Ottawa Senators fans have had up to their breaking point with owner Eugene Melnyk, and now they’re making their voices heard across the city.
This season has been an absolute nightmare for the Ottawa Senators organization, and even more so for the Senators faithful, who’ve had to deal with the dramatic drop-off from being one goal away from the Stanley Cup Finals last season to being a basement team rumored to be dealing away their fan favorites to save money. Now, they are voicing their displeasure with owner Eugene Melnyk.
Monday morning, four billboards went up in four different locations across the city of Ottawa, all reading the same simple message: #MelnykOut.
The billboards were a result of a GoFundMe campaign that raised $10,000, started by Spencer Callaghan, a hardcore Ottawa Senators fan whose limit was reached when the Senators were rumored to be trading captain Erik Karlsson.
Here is the #MelnykOut billboard that's located at Carling and Preston in all it's mighty glory. The power of the people. pic.twitter.com/2OEUxoQcBT
— Casual Mats (@Casual_Mats) March 19, 2018
Callaghan’s GoFundMe page reads, “Eugene Melnyk has decided that he would rather tear the team down and sell it for spare parts than admit he can no longer run it effectively. Sens fans and the city of Ottawa need to step up to save a pillar of this community.” Callaghan also states that the billboards’ primary purpose is to bring attention to the fans’ message, and that the departures of key players and front office personnel will not go unnoticed.
“The message here is we love the team and are willing to go through the ups and downs,” Callaghan said. “What we are not willing to do is support an organization that has lost touch with the fan base and the community.”
Callaghan doesn’t believe that Melnyk selling the team will automatically fix the team, and actually believes he might still be able to sort out this mess, but says he could not stand by and be ignored because of how much he and other fans have put into this team.
“I really don’t think the ship has sailed on Mr. Melnyk turning this around, I truly don’t believe that it’s impossible at this point,” Callaghan said. “But it requires some collaboration, it requires some humility and it requires some listening and I haven’t seen any desire on the part of the organization to do that.”
The #MelnykOut message began after Melnyk’s comments on the eve of the city’s first home outdoor game that the team could indeed be moved somewhere else if fan support continued to be lacking. Along with that, this year’s trade deadline was a volatile time period between ownership, the players and fans with rumors that franchise cornerstone Karlsson could be moved along with numerous fan favorites for more then just the intention of rebuilding, but to cut costs and save money.
Several Senators faithful promised to walk away from the team if Karlsson was traded, and plenty of offers seemed to be on the table, but the Senators decided that those offers weren’t good enough and they would reevaluate the situation in the offseason. Karlsson will be able to sign an extension with the team this offseason, but the situation continues to just create more unrest within the organization.
Ottawa Senators general manager Pierre Dorion, who is currently attending the NHL GM meetings in Boca Raton, was asked about the billboards but gave a very curt response: “I’m not talking about that.”
Next: 5 under the radar teams poised to make a run at the Stanley Cup
The billboards are scheduled to be up for two more weeks, with a fifth billboard going up April 2. It’s an admirable move for Ottawa fans, and while everybody might not agree with the message being sent, it shows just how much Senators fans really care for this team and what they’re willing to do to make change.