Selanne on son's tweet criticizing Boudreau: 'He sticks up for his dad, that's what families do'

When 43-year-old Anaheim Ducks forward Teemu Selanne was made a healthy scratch for Anaheim's Game 4 contest against the Dallas Stars on Wednesday, Selanne's 18-year-old son Eemil Selanne took to Twitter to express his bitter disagreement with Ducks head coach Bruce Boudreau's decision. In one of those 'tweets that launched 1000 blog posts,' Eemil jokingly suggested that Boudreau should probably be re-assigned to the American Hockey League.

The tweet has since been deleted, apparently at Teemu's behest, but the Ducks forward discussed the matter with reporters on Thursday. "When I heard, I said, 'Just take it out,'" Selannne said, describing his reaction with reporters per the Los Angeles Times. "I thought it was funny. I don't tweet, not into Facebook. [Eemil] sticks up for his dad, that's what families do."

Continued the sure-fire first-ballot Hockey Hall of Fame forward: "It’s over, I don’t even want to talk about the whole thing. I told Bruce it’s a new day, there’s no hard feelings, we go from there. It’s playoff time. I don’t want to think about negative energy."

Boudreau meanwhile was understanding of the reaction - both from Eemil, and from Ducks fans in general - but didn't regret his decision:

I knew exactly what it was going into it, I knew the reaction, and if I was a fan, I’d probably be upset, too.

[Teemu's] an icon, one of the greatest players ever. I just thought we’d need a physical player along the boards a little bit more. Emerson [Etem] fits that bill, so the decision was made. As much as we all love him and what he’s done for us, you’ve got to think of the team and what it needs to win at that specific moment. … You’ve got to do what you think is the right thing to do for the team.