Mike Babcock fires back at Eugene Melnyk.

Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk appears to have usurped any contenders for the throne of most hated owner in the National Hockey League and in fact if it was not for James Dolan owning the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association there would be a strong argument to be made for him being the most universally reviled owner in all of North American professional sports.

The ultra unpopular Ottawa Senators owner went on a bit of a media tour this week providing comments to a number of outlets regarding both the current state of his organization as well as the current state of the LeBreton Flats deal that was supposed to deliver a downtown arena for the Ottawa Senators. As is usually the case Melnyk's comments only served to pour more gasoline onto an already blazing hot fire and only served to further diminish the Ottawa Senators' franchise in the eyes of fans around the National Hockey League.

This time around however there was one notable difference about the comments that came out of Eugene Melnyk's mouth, and that difference was that they were not exclusively about his own team. As unbelievable as it is going to sound to anyone who has been paying attention to what has gone on in Ottawa over the course of the past two NHL seasons, Melnyk actually had some criticism to dish out regarding another team in the league. Melnyk's comments were directed at provincial rival the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Melnyk was quick to criticize the way that the much more successful Maple Leafs had executed the rebuilding process that has led to their current roster, clearly finding fault in the way it has been constructed. Although Melnyk did not specifically call out Toronto Maple Leafs' general manager Kyle Dubas he did state that "somebody forgot about defense."

Melnyk's team, objectively one of the worst in the league, is set to be a lottery team that will donate it's lottery pick to another franchise due to their gross incompetence in management so hearing those kind of comments from him is rather comical. Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock was asked about those comments these week and he promptly proceeded to destroy Melnyk in one very polite, but effective, sentence.

"We have an unbelievable owner here in Larry Tanenbaum and blessed to have him," said the veteran Maple Leafs' head coach. "How's that?"

[pub]