Report: Alex Burrows forced to apologize for comments about child abuse.

Vancouver Canucks forward Alex Burrows doesn't exactly have the best reputation around the National Hockey League to begin with, but this has to be a new low.

Former NHL forward Patrick O'Sullivan revealed on twitter on Thursday that his hatred of Alex Burrows stems from comments Burrows made to Sullivan about the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father as a child.

“Burrows only guy who said he wanted to hurt me like me father did — why I can’t stand him,” O’Sullivan tweeted. “Right to my face, twice actually. Once in the minors and once in Vancouver early in my career.”

Obviously after the Canucks lost to the Flyers on Thursday the media immediately pressed Burrows on the subject, and he admitted he made the comments.

“I see that it was bigger than what I really thought back then,” Burrows said as per Sportsnet.

“I apologize if I offended him back then. Especially when I first came in [to the NHL], I was playing six or seven minutes a night on the fourth line and I wanted to help any way I could. And if I could get one guy off his game and get in someone’s kitchen, I was willing to do it to help our team or maybe get [us] on the power play. He was a great player. He was one of those guys who could score a lot of goals. He was flashy, he had good hands.”

Burrows has landed himself in some trouble for his comments before, early in the season the NHL met with him after comments he made to New Jersey Devil Jordin Tootoo. However with the stigma surrounding child abuse in our modern society, the backlash against Burrows over this incident has been far more pronounced.