Rumor crushed: O’Reilly and Duchene are friends after all

For the last few months we’ve heard rumors about how Avalanche teammates Ryan O’Reilly and Matt Duchene weren’t seeing eye-to-eye. When O’Reilly’s contract squabbles with the team dragged out, it was believed there was strife there.

Fear not, rumormongers, the two young Colorado stars would like everyone to know they’re friends as they shared with Adrian Dater of The Denver Post. Dater asked the two players directly if they had beef and they cleared the air fast.

“No,” Duchene said. “We’re still buddies, we’re teammates and we both want to win together.”

Said O’Reilly: “We’re still friends. I don’t know where some of that stuff got started.”

Some of that stuff started on its own with some help from Dater’s co-worker at the Denver Post, Mike Chambers, after the Avalanche lost in Detroit on Tuesday. At the very least this stuff didn’t get a chance to fester. Perhaps after the Avs took out Chicago on Friday, it sparks them to make a run towards the playoffs.