Racial slurs that were levelled at a coach in a Quebec hockey arena recently have been condemned by players and managers across Canada.

At a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League game Friday between the Moncton Wildcats and the Chicoutimi Sagueneens, fans let fly with a barrage of racial slurs against Wildcats coach Ted Nolan, an Aboriginal Canadian of Ojibwa descent.

Nolan, who once coached the Buffalo Sabres and was named the National Hockey League's coach of the year, was left stunned and shaken by the racism.

"Some fans started doing the war cry, the tomahawk chop, the shooting of the bow and arrows and saying some derogatory statements about my native background right from the get go," Nolan told CTV. "It hurt when I was seven years old and 17 years old, and I just turned 47 and it hurt as much as it did it back then."

Players on his team said it was clear their coach was upset during the game.

"He was really upset by it and you could tell after periods he was just anxious to get back in the dressing room so he wouldn't have to take the abuse from the fans. It was awful," Wildcats centre Matt Eagles told CTV.

The management of the Chicoutimi team said the slurs were unacceptable.

"There's no way we'll tolerate such things. It's disgraceful," said Pierre Cardinal, media liaison for the Sagueneens.

The team also sent a letter to the Wildcats' management and apologized for the fans and said the racism was not indicative of the team or the community.

"The disgraceful acts of some of our spectators do not represent the image of our fans and of our regional population. The Sagueneens organization understands and respects the multicultural dimension in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and in no way condones this type of behaviour," reads the statement.

The Calgary Flames' Jerome Iginla is the son of a Nigerian father. He said in modern times, any form of racism is unacceptable.

"In this day and age at any time it's inappropriate," Iginla said of the racism levelled against Nolan.

The racist slurs began during the game, which the Wildcats lost 4-3, and continued even as Nolan boarded the team bus afterwards.

The racism cut deep, he told CTV's Canada AM.

"Sometimes people think because it's not a physical abuse, and it's verbal, it's not as bad, but the old nursery rhyme, 'Sticks and stones may break your bones but names will never hurt,' -- that's not true. Names do hurt," he said.

Nolan said security personnel at the Centre Georges Vezina arena were even laughing at the remarks.

However, some of what Nolan understood to be racism against himself, may have actually been praise directed at one of the Sagueneens.

Francois Verreault-Paul, a player on the team, also has native heritage. When he scores for his team his fans often do the so-called 'tomahawk chop,' to celebrate.

Moncton Wildcats General Manager Bill Schurman appreciates the Sagueneens' apology, but is pressing for an investigation into the event.

Since the story broke, more than 300 of letters of support for Nolan have been received by the Wildcats' Moncton office.

With a report from CTV Atlantic's Monica Verma