Quincey says remarks about Avs 'came out wrong'

DETROIT -- During his first media session in the Detroit Red Wings' locker room on Thursday morning, newly-acquired defenseman Kyle Quincey sounded an awful lot like he was ripping his former team, the Colorado Avalanche, which traded him as part of a three-team deal that also involved the Tampa Bay Lightning and Detroit Red Wings.

Quincey said a lot of Colorado's players "had their bags packed" and were waiting to get dealt like he did -- and were probably upset they weren't part of a package deal with him. About 24 hours later, the 26-year old Quincey was asked about the comments, especially since the Avs are coming into Detroit to play the Red Wings on Saturday night.

"That was taken out of context and I didn't mean any of that," Quincey said. "It wasn't all in Colorado, it was the whole League. Everyone until Monday at [3 p.m.] is pretty anxious. That goes for everybody, not just Colorado. Everybody in the League. I don't want to put any of my former teammates in hot soup. I regret saying the stuff that I did, but it wasn't towards them."

He then had some glowing remarks for two-plus years spent with the Avs.

"Colorado is an unbelievable place to play," Quincey said. "I had a great time there. I love it there. I bought a house there and that's my home now. So, the last thing I want to do is get them upset with me."

Quincey said he hadn't been contacted by any of his former teammates about the comments, but it does give a new twist to Saturday's matchup at Joe Louis Arena.

"I haven't talked to any of them at all, but they know me and they know that I'm not a negative person at all … so they know that I didn't mean that at all," said Quincey, who scored a goal in first game after the trade that returned him to the team that drafted him in 2003. "Obviously, being [in Colorado] for three years and how much I liked that organization and what they did for me, I have nothing but positive things to say and those things came out wrong."

Is the former Avs defenseman looking forward to facing his old teammates so quicky?

"It's going to be weird," Quincey said after Friday's practice. "I remember the first time I came back here [to Joe Louis Arena], I was squeezing the stick pretty hard. I think the biggest challenge is going to be going back to Pepsi Center, but I'm looking forward to it."

As for that first game back in a Red Wings uniform since leaving via the waivers process in 2008, it was kind of a roller coaster for Quincey. He put the Vancouver Canucks on the power play with a pair of minor penalties in the second period, then scored a goal early in the third for a 2-1 lead before finding himself on the ice when Daniel Sedin sent it to overtime with just 15.4 seconds left in regulation.

"The second period with the two penalties, I'd like to have those back," Quincey said. "They were weak penalties, not very good penalties by myself, and I wanted to get that back … and scoring that goal was just an unbelievable feeling. I was hoping that it was going to be the game-winner, but you have to give [Vancouver] credit. They're a great team. They played well going down the stretch and they didn’t give up. They did the same exact thing to us two weeks ago in Colorado and I was like, 'This is déjà vu.'"