FIVE QUICK THOUGHTS
-It feels like a pretty common refrain these days but the Ottawa Senators probably deserved better last night. If you’re looking for encouraging signs from this team down the stretch, count the number of times they are completely outplayed by the opposition. Call it a hunch but I don’t think there will be many of those nights. They’re always kind of, in it. And that seems to be the case against a lot of good teams too. As the Senators take the next step in this rebuild and flip that switch from promising team to contender, it’s going to depend on finding ways to win more of these kind of games.
-The early reviews are in and you aren’t going to believe this but it seems like Sens Twitter may have slightly overreacted on the acquisition of Travis Hamonic. This would have been an overreaction even if he fired six consecutive pucks into his own net in his Sens debut but I digress. Three games into his Sens career and Travis Hamonic is officially, fine. Nothing flashy but a clearly serviceable defenceman that could actually fill a spot on that blueline heading into next season. Maybe even a good use of a 3rd round draft pick. One of the surprising things about Hamonic, at least to this point, is his willingness to jump into the rush and his tendency to uh, shoot everything. Add that to the fact that he just generally knows where to be in his own end of the rink and maybe it may work out for him here in Ottawa?
-There aren’t a lot of things that leave me speechless but when the news broke of Eugene Melnyk’s passing late on Monday night, that’s how I felt. And even a couple days later, the words are kind of escaping me. Not only did I find myself unsure of what to say, I was equally worried about what others might share. I spent a good portion of the last 36 hours reading the various reactions in the comment section and across the online community and embedded in there, eventually found the words that I couldn’t seem to come up with on my own. When someone you are familiar with but don’t really know passes away there is this tendency to look for your own personal connection to the news. It’s only natural. But what really matters here is a lot of people lost a friend, others lost a family member and two young girls lost their Dad.
-The other takeaway from the last 36 hours and what seemed like an endless stream of messages of appreciation and honest reflection on Eugene Melnyk and his time as Sens Owner is that it’s a damn shame that as a society, we wait until the moment a person is gone to meaningfully reflect on their accomplishments and on their contributions.
-One thing that is abundantly clear is the future of the Ottawa Senators is less clear than it was just a couple days prior. When Eugene Melnyk bought the Senators nearly two decades ago, it was at a time when the franchise was struggling and there were questions about the strength of the market. And while the on-ice product is now clearly pointed in the right direction 20 years later, you could ask similar questions about the market today. In all the reporting we’ve seen over the last couple days, it’s agreed that the initial plan is to keep the team in the family and ultimately, transfer ownership to his children. And while that may be a long-term solution, we just don’t know that for sure. Not yet, anyway. There are some uncertain times ahead for the Ottawa Senators.
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