Chris Wideman opens up about infamous Uber incident while with Ottawa in 2017

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Cooper Godin
May 10, 2023 (11:21)

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Former Senators defenceman and current Montreal Canadien Chris Wideman was on a recent edition of the 'Cam and Strick' podcast and opened up further about the infamous Uber incident while in Ottawa back in 2017.

"What I think is lost in that whole thing is, you know, we said some things and got carried away and said some things that weren't really that outside the box of what guys typically talk about. We're talking about work, we're frustrated, we were losing and it was unfair that it was taken out on one of our coaches and the way that it looked was really just very disrespectful. After going through everything I went through after and being able to make it back to the NHL, I'm almost thankful in a way that it did happen because I learned a lot about myself, how to persevere and overcome, but also learned a lot about the world and how things really work." Wideman said.

He went on to add, "There's a few more things that happened that I can touch on when I retire, that happened that I don't need to bring up. But there's a whole side of this that, there was some other stuff said and recorded and released, that no one ever saw. It didn't come out of my mouth, I can say that much."

The video made public in early November 2018, just weeks after it was filmed while in Arizona during Ottawa's west coast road trip. In the video, Wideman, alongside Thomas Chabot, Matt Duchene, Chris Tierney, Dylan DeMelo and Alex Formenton were seen and heard talking about how the team was playing up to that point in the season.

During the video, the players began to discuss how poorly they were defensively and took aim at assistant coach Martin Raymond, claiming he was unable to teach them anything. Matt Duchene then chirped Raymond by saying he was the only coach in NHL history to have the worst power-play and penalty-kill in a calendar year.

In the days following the release of the video, the players involved issued a statement apologizing to their coach, while the Uber driver was fired by the company and said that he made the 'dumbest decision of his life' by making the video public.

Wideman, who was in the front seat during the video, felt the impact almost immediately. Just over two weeks after the video was made public, the Senators traded Wideman to the Edmonton Oilers, who then flipped him to Florida after only a month. The next season, Wideman was in the American Hockey League with San Diego, before making the jump to the KHL for the 2020-21 campaign, where he earned Defenceman of the Year honours. His strong play in the KHL caught the eye of the Montreal Canadiens, who inked him to a contract for the 2021-22 season and then signed a two-year deal last summer to remain with the organization.

There's more to the story from the incident that occurred inside the Uber with Ottawa players. Chris Wideman fell into a hole after the incident but preserved and was able to climb his way back into the #NHL. pic.twitter.com/976nXP4kTn� The Cam & Strick Podcast (@CamandStrick) May 9, 2023