Tonight has been a total whirlwind in the hockey world, especially for Matt Duchene.
From being pulled off the ice in the middle of the game to leaving the arena shortly after to catch a flight, it was probably hard to process for the new Senators forward. This trade was a long time coming for Duchene and he’ll be coming home to Canada and close to his hometown of Haliburton.
While it definitely came at a surprising time for Duchene, he has been expecting to get traded for a long time now and he spoke a bit about his emotions on his way to the airport.
Here are some interesting quotes from the video:
“It’s very weird to obviously get pulled during a game and then being playing my first two games against my old team. It’s very strange, but it was something I half expected…
Probably the last almost year has been tough. But, at the same time, it’s a learning experience, it’s a growing experience, it’s part of the business and none of this is personal at the end of the day, it’s a business and I can’t say enough good things. Colorado has given me so much – my wife’s from there, we got our dog there…
A huge part of my heart and my life has been there and it’s very emotional to be saying goodbye to that. You never know, maybe one day I’ll be back, but it was an honour to have played for Joe and Patty and played with Forsberg and all those guys. I mean that was something that I dreamt about as a kid and I got to live it…
I’m really excited for this new challenge in Ottawa and I’m excited to get there…
I kind of knew before they told me. I saw them talking on the bench and it was very strange but I kind of half-expected it to be the weirdest way possible.”
A lot of people have been making jokes about how excited Duchene must be to leave Colorado, but clearly it was still pretty emotional for him. He may be excited to but all of the rumours behind him, but he valued his time in Colorado and we’re sure he’ll enjoy being near his hometown as well.
