Radko Gudas facing serious accusations after injuring Team Canada captain Sidney Crosby
Radko Gudas is facing a massive wave of backlash right now as Anaheim Ducks head coach Joel Quenneville prepares for the fallout.
The veteran defenseman found himself right in the middle of a massive international controversy on Wednesday.
Hitting Canadian captain Sidney Crosby hard enough to force him out of the entire Olympic tournament was already dominating the global hockey headlines.
But an entirely new element to the story just surfaced, turning this into a massive public relations nightmare for the entire organization.
Mic'd up audio from the ice apparently caught the 35-year-old shouting a horrific homophobic slur during that exact same shift.
He was actively protesting a roughing penalty against a teammate when he directed the completely unacceptable language toward a referee standing nearby.
Gudas facing some serious accusations
The physical blueliner officially apologized to the media and claimed his intense passion for the game temporarily blinded his judgment.
He openly admitted he simply didn't grasp the full meaning of the word when he angrily yelled it across the neutral zone.
Over his NHL career, the gritty Czech native has proven he rarely shies away from finishing a heavy check or engaging in verbal warfare.
He currently logs exactly 16:52 of average ice time per night while anchoring the blue line against elite Pacific Division opposition.
The league front office absolutely refuses to tolerate any homophobic language being used on the ice and expects solid execution of their conduct rules.
A clear precedent already exists after former Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf previously ate a massive $10,000 fine for using that exact same slur back in 2017.
Anaheim desperately needs his physical presence and crisp passing to survive a brutal Western Conference playoff push this spring.
Losing their minute-munching captain to a potential suspension instantly derails their transition game and heavily limits their controlled entries from the back end.
Expect the league disciplinarians to aggressively hand down a harsh punishment before the regular season schedule officially resumes this coming weekend.
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