Paul Skrbina | The Tennessean

NASHVILLE - Predators coach Peter Laviolette on Friday denied suggestions that he sent his players out to fight and that he punched a player in the head while he was the coach of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Retired player Daniel Carcillo, who played for Laviolette for two-plus seasons in Philadelphia, told 104.5 FM earlier this week that the now-Predators coach "was one of the guys that likes to be a 'rah-rah' guy, send you out to fight when you know that you never fought."

Said Laviolette: "First was a suggestion by (Carcillo) that I used my position of power inside of a locker room to bully or ... challenge players to go out there and fight. That couldn't be further from the truth."

Laviolette said he encourages his teams to play hard and understands that fighting is part of the game but denied ever challenging a player to drop his gloves on the ice.

Paul Skrbina, The Tennessean

On Friday, ESPN's Greg Wyshynski published a story about another incident, which took place in 2011, during which Laviolette appeared to punch then-Flyers player Ville Leino in the head during a game.

The moment has lived on thanks to social media and has made the rounds of late in wake of abuse allegations made against recently fired Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock, fired Calgary Flames coach Bill Peters, suspended Blackhawks assistant coach Marc Crawford, among others.

"In the scope of where we are right now, with regard to coaches, I can tell you that physical abuse for me is the furthest thing from the truth," Laviolette said.

"That Ville Leino video clip and the GIF that shows me nicking his helmet and his helmet bobbing up and down over and over gets played back. You can interpret it a whole bunch of different ways.

"I had called a timeout. I was trying to get my team motivated and I went to punch my fist into my hand. I nicked the back of his helmet. By no means was it meant as any physical abuse nor have I ever had any physical abuse with a player. ... If people really thought I was punching somebody in the back of the head, then that would have come forward a long time ago."

Leino told ESPN he didn't feel Laviolette purposely punched him, and that Laviolette later apologized.

"There are a lot of emotions in the game. Coaches get fired up and thing happen," Leino told ESPN. "I don't think Peter tried to hit me, and it looks worse than it was."

Predators forward Austin Watson has been in 29 fights while playing for Laviolette during the last four-plus seasons. Not once, Watson said, did Laviolette ever hint that he should do it.

"Not one of those times have I ever felt pressured or urged or told that's something I have to do," Watson said. "When you play the way I do, to have to be successful, to have to answer the bell ... in no way, shape or form was an ask or a task from (Laviolette). ... I would say 100 times over that's not his M.O. to me and I've never seen that."

Laviolette said he wanted to "get in front" of Carcillo's comments and the Leino video because he didn't want to be "lumped in with what's going on."

"It's a hot topic right now," Laviolette said. "I couldn't even pretend to comment on any situation I've not been a part of. The reason why I'm commenting on these is because I know myself and I know how I handled myself for almost 20 years as a coach."

Reach Paul Skrbina at pskrbina@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @PaulSkrbina.

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