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The ottawa senators may never recover from this nightmare
@underdog wtf is up with your Sens dude?
Attendance woes and threats of relocating were just the beginning. Harassment allegations against the Senators' assistant GM and the fiancee of Mike Hoffman threaten to destroy this franchise.
It’s difficult to imagine a franchise enduring a swifter, more nightmarish fall from grace than the Ottawa Senators have in the past 13 months. They were hockey’s favorite underdog story as of May 2017, having pushed the eventual Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final.
Since then:
- The Senators announced before the 2017-18 season they were covering 1,500 seats of Canadian Tire Centre’s upper bowl with a tarp
- On the eve of his team hosting an outdoor game, owner Eugene Melynk issued a veiled threat to relocate his franchise if attendance didn’t improve: “I’m not going to blow a lifetime of working hard to support a hockey team. It’s not gonna happen. The bigger question is whether I’m prepared to blow all that money I made over many years in a different industry in a different country. How long can you underwrite a team?”
- The Senators tumbled out of the playoff race, finishing with a .409 points percentage, their lowest since the end of their early dark ages 22 years ago
- The Senators finished with an average home attendance capacity of 85.3 percent, ranking 27th in the NHL. They drew their fewest fans per game in more than 20 years
- Captain Erik Karlsson, arguably the franchise’s greatest talent of all-time, became a trade candidate at mid-season, with rumors swirling about his frayed relationship with the franchise. He was reportedly almost dealt to the Vegas Golden Knights at the trade deadline
The season was depressing enough before some truly awful news stories broke within the past few weeks. First came the allegations against Senators assistant GM Randy Lee. He’s accused of harassing a bus driver at the NHL scouting combine in Buffalo, making lewd comments and rubbing his shoulders. Lee was charged with second-degree harassment and faces a fine and up to 15 days in prison if convicted. He has entered a plea of not guilty.
Now, a second strange and disturbing allegation: Karlsson’s wife, Melinda Karlsson, has filed for an application of protection against Monika Caryk, fiancée of Senators left winger Mike Hoffman, for an alleged campaign of harassment that has targeted the Karlsson family since November 2017, when they announced Melinda Karlsson’s pregnancy, and continuing through the death of their stillborn child in March. Among the claims Melinda Karlsson makes in her sworn court statement are accusations that “Monika Caryk has uttered numerous statements wishing my unborn child dead” and that “She also uttered that she wished I was dead and that someone should ‘take out’ my husband’s legs to ‘end his career,’ ” and the Karlssons also allege Caryk, under the Instagram account @sandydandy45, accused Melinda of popping pain killer pills during her pregnancy.
Hoffman has vehemently denied the accusations against his fiancee and insists they’ll co-operate fully with the investigation.
We obviously can’t pass judgment on the Lee story or the Caryk story yet. Nothing is proven. But whatever happens, this franchise has an unprecedented amount of damage control to do. We could see jobs lost and players traded as a result. And, given the team’s attendance woes and Melynk’s words earlier this season, it will be difficult for the franchise to recover no matter what happens. Whether the Karlsson camp or the Caryk camp is telling the truth, there’s no happy ending to the story.
Yeah, read about that. If Hoffman was a trade candidate, who is going to take him with a poisonous woman behind him like that if the accusations are true?
Hockey spouses/GFs make up part of the team's culture and if his fiancee is this sort of online bully, forget a team trying to get him.
In other cray-cray news, Moog's beloved wife-beater, Slaba Soyrov is trying to make a return to the NHL. Given he plead guity as a REPEAT beater of his wife, I hope all teams tell him to PFO.
Yeah, read about that. If Hoffman was a trade candidate, who is going to take him with a poisonous woman behind him like that if the accusations are true?
Hockey spouses/GFs make up part of the team's culture and if his fiancee is this sort of online bully, forget a team trying to get him.
Whoever gets Hoffman gonna inherit a whole lot of crazy with him!
This is one unhappy and dysfunctional hockey town. There is a fan supported billboard
campaign with 2 or 3 billboards up petitioning to get rid of the owner Melnyk.(#MelnykOut)
We fans are sick of the way that Melnyk is ruining the team refusing to invest enough to
make them legitimate and at the same time gouging us on everything from tickets to beer
to hot dogs and parking. We know the players are sick of him too.
Sell the team for Christ's sake if you're not serious about the game!
This is one unhappy and dysfunctional hockey town. There is a fan supported billboard
campaign with 2 or 3 billboards up petitioning to get rid of the owner Melnyk.(#MelnykOut)
We fans are sick of the way that Melnyk is ruining the team refusing to invest enough to
make them legitimate and at the same time gouging us on everything from tickets to beer
to hot dogs and parking. We know the players are sick of him too.
Sell the team for Christ's sake if you're not serious about the game!
How far they have fallen from that Eastern Conference Final appearance just not too long ago.
How far they have fallen from that Eastern Conference Final appearance just not too long ago.
That was on the backs of a couple of players playing extraordinarily well .. Hammond, Anderson and of course Karlsson. Its
ridiculous to think that Karlsson could keep up the motivation it took to play on a broken foot when the team owner keeps
selling off the team's talent like Turris - its obvious that Melnyk will never invest what it takes to make a legitimate contender, not a
fluke "great season" contender.
Yeah, but if they're not collecting much money, maybe they won't want to be the owner.
Last season was the first time in a decade that I didn't re-up for my season tickets. I guess
I (and like minded fans) hope that Melnyk will get fed up with the unprofitability and "noise"
around the team and sell it. Its crappy be a long time supporter and fan and KNOW that there
is no real commitment from management.
Yeah, but if they're not collecting much money, maybe they won't want to be the owner.
Last season was the first time in a decade that I didn't re-up for my season tickets. I guess
I (and like minded fans) hope that Melnyk will get fed up with the unprofitability and "noise"
around the team and sell it. Its crappy be a long time supporter and fan and KNOW that there
is no real commitment from management.
Totally hear you, I refuse to spend any money with the Pirates because of that. They don't care and I'm unhappy with my team, it is what it is, hard to be a sports fan that way. Sorry bro
Careful what you wish for. He very well may pack up his bags and take the team with him to another city- and not just sell it off.
Lord knows, Bettman would love another team in the US, even if it is highly unprofitable.
Yeah, its a possibility but honestly last season was utterly miserable for everybody. The team played
horribly, there are constant stories about how bad things are in the dressing room, the fans HATE
the owner, the owner conducts PR wars against the fans and against players that get on his bad side.
Its become so toxic that I not only didn't I get season tickets, I didn't attend hardly any games and
actually found myself losing interest in the team last season. Its just no fun anymore.
Yeah, its a possibility but honestly last season was utterly miserable for everybody. The team played
horribly, there are constant stories about how bad things are in the dressing room, the fans HATE
the owner, the owner conducts PR wars against the fans and against players that get on his bad side.
Its become so toxic that I not only didn't I get season tickets, I didn't attend hardly any games and
actually found myself losing interest in the team last season. Its just no fun anymore.
I hear what you're saying, though. It's a shitty position to be in. Reminds of when people grew tired of Kevin Lowe (ex oiler alumni, terrible GM) here in Edmonton. Started seeing "How Lowe can you go?" stickers popping up on vehicles, and a decent sized subset of fans were loudly criticizing him. So naturally, the Oilers owner promoted him internally, to some of their bullshit made up position... because old boys club.
Sounds like Melnyk is just a stubborn asshole, more concerned about his bottom line, more than anything. I dunno.. I'd imagine as a team owner, you need to be rather interested in the game and not just look at it from a dollars in, dollars out perspective.
06-08-2018, 11:31 AM
very possible
There is a fan supported billboard
