Chris Nilan issues apology to Jonathan Drouin after insulting his mental health

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Sam Hutch
March 28, 2022 (7:08 PM)

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On Saturday, Chris "Knuckles" Nilan, longtime Montreal Canadiens' fan favourite and the former tough guy, made a video mocking the Canadiens' forward Jonathan Drouin for missing another game this season. Due to anxiety, Drouin had been open about his mental health struggles and missed the latter part of last season, but this game off was completely unrelated.

My god, Jonathan Drouin is not playing tonight? Go figure. Oh my god, poor Jonathan, what-what's gone wrong now Jonathan, oh my god. Watch the game. It-it's a lot safer watching from home.

From an outside perspective, people make mistakes daily; I think the original video was off base, considering Nilan has had his own mental health struggles. It seems Nilan realized the error of his ways. Today Knucks took to Twitter to apologize to Drouin personally for mocking him.

Listen, I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, and I know I made one on Saturday; I put out a video about which was insensitive, which was cruel and just plain wrong. I can only imagine how it made you feel.

Opinion: I've never really been a fan of Chris Nilan, or, at least, not the way he presents himself online. To me, he's just an old-school hockey mind that the game passed by a long time ago. However, give credit where credit is due. It not only takes a lot for a person to realize when they've done something wrong but to swallow their pride then and apologize on a public forum shows that he has grown and continues to grow every day. I don't agree with or stand by Knucks for the original video for the record. Still, I recognize that if people can apologize and are sincere about it, then that thing (depending on how big) should be forgiven.