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Senators owner Eugene Melnyk sticking by coach and GM the rest of the year

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The misery that has been the Ottawa Senators season has many fans in Ottawa and eastern Ontario angry and calling for some kind of shakeup. They want trades to be made, they want people to be fired, they want the Senators to be winners again.

After working a lot of magic last year to end up with the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference last season, the magic is gone now and Sens owner Eugene Melnyk can hear the shouts from his office. Melnyk has never been shy of speaking with the media and today he showed that side of himself once again.

Melnyk stepped up publicly to say that if there are going to be any changes in the front office in Canada’s capital city, they’re not going to happen this season. It’s not quite the dreaded vote of confidence for coach Cory Clouston and GM Bryan Murray, but it’s not exactly a promise they’ll be around forever either.

“At this time, it makes no sense to make managerial or coaching changes,” said Melnyk. “We’ll let the season play itself out and look forward to building for the future.”

Melnyk also stated that that there is a plan being worked out that will see the club get back to contending. While he didn’t reveal what the plan was, it seems clear that changes of some kind will be coming.


While fans want heads to roll, the business reality of the situation is that both Clouston and Murray have contracts that run out at the end of the season. After all, why fire and pay guys to not work for your team when you can just have them ride it out the rest of the way and let them walk away when it’s over with.As for how the team will respond to hearing that front office turmoil won’t interrupt things, Daniel Alfredsson says that he’s happy there won’t be any distractions.

“I think it’s good for us in terms of not having to deal with those questions everyday, and maybe the uncertainty, and just focus on trying to right the ship,” he said. “So I think it will make a difference.

“We’ve had a long stretch here where we haven’t got enough points. And even though we’ve played some good games, it wears on your confidence and the morale of the team, and then on everybody. And then the speculation comes in. You don’t know what’s going to happen, and I’m sure it has an effect on us as a group.

“But we’re just going to come to work everyday. We’ve got to get better in certain areas and right the ship and go in the right direction.”

It’s good PR there from the Senators captain, but with the lack of solid goaltending or defensive play as well as severe poor performance from virtually everyone on offense, it’s tough to keep a positive outlook at all. If the season continues to slip away for the Sens, the one thing that might save the fans hopes is a full house cleaning and getting someone at the top of the draft that inspires the fans into believing. Otherwise, the 2011-2012 season will look ugly heading into it with just an All-Star Game to look forward to.