VANCOUVER - Many of them grew up watching him on Coach's Corner – so the sudden firing of Don Cherry was shocking for Vancouver Canucks players.

‘You watch Hockey Night in Canada all the time, right? It’s part of being a kid,” said captain Bo Horvat. “He's been in the game for a long time, he's been around. But the same time, hockey's supposed to bring people together and there's no place for stuff like that. So you know, I think it’s the right decision to be made.”

Canucks centre Brandon Sutter was reluctant to wade into the controversy, calling it a touchy subject, but said “ it’s not something people stand for anymore and that’s really all I want to say about it. I think our sport, something we’ve been pressing the last few years, it’s for everyone.”

Coach Travis Green also described Cherry’s comments as unacceptable.

“I don’t think there’s any room for that, not just in sport but in life in general. You don’t like to see people making comments like that, that are hurting other people, other cultures," he said.

The focus on Remembrance Day should be the Canadian troops and their families, Green added, not Cherry and his comments.

“It’s a day we’re supposed to give thanks and remember what people have done for us and the sacrifice they have given for a lot of things we have today, and you don’t like to see things like that," Green said. 

Horvat agreed: “It should be about guys sacrificing their lives and their families and people who fought to make this country so great. It should be about them today, and not about this.”