For fans of the National Hockey League it probably feels like a lifetime ago that forward Mike Hoffman was traded by the Ottawa Senators but for the man himself the memories of what went down during and prior to that trade may still be very fresh in his mind.
Hoffman was involved in a major scandal during his time as an Ottawa Senator, one that involved defenseman Erik Karlsson, the organization's star player, and one that many feel contributed to the split that eventually occurred between that player and the team. Hoffman, through no fault of his own, had his name dragged through the papers after it was alleged that Monika Caryk, Hoffman's fiancee, had been cyberstalking Melinda Karlsson, the wife of the aforementioned Erik Karlsson.
The scandal took on a life of its own once the media got a hold of it and there is little doubt that all parties involved in this story were left more than a little embarrassed by the time it was all said and done. One of the more bizarre parts of this story are that there was never any resolution to the issue, at least not publicly, although when the Senators eventually parted ways with both players it seemingly ended the drama. Both players were shipped off to opposite corners of the United States with Karlsson landing in San Jose and Hoffman landing in Florida and on Sunday night they met one another for the very first time since the scandal went down.
As I stated we still do not know what really happened between the 4 parties involved in this story but when Hoffman and Karlsson found themselves on the ice together on Sunday it was obvious that Hoffman had something to share. The Panthers forward stopped short of really going after Karlsson but he took a firm grip on his jersey and had a few choice words for the Sharks defenseman after a stoppage in play. To his credit Karlsson did not appear to be the least bit phased by the incident and in fact could be seen laughing away on the Sharks bench after he returned from the brief altercation with Hoffman.
It will be interesting to see if these two continue to get reacquainted throughout the evening.
Here's another angle:
