Another scandal brewing in Ottawa and the owner is at the center of it.

What a disgrace.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Another scandal brewing in Ottawa and the owner is at the center of it.
SEAN KILPATRICK / THE CANADIAN PRESS

The Ottawa Senators have in many ways becoming the laughing stock of the National Hockey League off the ice, even surpassing organizations like the financially struggling Arizona Coyotes in terms of fan ridicule. There are many reasons why the Senators have fallen into such a sorry state and certainly there is plenty of finger pointing to go around, but things always seem to circle back to one man, Senators owner Eugene Melnyk.

Melnyk was once again at the center of controversy this week after a rather damning video involving several Ottawa Senators players was published by an Uber driver who was reportedly upset with the conduct of the players before and during his ride with them. The video showed prominent Senators' players, including notably star forward Matt Duchene, completely disrespecting assistant coach Martin Raymond and unsurprisingly the entire thing quickly went viral. That's where the scandal would have died however but the Senators simply can't help but pour more gasoline onto these fires, seemingly every single time one of them flares up.

We now know of course that the Senators retaliated against the Ottawa Sun and Ottawa Citizen newspapers by banning long time Senators reporter Ken Warran from the organizations charter flight, a move that appears to have been in direct response to those papers publishing the video on their respective platforms. Of course punishing a reporter covering your team for publishing a piece of news that you did not like is a rather childish tactic and furthermore it's the kind of tactic that shows exactly what kind of man is leading the organization at the very top. 

Now however a new report from the Ottawa Sun has revealed that another reporter, this time TSN's Brent Wallace, has also been banned from the team's chartered flights. This time however there are eye witnesses that attest to Melnyk's direct involvement and it once again paints the owner as an ugly, petty, and vindictive man.

From the Ottawa Sun:

Also on the Senators’ growing no-fly list is TSN reporter Brent Wallace who, prior to the team’s Parliament Hill alumni game last December, had the audacity to ask owner Eugene Melnyk about a report that suggested he had been withholding bonus money from his employees.

Melnyk denied the allegation.

Once the cameras were turned off, bystanders saw him turn to Wallace and say, “I’m going to bury you.”

Since then, Wallace’s seat on the charter has also been revoked, leaving Sylvain St-Laurent of French-language newspaper Le Droit with one of the remaining few seats. Well, until he writes something that Melnyk doesn’t like.

Melnyk has long since become the most unpopular owner in the entire National Hockey League even surpassing the hatred generated by legendary owners like the Boston Bruins' Jeremy Jacobs and it seems like he has no plans of stopping the growing resentment, even among his very own fan base.  Even former superstar players like Daniel Alfredsson, who should be obvious candidates for front office jobs within the Senators organization, have hinted at their disdain for Eugene Melnyk with Alfredsson even suggesting that the mayor of Ottawa would like to see a new owner in his place.

I sincerely hope that fans in Ottawa get their wish sooner rather than later.

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