NHL Talking Points: Breaking down the Ottawa Senators’ week of chaos

NHL Talking Points is a weekly column highlighting 10 stories that have been circulating around the league. This week, we take a look at the fallout of the Ottawa Senators’ recent controversy.

Sometimes it’s tough to be a hockey fan.

The labor that informs cheering on one’s favorite team is comparable to an emotional rollercoaster ride. Bumps on tracks, unexpected dips in form and the suspension of expectations all serve to relentlessly strum on the heart strings of many a puck lover.

The highs? Irreplaceable. Just ask any fan of the Washington Capitals — there is, in fact, a light at the end of the darkest of tunnels. Look no further than Alexander Ovechkin’s celebrations for proof of this reality.

Arizona Coyotes fans can also attest to the inherent promise of this prospect. For much of the 2017-18 season, the franchise was the laughing stock of the NHL. But the past few weeks have shown us that winning ways are in the process of being introduced fairly nicely. Oliver Ekman-Larsson — the club’s most important player — is apparently off the market, in that he’s expected to have reached a verbal agreement with the Coyotes’ administration.

The team also acquired Alex Galchenyuk in a trade that sent Max Domi to the Montreal Canadiens. The 24-year-old is expected to benefit from a culture change, as he’ll aim to live up to the potential that the hockey world has long hoped to witness.

The lows? Painful. And while supporters of many organizations are hurting at any given moment, it’s safe to bet that the Ottawa Senators’ fanbase will be desperately looking to get out of the doldrums after a year of seemingly endless instances of disappointment.

Just a goal away from the Stanley Cup Final in the 2017 playoffs, the Senators’ descent has seen everything from administrative controversies to on-ice declines in form. The summer of 2018, therefore, was supposed to shift the momentum in Canada’s capital, as the months ahead were widely regarded as an opportunity to right a season of wrongs by ushering forth the much anticipated winds of change.

The past week, however, has shown that the Senators’ problems are perhaps far greater than even the most astute pundits anticipated. Bombshell news has been made public. Two of the team’s players are enveloped by controversial allegations stemming from their respective partners. The end appears to be more than a means away.

Let’s have a look at what has surely been one of the most trying periods in the team’s history.

1. Rumors of a looming controversy had been making the rounds of Senators-related Twitter prior to the release of any concrete reports.

The die-hard fans knew that potentially devastating news was on the horizon. An off-the-record source told The 6th Sens that Mike Hoffman — the team’s first-line left winger — had gotten caught up in off-ice drama. As such, his name was floated around in potential trade situations.

2. On Tuesday afternoon, damaging reports were publicized.

The Senators’ dressing room slowly began to occupy the talk circuit of not only hockey media, but also that of Canadian news more generally. The accusations in question had been in the making for a matter of months — the substance of which took the world of sport by storm:

"Melinda Karlsson, née Currey, has filed an application for an order of protection against the longtime girlfriend of Senators forward Mike Hoffman — alleging a campaign of harassment that plagued the Karlssons after the death of their son and through much of the last NHL season[.]The application for a peace bond sworn in front of Justice of the Peace Louise Logue on May 4, alleges that Monika Caryk, Hoffman’s partner, had threatened Melinda and husband Erik Karlsson from November 2017 to the date the information was sworn to."

3. The details of Melinda Karlsson’s allegations are now subject to due process.

However, a few things are clear:

• The accusations that have come to light deal with apparent posts and utterances from Ms. Caryk.
• The alleged remarks are said to have targeted the likes of Erik, Melinda and the couple’s unborn child.
• The pattern of harassment has been graphic in nature.
• The online world has drawn attention to a disturbing comment that the Senators’ captain responded to on his Instagram account soon after the death of his unborn son.

4. Hoffman has denied the accusations.

The 28-year-old winger’s initial response was one of silence: “There’s nothing really for me to say, at this time. That’s all I can say.”

Soon afterward, he expanded on the aforementioned remark: “There is a 150 per cent chance that my fiancée Monika and I are not involved in any of the accusations that have been pursued (that are) coming our way.”

He has since expressed a willingness to cooperate in the proceedings that shall ensue:

"Obviously this is a tough time that they’re going through, and we want to find out who is doing this, because for some reason it’s coming into our court, and it’s 150 per cent that it’s not us.We have nothing to hide. We’re willing to co-operate in any way to solve this and figure it out, and prove that it wasn’t us."

5. Some individuals have not hesitated to come to the defense of the Karlsson family.

They include Julie Turris (wife of Kyle Turris), Taylor Winnik (wife of Daniel Winnik), Kodette LaBarbera (wife of Jason LaBarbera) and Marlee Hammond (wife of Andrew Hammond).

The Senators’ netminder, Craig Anderson, has since favorited a tweet that poked fun at the club’s locker room. Hayley Thompson — Mark Stone’s girlfriend — also tweeted her support to Melinda, though the post was eventually deleted.

6. It has been reported that both Hoffman and the Senators officials knew about the allegations for weeks on end.

As per The Ottawa Citizen, Hoffman’s agent, Robert Hooper, expressed that he had known about the rift for quite some time: “This isn’t something we talked about with Pierre [Dorion] just today. We’ve been aware of this situation since the end of the season.”

When asked about the potential implications of the situation for each respective player, Hooper gestured to the possibility of both men being dealt in the not-so-distant future:

"What we’ve indicated to Pierre is that, and let’s call a spade a spade, it would be very difficult for both parties — both Erik and Mike as well as the wives and the fiancées — to co-exist in the same wives’ room and the same dressing room."

The Senators have also released a statement:

The only question, therefore, concerns the organization’s timeframe. When did the Senators’ internal investigation begin?

7. Travis Yost released a set of tweets that added an aura of mystique to the Senators’ controversy.

In spite of the fact that the Senators were left to grapple with the fallout of two major scandals in a matter of weeks, TSN contributor and hockey analytics specialist Travis Yost added fuel to the fire by hinting that a third story would soon see the light of day.

8. … and so, too, did his ensuing blog post.

On Thursday, Yost claimed that a bizarre account had been popping up across Senators-related Twitter feeds. The entirety of his argument is fairly detailed, but the gist of his article can be summed up in two points:

"Anyways, let’s talk about the material on the account. The tweets follow a common theme:1. They only tweet about the Ottawa Senators and their AHL affiliate2. They are particularly supportive of the decision makers in the organization"

9. What will the ramifications of the aforementioned scandals look like for the Senators?

To echo Hooper, there’s little doubt that, regardless of the legal fallout of the Karlsson-Hoffman rift, the two players will almost definitely be separated heading into the 2018-19 campaign. The accused have since sought to tell their side of the story, with Hoffman commenting on the moment in which he learned of the accusations:

"It wasn’t until four days later that he spoke with me. We ended up doing it after practice, walking out of the rink, and basically what was said was, ‘I’d like to see what your point of the story is,’ and all he had to say was, ‘We know it was Monika,’ and I asked whether it was on Instagram? Twitter? Just show something or prove something."

Nevertheless, the support that the Karlsson family has received from individuals both within and outside of their community has been stunning. It’s not just possible, but plausible that a clearer story shall emerge in the weeks to come, yet few would question the prospect that irreparable damage has already been done.

The Senators, in short, are a franchise in tatters. Hoffman will most likely be shipped, but his trade value has surely taken a hit. “Baggage” is now a staple of his name. On-ice skills shall unfortunately be overlooked by off-ice ghosts.

Karlsson, too, will certainly be a chief subject of trade speculation over the course of the summer. Although Senators’ GM Pierre Dorion has expressed his interest to offer an eight-year contract to the most important player in the organization’s history on July 1, the shadow of doubt looms larger than ever. After all, leaving the club would entail wide-ranging possibilities — the most tempting of which is the promise of starting anew.

10. How much is too much for Karlsson?

It’s a story that’s been discussed across the hockey world, but contrasting reports have yet to ensure that whispers of this variety are, in fact, valid. For now, we’ll have to wait for concrete updates on the matter. Should the Senators’ captain opt to test the waters, expect his return to be a topic of rather extensive debate.

For now, we’ll have to wait for concrete updates on the matter. Should the Senators’ captain opt to test the waters, expect his return to be a topic of rather extensive debate.

NEXT: 5 best fits for Erik Karlsson in NHL free agency

UPDATE: Mike Hoffman has since been traded. You can read about the fallout of the deal here.