Burrows Comments On Sens Locker Room Last Year

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

I’m surprised no one made a thread?

Burrows blames himself for not “doing something” about problems in Senators room

“Burrows alluded to distractions caused by team owner Eugene Melnyk and the speculation of an Erik Karlsson trade. He also made reference to damaging disruptions — likely the harassment of Melinda Karlsson, allegedly by Mike Hoffman’s fiancee Monika Caryk, which is believed to have caused a fracture of the team family — and his own failure as a leader to nip them in the bud.”


Eugene was a distraction? NO WAY!

Click to read more...

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

Nothing really new. Just helps confirm what most have been saying. Wonder if this article will be taken as "fact" to some or disregarded when it comes to Melnyk

 

[Stylizer1]

Sounds like a bunch of kids jockeying for position.

 

[Langdon Alger]

In the words of David Hasselhoff “what a mess.”

 

[Gil Gunderson]

Damn Toronto media...

 

[TheBradyBunch]

I’m surprised no one made a thread?

Burrows blames himself for not “doing something” about problems in Senators room

“Burrows alluded to distractions caused by team owner Eugene Melnyk and the speculation of an Erik Karlsson trade. He also made reference to damaging disruptions — likely the harassment of Melinda Karlsson, allegedly by Mike Hoffman’s fiancee Monika Caryk, which is believed to have caused a fracture of the team family — and his own failure as a leader to nip them in the bud.”


Eugene was a distraction? NO WAY!

There was a discussion in another thread, forget which one. Also, his comments were way less pointed than that article makes it sound. He only mentioned Melnyk when saying it 'wasn't just Eugene, the coach, management, Karl'. That's almost a direct quote.

If you listen to the interview, it seems more like he was just listing the stuff the media has reported on as a way of saying, "it wasn't just that or any one of those things".

I'm not defending anyone. The interview was just very tame imo and had no real information regarding the Sens. If anything, the most surprising part (still totally unsurprising given how rare it is to hear a player bash a member of the organization) was the extent to which he praised Boucher.

 

[JD1]

There was a discussion in another thread, forget which one. Also, his comments were way less pointed than that article makes it sound. He only mentioned Melnyk when saying it 'wasn't just Eugene, the coach, management, Karl'. That's almost a direct quote.

If you listen to the interview, it seems more like he was just listing the stuff the media has reported on as a way of saying, "it wasn't just that or any one of those things".

I'm not defending anyone. The interview was just very tame imo and had no real information regarding the Sens. If anything, the most surprising part (still totally unsurprising given how rare it is to hear a player bash a member of the organization) was the extent to which he praised Boucher.

ya you pretty much nailed it

but it is amazing what people see when they are looking for validation

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

ya you pretty much nailed it

but it is amazing what people see when they are looking for validation

It does validate some things, does it not?

People keep asking for proof for stuff, well here is some more. An article doesn’t have to be outlandish or crazy, the poster said it it’s tame and it is, but it’s just another piece of info that confirms some stuff.

Ask for proof. Provides more proof. Well this doesn’t validate anything!
It’s amazing what people will ignore when they are looking to keep their head in the sand.

 

[2CHAINZ]

I cant keep up with the Karldashians.

 

[JD1]

It does validate some things, does it not?

People keep asking for proof for stuff, well here is some more. An article doesn’t have to be outlandish or crazy, the poster said it it’s tame and it is, but it’s just another piece of info that confirms some stuff.

Ask for proof. Provides more proof. Well this doesn’t validate anything!
It’s amazing what people will ignore when they are looking to keep their head in the sand.

my post was directed at a comment in another thread

the point I guess is that the Burrows comments imply that there was a lot going on in that room and that we as Internet warriors really can't grab on to any single factor and blame a broken room on that factor

 

[Joeyjoejoe]

But I was told that all these character guys that we added in to our room will help us win and with things like this?

 

[Burrowsaurus]

It sounds like for all the leadership we had we didn’t have an true alpha. Or at least our alpha was simply going through too much personal stuff.

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

There was a discussion in another thread, forget which one. Also, his comments were way less pointed than that article makes it sound. He only mentioned Melnyk when saying it 'wasn't just Eugene, the coach, management, Karl'. That's almost a direct quote.

If you listen to the interview, it seems more like he was just listing the stuff the media has reported on as a way of saying, "it wasn't just that or any one of those things".

I'm not defending anyone. The interview was just very tame imo and had no real information regarding the Sens. If anything, the most surprising part (still totally unsurprising given how rare it is to hear a player bash a member of the organization) was the extent to which he praised Boucher.

Wow! Someone who can see the underlying truth in the circus which is this board.

 

[slamigo]

I was listening to that interview on Monday. It was a giant nothing-burger. It sounded to me like he listed everyone so as not to put blame on one person, owner, coaches, players, captain, etc. But some journalists ran with the angle that he had blamed EM for the distraction.
Burrows was an outsider who came into a locker room. He wasn't there to right the ship and keep all the millennials in line.

What I take away from it is my own opinion that losing Methot, Phaneuf, Mac, Neil, etc really erased the leadership in that room and things degraded into silliness/lord of the flies type situation. And as others have mentioned, sort of hard for EK to cover all that leadership void by himself with the personal troubles he had.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

But I was told that all these character guys that we added in to our room will help us win and with things like this?

Well I guess Burrows did say he didn’t do enough so he took some blame.

 

[otown]

Burrows was an outsider who came into a locker room. He wasn't there to right the ship and keep all the millennials in line.

What I take away from it is my own opinion that losing Methot, Phaneuf, Mac, Neil, etc really erased the leadership in that room and things degraded into silliness/lord of the flies type situation. And as others have mentioned, sort of hard for EK to cover all that leadership void by himself with the personal troubles he had.

You have hit the nail on the head Slamigo! Losing that kind of veteran presence in such a short time would certainly have a huge impact on the room. What would normally be dealt with by the vets and/ or management may have been allowed to fester given its personal nature, unrelated to hockey. A fine line for anyone to intervene, but we see the result now by not doing anything.
Although one could say Hoffman has been shipped out.......it was a garage sale price to pay.

 

[TheBradyBunch]

ya you pretty much nailed it

but it is amazing what people see when they are looking for validation

Well, it's Brennan. Of course, he will do anything to stoke the flames.

I wish he said anything of value regarding Eugene, the coaches, management, Karl, Hoff, even and especially if critical... but he didn't. Mendes asked about these things and Burrows gave vague, uninformative answers that don't really provide any more focus that we've had in the past. It is telling that all this comes out from Brennan and not Mendes, the guy who actually conducted the interview. Why is that the case? Because Mendes has rigorous journalistic ethics and he is basically devoid of spin. He was fishing for a juicy answer (as he should be doing) and got pretty much nothing (too bad).

All that said, I am getting really tired of the "media = proof" narrative. These guys have the ability to inform but they also have the goal to sell. It is equally important to be critical of the media (in a non-biased, level-headed way) as [edited from "than"] it is to trust the media. I am a huge supporter of and believer in the power of the media, but that doesn't mean I take everything at face value. I've done hundreds of reviews on news articles that are based on studies and, guess what, they frequently miss or ignore the point of the study to focus on, magnify, or manipulate the small portion of the study that will help them get clicks. And this is Don Brennan we're talking about! I listened to the interview and I read the article and the content of the two simply don't match.

Again, I would have absolutely loved to hear Burrows call someone out but he didn't. He listed all the huge stories of the year and said, "it's not just that and it's not just one thing". It was a complete deflection of a response and yet people (and Brennan) are treating it like the opposite. And my head is in the sand?

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

I haven't listened yet but the link below is to the Toronto radio interview he did where according to Senschirp, he made reference to Eugene not having enough money to operate, and the players hearing about a sale forthcoming. At about the one hour mark apparently.

July 9: Alex Burrows goes from on the ice to behind the bench - Sportsnet.ca

 

[tony d]

Reads like stuff we already knew and more of a reason why we need to see Melnyk out as owner of the team.

 

[topshelf15]

The locker room was a mess...Who knew???This just reeks of piling on,we dont need anymore press about how f***ed our situation is and was.....How about some positive news say annoucing a signing or two???Oh wait .....

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

The locker room was a mess...Who knew???This just reeks of piling on,we dont need anymore press about how ****ed our situation is and was.....How about some positive news say annoucing a signing or two???Oh wait .....

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.

I don't think we're getting much positive until Eugene is gone. Pretty obvious at this point that the organization is going to be a mess as long as he's involved.

 

[Xspyrit]

It does validate some things, does it not?

People keep asking for proof for stuff, well here is some more. An article doesn’t have to be outlandish or crazy, the poster said it it’s tame and it is, but it’s just another piece of info that confirms some stuff.

Ask for proof. Provides more proof. Well this doesn’t validate anything!
It’s amazing what people will ignore when they are looking to keep their head in the sand.

I might have missed a lot because I don't follow all conversations and don't read that much but what makes you say this?

I mean everybody seems to acknowledge that Melnyk must be a very hard person to work for, that there was some bad blood between the Karlssons and the Hoffmans and that the locker room might have been fractured just by looking at the team chemistry on the ice compared to the year before.

And of course, the medias are seizing the opportunity to over-dramatize things (sensationalism sells) and people talk and talk and it escalates quickly.

 

[Erik Alfredsson]

But I was told that all these character guys that we added in to our room will help us win and with things like this?

We lost a crap ton of character guys in one season. Turris, Methot, Neil, MacArthur, Phaneuf were all leaders in the locker room.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

I might have missed a lot because I don't follow all conversations and don't read that much but what makes you say this?

I mean everybody seems to acknowledge that Melnyk must be a very hard person to work for, that there was some bad blood between the Karlssons and the Hoffmans and that the locker room might have been fractured just by looking at the team chemistry on the ice compared to the year before.

And of course, the medias are seizing the opportunity to over-dramatize things (sensationalism sells) and people talk and talk and it escalates quickly.

The big thing here is all about the citing of sources when you say something. This just helps as another source, that was it really.

 

[Knave]

This is one of those things where it makes everyone look bad, including the players (all of them).