Winter Olympics 2014: David Poile apologizes to Bobby Ryan for 'denigrating' comments

The Team USA general manager owned up to critical comments published in ESPN this week.

By Patrick Iversen Jan 3, 2014, 10:34am EST

The fallout from ESPN's tell-all about USA Hockey's reasoning for leaving Bobby Ryan off the 2014 Winter Olympics roster continued on Friday.

Just a day after the Ottawa Senators forward acknowledged he felt 'degraded' by critical comments made by general manager David Poile, Brian Burke and other members of USA management, Poile offered a public apology during a conference call.

Poile: "If it was said about me, I would be upset...Denigrating any player is not what anyone signed up for....Unfortunate..."
— Steve Zipay (@stevezipay) January 3, 2014

In case you missed the article, at different times Ryan was described as a "sleepy skater" and Burke said that the word intense was "not in his vocabulary." Ryan told Ottawa reporters that he thought the comments from Burke were "gutless."

Poile addressed those comments on Friday and partially blamed USA Hockey's misunderstanding of the editorial control over ESPN's story for the comments getting out.

As for Burke's comments on #Sens Bobby Ryan: "I'm sorry that got out. It's great to be open but ... it went further than it should have."
— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) January 3, 2014

Poile says "we were caught off guard" & "communications" issue with media. Thought would have some "editorial review" as with HBO's 24/7
— Steve Zipay (@stevezipay) January 3, 2014

None of this will matter if Ryan makes the team after an injury in Sochi, but for now the USA will continue to face questions about Ryan's omission. Don't bet on any more behind-the-scenes reporting any time soon after this media storm.