Dave Bolland's comments about Sedins rile Canucks
Even when the Blackhawks and Vancouver Canucks aren't playing, they still can't help but get under each other's skin.
Hawks center Dave Bolland started the latest verbal dust up when he went on WGN radio Monday night and called Canucks twins Henrik and Daniel Sedin “sisters.”
Bolland went on to say he wouldn't want the Sedins on the Hawks.
“They'll never be Hawks,” Bolland said during the WGN broadcast from Harry Caray's steakhouse. “I don't think we'd let them on our team. We'd be sure not to let them on our team. And, yeah, they probably still would be sisters. I think they might sleep in bunk beds. The older one has the bottom, and the younger one the top.”
If Bolland was attempting humor in front of a live audience, what he said wasn't funny in the opinion of Canucks coach Alain Vigneault and his players.
“You're talking about two players who play with integrity, that play the game the right way, that are great examples of everything this game stands for,” Vigneault told reporters in Vancouver. “Dave Bolland has the IQ the size of a bird seed and a face only a mother can look at.”
Vigneault was only getting started.
“Obviously, in my mind such a classy organization like Chicago, I'm sure that they're not too happy about that and I'm sure the NHL isn't too happy about that,” Vigneault said. “We're not talking about junior league here or a bush league. We're talking about National Hockey League, where they have professional players where they get involved in community and society who all do a hard line of work and they do it the best way they can. To have guys like this trying to act like comedians, it's just not the right thing to do.”
Bolland later apologized for his comments following the Hawks' 4-3 win at Minnesota.
“I have the utmost respect for the Sedin twins ... that whole team, what they do on the ice, and for Alain Vigneault as well,” Bolland said. “It was just a little bit of tongue-in-cheek we had on the radio show with some of the fans.”
Henrik Sedin shrugged off Bolland's comments.
“Who cares?” Sedin told reporters. “I have a lot of respect for a lot of guys on that team. We're not playing them for another few weeks so I don't know what that came from.”
Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa stood up for his teammates.
“I think if it wasn't for the twins, I don't think anyone would have heard about Dave Bolland,” Bieksa said.
The Hawks and Canucks don't play again until Jan. 31 in Vancouver.