Shocking and damning report shares behind the scenes stories from Melnyk's reign as Senators owner

Longtime Ottawa Senators owner passed away suddenly last month, leaving Sens fans with some seriously conflicted feelings. On the one hand, fans had been calling for Melnyk to recuse himself from the team for years, but on the other hand I don't think anyone wished that would happen the way it did. 

As it is though, the Eugene Melnyk Era in Ottawa is officially over and a new era is set to begin. And as a final bookend to the Melnyk Era, Sens insider Ian Mendes provides fans with a no holds barred look behind the scenes at some truly shocking things that took place during the era.

It's worth your time to read the entire article, but I'll do my best to include some of the pertinent parts.

On Melnyk's alleged problem with alcohol:

He also would get noticeably inebriated at games, which made some team employees uncomfortable.

By at least 2007, a glimpse of him acting erratically or smelling like hard liquor would prompt a collective effort by those around him to keep him away from television cameras or the Senators locker room, as his visits irritated some staffers and players.

On an allegedly embarrassing, drunken speech that he gave the team following their Stanley Cup Final loss in 2007:

After the Senators’ run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2007 ended with a 6-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks in Game 5, Melnyk stood in the middle of the visitors dressing room and delivered a speech to the dejected players that went on several wild tangents. At one point, he declared that he was once a goalie and pretended to make stick saves in front of the players. Melnyk, who to many in the room appeared intoxicated, also had a hard time identifying Ottawa players outside of stars like Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley.

“It was beyond embarrassing,” says one person who was in the room.

As he addressed the team, Melnyk became extremely agitated that the Ducks noisy celebration outside was interfering with his speech.

“Tell them to shut the fuck up and turn that music down,” he yelled.

Melnyk then made a memorable vow to the players, promising if they ever won the Stanley Cup, their rings would be the size of animals. “He started by saying they would be the size of beavers. Then he said they would be the size of deer,” says a former player. “And then it was (that) the rings would be the size of a moose. It just got progressively bigger.”

On the divorce between the team and longtime captain Daniel Alfredsson:

When Daniel Alfredsson, the team captain and franchise icon, signed a free agent contract with Detroit in July, he accused the Senators of failing to follow through on a promise to sign him to a contract extension on two occasions. Melnyk was outraged by Alfredsson’s departure, referring to him as a “prick” and “an asshole” to members of the Senators executive staff as they mulled over ideas for how to handle the public messaging of his departure. The owner lumped Alfredsson in with Dany Heatley, another star player, who demanded a trade out of Ottawa four years earlier. Melnyk did not want the club to promote Alfredsson’s much-anticipated return to Ottawa as a member of the Red Wings in December 2013; he suggested the marketing department triple the price for tickets to that game.

On his outrage concerning a team "Love is Love" campaign celebrating Ottawa's LGBT community:

Melnyk was incensed at a marketing campaign with the slogan “Love is Love” that included still images of same-sex couples embracing and kissing that had been used to promote an upcoming Senators game for the NHL’s “Hockey is for Everyone” night. The campaign was designed to celebrate diversity and inclusion and to connect with members of the Ottawa community previously left out of the organization’s outreach efforts.

Melnyk sneered at the images and derided the campaign: “We are the laughing stock of the NHL right now!”

Melnyk’s rant continued, lumping in previous marketing efforts involving pet rescue missions: “They think we are so desperate that we have to advertise to gays now. Dogs and gays.”

On an alleged altercation with Boston Bruins star Patrice Bergeron:

Later that season, after the Senators beat the Bruins in a playoff series, Melnyk taunted Bruins players, mimicking a golf swing when they passed him in the hallway at Boston’s TD Garden to let them know their season had ended.

“He chirped Patrice Bergeron,” one Senators player said. “Imagine disrespecting one of the classiest players in the game? But it didn’t shock me at all. I was just like, ‘Well, that’s our owner.’”

Suffice it to say that there are still plenty of other stories like these and it's well worth your time to check out Mendes' full article below: