TAMPA, Fla. -- Montreal Canadiens winger Brandon Prust apologized Tuesday for his comments regarding referee Brad Watson, making it clear he regretted what he said after Sunday's Eastern Conference semifinals Game 2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
"First off, I'd like to apologize to Brad Watson and the rest of the officials in the NHL. ... It was uncalled for," Prust told a big media scrum at Amalie Arena after the team's practice. "We got in a heated exchange and that should have stayed between us. I've always played by the code on and off the ice, I'm a pretty honest player. On Sunday I crossed the line."
Prust accused Watson after the game of saying some fairly serious things to him, insulting and cursing him. Now the Habs winger wishes he had never said that.
"It was tough, it was emotional," Prust said. "I had just gotten in a fight, we had just lost 6-2 and five minutes later I was doing interviews. I wasn't myself. My emotions were -- my heart was beating, I was agitated -- and I shouldn't have been doing the interviews. ...
"If I could go back and redo it, I would," he later added. "But you can't. We've got to live with it, and we focus on the road ahead."
The NHL announced a $5,000 fine Tuesday for "derogatory public comments" directed toward Watson during Prust's postgame media availability.
"Brandon Prust's post-game comments were both baseless and demeaning of a referee whose 20-year career in the League has been marked by professionalism, integrity and a high degree of respect from players, coaches and management," NHL senior executive vice president of hockey operations Colin Campbell said in a statement.
Canadiens coach Michel Therrien on Monday said he believes what is said on the ice should stay on the ice. Therrien on Tuesday said he sat down with Prust and talked to him about it.
"We met this morning and he wanted to apologize," Therrien said. "One thing with Brandon, he's a competitor. He's had good playoffs for us, he works extremely hard. He hates to lose. When we ended up losing the game, it really hurt him. But as we all know, you can't cross that line. He wanted to apologize and I think he did the right thing."
Asked specifically again what he was apologizing for, Prust said:
"I am apologizing for everything. I am apologizing to Brad. It should stay out on the ice. We got heated and I should know more than anybody what happens out there stays out there and there's a code and there's an honor. After the game I was not myself. I was fired up, I was out of my mind. If I could do it all over again, I probably wouldn't have even went in to do interviews. But what's done is done, and we move on."
Prust said he had not reached out to Watson, although he said he figured he might be hearing from Campbell at some point.