Teemu Selanne made some controversial comments in his new book about his former coach Bruce Boudreau and even teammate Ryan Getzlaf. The Ducks captain talked about his reaction to those comments on The Jim Rome show - and he wasn't thrilled.
Ryan Getzlaf was "pissed off" at Teemu Selanne's comments in his bookIn September we learned of some controversial passages in Teemu Selanne's new book, which was strange, given Selanne was a beloved, non-confrontational figure in his NHL career. He suggested that if Bruce Boudreau wasn't the coach of the Anaheim Ducks he'd still be playing in the NHL and wouldn't have retired.
It was certainly strange to see some of the things Selanne had to say and that he had such a heated relationship with his last NHL coach. But in the book, he even called out Ryan Getzlaf a little and thought the Ducks captain could have done more to support him.
Thursday on the Jim Rome Show, Getzlaf was asked what his reaction was to the comments - and he wasn't thrilled.
Jim Rome: You know Ryan, Teemu Selanne retired he wrote a book and I know you've seen that and Teemu's one of the great great players, one of the great guys and certainly not a controversial figure yet he was critical of your coach Bruce Boudreau in that book and even said that he was bothered by his playing time at certain points and mentioned that he wished you had done more to lobby on his behalf, what was your reaction when you saw some of those passages?
Ryan Getzlaf: It was, you know what it was…I was pissed off to tell you the truth. It wasn't great. I thought it was kind of unnecessary for him to come out and say something like that but at the same time Teemu doesn't know everything that goes on. He doesn't know how many times that I had conversations about him in the last two years to help him to try and get to where he wanted to be. But, like I said before, my response is always the same: I'm the captain of the hockey team and not of one player. I have to kind of weigh in where my voice is going to be heard and where it's not. And there's times where I have to step away and just let our coaches and GMs make the decisions and go with it. It's not really my job.
In 64 games last season, Selanne scored only nine goals and 27 points and was rapidly regressing as a producer - and considering he was 43 years old, you can understand why.
In 2010-11, Selanne's point per game pace was 1.09. In 2011-12 it dipped to .80. In the lockout-shortened 2012-13, his PPG was down to .52 and in 2013-14 it was down to .42.
Selanne scored 684 goals in his career, holds the rookie record for goals in a season with 76, is a fan favorite across all teams and is a Hall of Fame lock. And he has to sell his book - but it's tough to see such a player leave in this way.