-I was on vacation this past week, but now that I’m back here’s the round-up of Sens news over the interim
-The Ottawa Citizen finally brought the hammer down on Eugene Melnyk’s finances, confirming Travis Yost‘s contentions for the past couple of months that the Sens’ owner is losing money (94 million), but James Gordon (who penned the piece) doesn’t delve too deeply into whether the loses are via team operations or Melnyk’s overall business dealings. Travis pointed to a 2010 Business Journal article that mentioned the Sens were beginning to lose money then, which (again) doesn’t address the question of how soluble the team is as a franchise. The Ottawa Sun, the last bastion of defending ownership at all costs, was on red alert denying Melnyk is in financial distress (which makes about as much sense as most things Melnyk says publically, ala continuing to blame J. P. Barry for Daniel Alfredsson‘s departure–opening up himself to potential legal action apparently). If Melnyk’s liquidity was nothing to worry about there would be no internal budget or hand wringing for a casino.
-It continues to bemuse me how many bloggers are taking ownership’s position on their finances for whatever reason (eg, The Raaymaker went full back pedal after embarrassing himself attacking the idea)–I presume it’s all about maintaining what limited access they have with the team, but what a sad statement that is to their journalistic integrity. If readership wanted softball, ownership and team friendly reporting they already have their local newspapers’ to turn too.
-Speaking of embarrassing, Melnyk threw Bryan Murray under the bus when addressing Alfredsson‘s departure by denying his “blank cheque” comment. I don’t think we learned anything new from either Alfie‘s press conference or comments other than Melnyk’s, but why the owner continues to operate on Rob Ford levels of stupidity remains a mystery.
-Nothing else has come down the pipe over the past week, although former B-Sen Chris Holt was released from his KHL team and is the kind of guy the Sens might look to have as their third goaltender in Binghamton.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
eyeonthesens 