Nashville Predators head coach Peter Laviolette addre sed allegations that he senthis players out to fightand once punched former Philadelphia Flyers forward Kenyon Green Jerseys Ville Leivo in the head, saying both "couldn't be any further from the truth."

The first allegation came from former NHLer Daniel Carcillo, who has been speaking out amid allegations of abuse from different coaches around the NHL. on Wednesday, Carcillo discu sedplaying under Laviolette with the Flyers organization and claimed the coach used to send players out to fight.

"I mean, he was okay," Carcillo toldof Laviolette. "There were a lot of things that annoyed me about him. He was one of the guys that liked to be the 'rah rah' guy, send you out to fight when you know that he never fought."

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Laviolette denied Carcillo's allegation, saying he likes his teams to play a competitive, physical style of hockey but never went as far as to encourage fighting.

"First was a suggestion by Daniel Carcillo that Jalen Camp Jerseys I used my position of power inside of a locker room to bully or ask players or challenge players to go out there and fight. That couldn't be any further from the truth," Laviolette said in a statement, . "Do I want my teams to play hard? Yes. Do I want them to be physical? Yes. Is there fighting in the game? Yes. But there's an insinuation that I would challenge players to go out there and do that. That is not true."

On Friday, in regards to a different incident in which Laviolette allegedly punched former Flyers forward Ville Leino back in February 2011. A video clip of the incident resurfaced on social media on Tuesday in a reply to Carcillo's transcript of Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Brent Sopel's claims against Marc Crawford.

Leino addre sed the incident in the article, telling writer Greg Wyshynski he did not believe it was intentional and that Laviolette had apologized.

"There are a lot of emotions in Anthony Miller Jerseys the game. Coaches get fired up and thing happen," ."I don't think Peter tried to hit me, and it looks worse than it was.'

Laviolette added in his statement he did not intentionallypunch Leino and that the video was not what it seems.

What about this guy? Laviolette on camera punching Leino in the head. Likely not an isolated Isaac Yiadom Jerseys incident.

"Secondly, there's an article that came out Friday that was brought to my attention about punching Ville Leino in the head. In the scope of where we are right now in today's world with regard to coaches, I can tell you that physical abuse from me is the furthest thing from the truth," ."That Ville Leino video clip and the GIF that shows me nicking his helmet and his helmet bobbing up and down over and over again, you can interpret it a whole bunch of different ways. For me, I had called a timeout. I was trying to get my team motivated, and I went to punch my fist into my hand. I nicked the back of his helmet, and by no means was it meant as any physical abuse, Zach Cunningham Jerseys nor have I ever had any physical abuse with the players.

"For the longest time, I thought it was funny watching the GIF play over and over again, knowing that it couldn't be the furthest thing from the truth. Now that I've heard that there's an article Christian Kirksey Jerseys that's talked about, and it's kind of been lumped in with what's going on, I just wanted to get ahead of that. Ville Leino said that I apologized to him. I can't even remember addre sing it. If I did, that's great, because it was something that was accidental at the time where I mi sed my hand and nicked his helmet.

But I just wanted to get in front of these things, because both statements are incorrect."

Over the course of his 18-year career with the Predators, Flyers, Carolina Hurricanes and New York Islanders, Laviolette has posted a head coaching record of 630-420-121.