This cycle isn't going to end until there's new ownership.
Period.
We all know this.
Whether you think it's Melnyk's fault or not, the fanbase has turned on him and no longer trusts a word out of his mouth, and they're going to spend their dollars elsewhere.
This is essentially it, from my perspective.
Granted, I'm not as connected to the thinking of the fanbase as any of you, but growing up and living here, I think one of the bigger mistakes the national media, ownership, and management are making is viewing this as a two year story. It's not. It's a 16 year story. Yes, Melnyk came in and saved the team, and yes he was rightly praised for it at the time, but it didn't take long (as far back as the Cup run if not before) for the bloom to come off the rose a bit.
The team was contending, management was experienced and stable, and fans were filling the arena, so it wasn't as big a deal that Melnyk was, let's say, the team's idiot uncle. He said dumb things, people would roll their eyes, and in the back of their minds wished someone else owned the team. He was an irritant. The fans loved the team, but Melnyk wasn't exactly Mike Ilitch, for instance.
Since then, things have obviously only gotten worse. Longtime players leaving, especially Alfredsson, have burned away any shred of credibility Melnyk had left, credibility he already set on fire each time he opened his mouth in the last several years. And while not centrally (or publicly in terms of commentary) the only reason for the fan's disdain for Melnyk, Alfredsson certainly serves as a pretty telling anecdote for it. He grew up in another country, but loves Ottawa enough to raise his family here and become a Canadian citizen, but wants nothing to do with Melnyk. If Alfredsson doesn't trust the organization, why should anyone else?
I think the fanbase has reached a breaking point (a point that's a long time coming and built up over years) because there's no one left. Even as Melnyk irritated and annoyed and angered people, there was always someone the fans could take seriously. Whether it was Bryan Murray, or Alfredsson, or Karlsson, or Stone, or even going back to people like Jacques Martin. Yeah, players and coaches and managers have been critiqued over the years, that's part of being a fan, but at least when they spoke or were doing their job fans were left with the sense, however low a bar it is, that this organization resembled a normal hockey operation.
And as talented as the young pieces are, they're young, and they're new, and they haven't built up a long-term connection with fans (this is obviously not anyone's fault, just the nature of tenure). They can't speak for the team and build that credibility, and nor should they have to.
Until Melnyk goes, I don't see anything changing. Yes, there's good young pieces, yes there are good prospects coming, yes draft pick capital is important, but it only works and fans are only going to believe in it if the organization is functional enough to bring it all together, and there's no evidence ownership or management can do that, let alone even acknowledge the problems are systemic and the last 2 years are a symptom, and not the disease.
