loss followed a 5-0 beatdown of the powerful Pittsburgh Penguins, although that win followed a 5-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks. Two nights before that, the Canucks fought tooth and nail to a 3-2 overtime win over the Winnipeg Jets.
Vancouver has traded wins and losses its past seven games now, ending with the Minnesota defeat on Monday.
"I thought it was a pretty good game tonight," Deshardins continued. "They had a real good powerplay tonight. Outside of that, we were good.
"We didn't get the results we wanted, but I think we battled tonight."
*Face-off is 5 p.m. PST, on Sportsnet Pacific and TSN 1040 radio.