Rangers fire back at accusations of tampering from Senators owner.

The New York Rangers are firing back at what are some rather serious accusations coming from the very highest level of the Ottawa Senators organization.

On Monday, Senators owner Michael Andlauer made headlines when he publicly accused the Rangers organization of tampering with his team's captain, star forward Brad Tkachuk. The accusations sent shockwaves throughout the National Hockey League, especially given the fact that they came fresh off the back of the NHL issuing a memo to teams to warn them about the severe consequences of tampering.

Given all the noise those accusations have made today it comes as no surprise that the Rangers themselves have caught wind of the comments from Andlauer, and as you might expect the Rangers have issued a response to those comments. In their response, the Rangers completely dismiss the accusations on the part of Andlauer and even go so far as to call them irresponsible.

"This is an irresponsible accusation and we defer to the Commissioner’s office," said the Rangers in a statement.

It may very well be the case that the Rangers are correct to call out the Senators over those accusations, especially when you consider the fact that the rumor stems from a report this past Friday in the New York Post, and not from any comments made by the Rangers themselves.

Additionally, NHL insider Kevin Weekes published a report on Monday that appears to lend credibility to the Rangers side of the story, indicating that he does not believe that the potential acquisition of Brady Tkachuk was ever discussed by the Rangers.

This story is an ugly one to be sure with rather serious accusations being thrown about here by the Senators, and it will be extremely interesting to see how the NHL and commissioner Gary Bettman respond to this situation.