It’s amazing how circumstances can change our perspective on things.
Things that would have once seemed unthinkable only a couple months ago are now considered normal. Or the new normal, anyway.
This weekend, as I happily struggled my way through my first socially-distant round of golf of the season (Bogey/Par/Par start before the wheels came off), I checked my phone to see what was happening in the world around me.
The first notification started with “Melnyk says…”
Now there was a time when those two words would have sent shivers down my spine. From my experience, nothing good ever follows “Melnyk says…”. And until those words are followed with “he’s selling the team”, it’s that way for most of us. Melnyk interviews and then the full-scale Sens fan meltdown that usually follows have become a regular occurrence over the last few years. I know because I’ve been a part of it.
And it was happening again this weekend. I read through his comments and then flipped over to Twitter to see the usual anger and frustration that tends to follow one of Melnyk’s Toronto-radio apperances.
Yet in that moment I was overwhelmed with a sense of…who cares. Not who cares but like, who has time or energy to be angry about this sort of thing.
To me, the comments seemed entirely harmless. Local sports Owner says team is going to be good soon. Not exactly controversial stuff. In fact, in the complete absence of Sens news, it was, dare I say it, kind of nice to hear from him and to read something Sens-specific.
And while I understand the frustration when he decides to make those appearances on Toronto radio, it’s not surprising that he might prefer a friendlier outlet. The Ottawa market has been rightly tough on him the last few years so it makes sense that when he’s just looking to talk hockey, he might prefer the softball questions he’s going to get from an old friend in Toronto or a one-on-one with Mark Borowiecki.
There’s no doubt that being a Sens fan would be easier if we didn’t have to hear from Eugene Melnyk but it’s entirely unreasonable of us to expect such a thing. He’s allowed to talk about his hockey team and he’s allowed to obnoxious about the prospect of future success.
It’s basically all we do around here!
There is a time coming, in the not too distant future, where the hockey-side of the Ottawa Senators will be in as good a position as it has ever been.
But considering how this global pandemic is likely to change the economics of the sport, it’s not unreasonable to assume that the market itself will be in as rough a shape as it has ever been. It was bad before all this. It’s kind of scary to think where it might be on the other side. And our long-standing grudge against the Owner is only going to make things worse.
I don’t have to love Eugene Melnyk. Hell, I don’t even have to trust him. But I’m just not going to spend any more time or energy being mad at the guy.
You can listen to Melnyk’s radio appearance here.
-Could this week finally be the “next week” we’ve been hearing so much about?! The NHL’s Return to Play Committee met a few times in the last week or so and it’s pretty clear they are trying to hammer out the details of what hockey could look like in the next few months. There was a time when the league was focused on figuring out the Draft and the Draft Lottery first but now it seems to be the complete opposite. They need to get the rest of the details figured out first and then schedule a lottery and a draft based on that. Unfortunately it means a few more days (and maybe months) of waiting for Sens fans.
-We talked about it last week but it was pretty clear that Mikkel Boedker was not long for this place. He had a limited and almost non-existent role under DJ Smith and with UFA status this summer, there was just no way he fit into Ottawa’s plans for next season. It didn’t take him long to find work though. This morning, we learned that Mikkel Boedker is heading to Switzerland. Safe to assume we’ll be seeing a lot of NHL players head to Europe next season so good on Boedker for jumping at the opportunity, although it’s a little interesting that he was able to sign a deal with time still left on his contract in Ottawa. Not that there has been much doubt but this seems like a pretty strong indication the Senators don’t plan on playing hockey again in 2019/2020.
