Ottawa Senators Comment After Video Of Players Blasting Coaching Staff In Uber Is Leaked

This season was supposed to be different for the Ottawa Senators. But then again, every one of their seasons was supposed to be. And very rarely were they.

Senators Uber Scandal Continues

After an offseason flooded with scandals, from the arrest of an assistant general manager to a Twitter beef between Mike Hoffman‘s girlfriend and Erik Karlsson‘s wife, they’ve only continued into the season. That comes after trading away both Hoffman and Karlsson to a different country.

Now, they’re still in what might be a permanent damage control mode. And the team that’s 30th in penalty killing is just as bad off the ice as they are on it. One Uber ride in Phoenix might be what kills the team.

Earlier this month, a video of several players — including alternate captain Matt Duchene — criticizing the coaching staff and game planning leaked online.  The team said they’ve already addressed the five-minute clip. Forward Mark Stone said “It’s disappointing the way the video got released. We dealt with this long before this video was released. As a coaching staff, as management, as players it was dealt with internally and the way it should be, and we’re going to move forward and grow from it.”

Maybe this is the one scandal that costs Ottawa a hockey team. Owner Eugene Melnyk threatened to move the team in 2017. When asked if he would, he responded: “If it becomes a disaster, yes.” Isn’t this?

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The players already apologized to coach Martin Raymond, a specific target of insults, in a statement on Monday. Raymond, as his players said in the video, is ” the only coach in NHL history to have the worst power play and the worst PK within a calendar year.” He’s also in his third season with the team.

Senator coach Guy Boucher also commented on the incident.

“I don’t know who makes decisions to put things like that out there, but when you purposely try to hurt another human being, I don’t want to spend too much time on that, and especially probably the best human being I know (Raymond), that’s personal,” Boucher said.

The team looks to move on, playing New Jersey in a home game on Tuesday night. Realistically though, they won’t. This season’s a wash and Ottawa might be too.

Article by Bill Piersa