The trip to the 2017 Conferance final was the last glimmer of hope for Ottawa fans, as the team fell into a steep decline for the following season.
The first sign of trouble for the team was in July when Alfredsson, who had come on as a senior advisor, chose not to return to his administrative role. He cited problems with management and ownership in a private conversation, which was latter made public. This was a blow for many fans, who had enjoyed having Alfredsson still be invovled with the franchise.
Daniel Alfredsson
“We hope to get a new owner”
The next hiccup came when it was announced that Karlsson, one of their most valuable players who was largely responsible for their playoff success their year prior, would not be starting that season. Suffering an injury during their playoff run, Karlsson required surgery that would keep him out of the lineup until the end of October.
Next, Melnyk announced that because of low fan attendance, he had chosen to remove 1 500 seats from the rink, in order to help ticket sales and prices. He announced that he was ‘excited for the next era’ for the team. His comments received a mixed response from fans and NHL insiders.
Despite this, the team seemed to get off to a good start, earning points in 10 of their first 12 games. However, this was deceiving, as they team only won five games during this time, losing five in overtime and two in regualtion, putting them at a below .500 record.
Trying to improve on this, Dorion organized a blockbuster three team trade, shipping out fan-favourite Kyle Turris, goaltender Andrew Hammond, Shane Bowers, and the several draft picks, including the 2019 first round pick, in exchange for Matt Duchene.
The team continued to struggle, winning only three games in November.
More trouble came when the team was set to host their centennial celebration in an outdoor game against the Montreal Canadiens on parliament hill, paying tribute to the original Ottawa franchise and their rivalary with the Wanderers nearly a century ago. With fan excitement reaching a peak the night before the game was set to be played, Melnyk created controversy by blaming fans for the teams financial problems, due to low attendence.
He also received criticism for saying that moving the team out of Ottawa was not out of the option.
Eugene Melnyk
“If it doesn’t look good here, it could look very, very nice somewhere else, but I’m not suggesting that right now. All I’m saying is that I would never sell the team.
In response to this, #MelnykOut began trending on twitter, from angry fans who were unhappy with the teams management under Melnyk and wanted a change in ownership.
Despite winning the game 3-0, the Senators play on the ice continued to struggle, winning only four games in December.
January fared no better for the team, seeing them lose six games in a row for the first time since 1996, a year where they finished last in the NHL.
In the new year, Melnyk continued to cause controversy, after appointing himself CEO of the team, and head of hockey operations.
This move received wide-spread backlash, except from a small group of passionate Melnyk supporters. After an investiagtion from the Ottawa Citizen into these twitter accounts, it was discovered that they were not real people, and that the accounts were most likely burner accounts for several high ranking Ottawa administrators, who were looking to mitigate the criticism against them.
Amidst this, it was made public that the team was once again looking to trade a fan favourite player. With the trade deadline approaching, it seemed like captain and MVP Karlsson would be on the way out. Although the trade fell through, five other veterans were shipped out at the deadline.
The team limped to the end of the season, finishing with a 28-43-11 record, the second worst record in the NHL.
With the nightmare season behind them, fans looked to move forward. However, controversy continued to follow the team.
It was made public by the Citizen that assistant GM Randy Lee would not be attending the 2018 draft, as he was facing harrassment and had to appear in court on the same day. He latter resigned.
This was overshadowed by the harassment charges brought against Monika Caryk, the fiance of Senator Mike Hoffman, by Melinda Karlsson, wife of Erik Karlsson. She maintained that Caryk had been harassing her online, leaving hateful comments about the play of her husband, as well as harassing her about the miscarriage she suffered earlier that year.
Hoffman was eventually traded in order to attempt to settle the situation. The trade left the Dorion, as well as the Senators, looking incompetant. They maintained that they would not trade Hoffman to a divisional rival, instead shipping him out to the San Jose Sharks for minimal return. Within a few hours, San Jose flipped Hoffman to the Florida Panthers, a divisional rival of the Senators, receiving a better return for him than the Senators did from the Sharks.
Later in the summer, on the opening day of training camp, Karlsson was shipped out to the San Jose Sharks as well, once again receiving minimal return.
In an attempt to endear himself to fans, who continue to trend #MelnykOut on twitter, in addition to funding a billboard in Ottawa with the slogan, Melnyk released a pre-season preview video. The video was Melnyk interviewing player Mark Borowiecki. the video was awkward, and received poorly by fans.
Heading into the season with low expectations and considered one of the worst teams on paper, the Senators could not even take solace in a tank season for the first overall pick, as their first round pick belongs to the Colorado Avalanche from the Duchene trade.
Even GM Pierre Dorion could not seem to find optimism in his team’s situation, saying the one thing that he was optimistic about was that “well, we’re a team” in a pre-season interview, getting instantly mocked online.
Despite the low expectations, the team got off to a better start that the previous season, but still only hold the seventh slot in a stacked Atlantic division, the same spot the occupied at the end of the 2017-18 season.
Off-ice controversy continued into the season, when seven players were caught on tape in an uber in November of 2018 trash talking their team and their coaches. In response to this, the team banned the reporter who broke the story from the teams charter, furthering the controversy.
This was not the first time the team had treated the Ottawa sports media poorly, with one reporter who published Melnyk’s Centennial Classic comments claiming that Melnyk told him he’d “bury him” in response to the backlash he faced.
Adding on to the laundry list of problems, injuries began to plague the team heading into December, setting the already depleted roster back.
In the midst of this, Melnyk once again face criticism, as he sued his business partners invovled in the LeBreton flats proposal. Melnyk was attempting to bring the team to downtown Ottawa to the LeBreton flats, where he planned to build an arean, in an attempt to increase fan attendance. Two weeks before the venture officially failed, Melnyk sued his partners over the supposed failure of the venture.
Following this, Melnyk and Senators administration were once again accused of having burner accounts to defend themselves online.
As the 2018-19 season continues, the decline of the team continues to rapidly occur. Heading into the new year, the team will attempt to turn around a sinking ship, and salvage what they can of the season, at least in order to ensure that Colorado won’t be able to pick first overall.
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