News Article: The Eugene Melnyk era in Ottawa (The Athletic)

[Sun God Nika]

All I can do is relate this back to me.

Someone really close to me passed away first week of January, he wronged people in his life due to his alcoholism that ultimately took him.

How would I feel if the citizen releases an article talking about the good and the bad in his life?

First off I would not threaten to sue I would know its fact and a harsh but necessary reality that others truth comes out. Next I would personally go and apologize to the victims and ask for them not to hate him personally but the disease he fought

Melnyks daughters seem educated and old enough to be able to handle this situation like adults imho, saying this article came too soon just makes you look like a Melnyk brown noser.

 

[PlayOn]

My dad died when I was just a few years older than Melnyk’s daughters and it is always a fresh wound. An article being released today or a year from now would hurt them the same imo, it’s just how it is. They will process it and learn from it, and ultimately hopefully they will be better than him. It’s tough but the only person that could’ve shielded them from it was Melnyk, by not treating others the way he did. He failed them, not the media reporting on it.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

They do have other articles... And besides, it's a buck a month for 6 months, if there was ever a time to be willing to test the waters this is it. Cancel before the 7th month if you don't think the content is worth 10 bucks a month.

And join again when it becomes a buck a month again.

 

[slamigo]

Doug McLean said he heard from the family that they were devastated with the article and the timing of it. That was my point

I’m trying to remember which local NHL personality commented on this, but they said that the family didn’t have an issue with it. So this is all third hand competing information.
I believe their point was that the family would rather it be now than later as the focus shifts to the bright future plans. They didn’t want the article overshadowing or pivoting focus back to issues with Melnyk. Something like that. I can’t for the life of me remember who posted that on Twitter though. It was an insider. He basically said something like ‘this will be my only comment on this subject’.

 

[coladin]

The Athletic/NYT had two obligations:

1. To ensure that the reporting in the article was true and accurate
2. To ensure that the former employees who contributed to the article were comfortable being used as sources

The feelings of Melnyk's daughters had no bearing, nor should they have. It's asinine to think they should have. It'd be like saying that TSN should have buried the Kyle Beach story because Stan Bowman and Joel Quenneville have kids who might get upset by what they read. Or maybe the media should have kept quiet about Joe Paterno since he had kids, and grandkids, and wasn't around to "defend himself".

Melnyk did not commit a crime or cover up a crime, as far as we know. He is just a piece of shit. The Kyle Beach comparison is a bad one. And you my correct me, but Mendes intmated in his roundtable that the story was on the backburner and was ready and they reconfirmed with the sources afetr Melnyk passed if they can still run it

 

[coladin]

No I don't believe so. I think they went through some rigor in fact checking their sources. That has been discussed by Strang and Mendes. I believe them. Who fact checked McClean's take or whoever he talked to?

Doug McLean has been a hockey professional for 30 plus years. You are reaching

 

[slamigo]

I think the paper trail was strong enough even around the time where Melnyk was making public appearances in the Fall to release the story. The daughters can’t do much with it and dad isn’t there to clean up his misdeeds. If people don’t think so , that’s fine, but I agree with everyone that it had to come out

I think it was/is an important story and I doubt there would ever have been an appropriate time.
Oddly enough, I feel like this is cathartic. Lets everyone move on. All the haters can have their “told you so” moment (and maybe rightly so, who knows). But everyone else can now focus on the future.
The Melnyk chapter is closed. No lingering questions. In a weird way, this article sort of does the family a favour by dealing with it in a final way. It’s done.

Also, I have a lot of criticism of Melnyk, but one thing that really stood out to me in that article is that this was a passionate owner and there is a huge probability that the medical issues and steroid treatments definitely impacted his behaviour. I can’t see him as some evil doer. I just kind of feel sad that his last years played out the way they did. If his health were better, we may have seen a drastically different Eugene Melnyk this past decade.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Doug McLean has been a hockey professional for 30 plus years. You are reaching

Your opinion again. He is no longer in hockey. He is in the entertainment business now if any at all. Reaching for what .. a way to believe him?

 

[IpsoPostFacto]

View attachment 532927
View attachment 532928

Brucy doing Brucy things.

Potentially great news for the franchise and city of Ottawa. A potential bidder comes out saying he would like to be involved with the purchase of the team. That shit gets Bruce riled up.

ahh Bruce,

First of all, the premise of his comment isn't necessarily true. Why should he wait? early bird gets the worm and all of that. I would agree if he showed up at the wake with an offer, but we are well beyond that.

Secondly, Greenberg was speaking after kicking off the Ottawa Hospital 1/2 billion $ fundraising campaign and took questions and a reporter asked about the Sens.

Sure, maybe he let reporters know that he would answer questions about anything, but someone figured it was newsworthy and asked. Maybe he heard the Melnyks were waffling and just wanted to make sure they understood that there are options.

and Third, as you note, he makes the comment that nothing happens until the Melnyk's decide to sell, taking all the air out of Bruce's "gotcha".

My god, why does he even care to make such a comment. they will sell or not - it's hardly some hostile takeover situation.

I suppose we could all ask for a friend as loyal as Bruce, but it's starting to feel a little clingy.

 

[Sun God Nika]

ahh Bruce,

First of all, the premise of his comment isn't necessarily true. Why should he wait? early bird gets the worm and all of that. I would agree if he showed up at the wake with an offer, but we are well beyond that.

Secondly, Greenberg was speaking after kicking off the Ottawa Hospital 1/2 billion $ fundraising campaign and took questions and a reporter asked about the Sens.

Sure, maybe he let reporters know that he would answer questions about anything, but someone figured it was newsworthy and asked. Maybe he heard the Melnyks were waffling and just wanted to make sure they understood that there are options.

and Third, as you note, he makes the comment that nothing happens until the Melnyk's decide to sell, taking all the air out of Bruce's "gotcha".

My god, why does he even care to make such a comment. they will sell or not - it's hardly some hostile takeover situation.

I suppose we could all ask for a friend as loyal as Bruce, but it's starting to feel a little clingy.

I think Brucey wants the daughters to keep the team .

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

I agree with the sentiment brought up a few times today.

The victims of Melnyk deserve to have this out there, regardless of timing, and their feelings need to be a priority above the Melnyk children because of Melnyk's transgressions. Someone put it well when they said something to the effect of it being Melnyk's job to protect his children and this was his failure, not the Athletics or any of Melnyk's victims of his abuse.

 

[IpsoPostFacto]

I think Brucey wants the daughters to keep the team .

makes sense. wants to keep the flow of stories coming. (sort of the plot to 'Haroun and the Sea of Stories' by Rushdie, but I digress.)

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

ahh Bruce,

First of all, the premise of his comment isn't necessarily true. Why should he wait? early bird gets the worm and all of that. I would agree if he showed up at the wake with an offer, but we are well beyond that.

Secondly, Greenberg was speaking after kicking off the Ottawa Hospital 1/2 billion $ fundraising campaign and took questions and a reporter asked about the Sens.

Sure, maybe he let reporters know that he would answer questions about anything, but someone figured it was newsworthy and asked. Maybe he heard the Melnyks were waffling and just wanted to make sure they understood that there are options.

and Third, as you note, he makes the comment that nothing happens until the Melnyk's decide to sell, taking all the air out of Bruce's "gotcha".

My god, why does he even care to make such a comment. they will sell or not - it's hardly some hostile takeover situation.

I suppose we could all ask for a friend as loyal as Bruce, but it's starting to feel a little clingy.

There has been sensitivity from Bruce and others about this for sure. Seems to be consistent that if you were more in the support Melnyk camp that you're pulling for the kids to hang on or alluding to it in a condescending or defensive manner like Bruce. With multiple groups lining up to buy the team and presumably prepared to get involved with Lebreton, what was said would never happen appears to be happening, and the "need" for Melnyk or the justification of his MO for survival of the franchise as the only way forward is easily in question now. Not a lot of critical thinking from Bruce atm imo, he's just out there reacting emotionally with stuff like that.

I have a hard time believing that them hanging on as majority owners are what's best for the franchise or would give the franchise the best odds at a lebreton development and long term healthy franchise, so cheering them on seems personal.

 

[DaveMatthew]

There has been sensitivity from Bruce and others about this for sure. Seems to be consistent that if you were more in the support Melnyk camp that you're pulling for the kids to hang on or alluding to it in a condescending or defensive manner like Bruce. With multiple groups lining up to buy the team and presumably prepared to get involved with Lebreton, what was said would never happen appears to be happening, and the "need" for Melnyk or the justification of his MO for survival of the franchise as the only way forward is easily in question now. Not a lot of critical thinking from Bruce atm imo, he's just out there reacting emotionally with stuff like that.

I have a hard time believing that them hanging on as majority owners are what's best for the franchise or would give the franchise the best odds at a lebreton development and long term healthy franchise, so cheering them on seems personal.

I think Bruce has worked very hard over the last 10-15 to cozy up to Melnyk, and that's resulted in positive relationships with his team - Dorion, Leblanc, etc. He even said on TSN after the passing that Melnyk used to text him scoops of what they were looking to do at the trade deadline, in free-agency, etc. While other reporters were pushed away, he was brought in.

I'm sure he realizes that that train is coming to an end. And while he had a career before Melnyk, the media landscape has changed significantly in the last few years. With online media, podcasts, etc, there's WAY more competition.

He wants nothing more than to retain that access, which is all that differentiates him now, and is lashing out at anyone who suggests (by speculating the team will be sold) that it will go away.

The good news, what Bruce Garrioch says or tweets has no bearing on the situation, and I think it's all but a certainty that the team is sold.

And agreed on the point of there being, reportedly, many interested parties interested in buying the team and keeping it here. So many, including lots of posters on this board, were adamant that Melnyk was the only one willing to own the team here and he was doing every fan this huge favour. Basically running a charity for us. Well... a couple of weeks since he's been out of the picture and that theory has gone up in smoke...

 

[Slippy]

Melnyk did not commit a crime or cover up a crime, as far as we know. He is just a piece of shit. The Kyle Beach comparison is a bad one. And you my correct me, but Mendes intmated in his roundtable that the story was on the backburner and was ready and they reconfirmed with the sources afetr Melnyk passed if they can still run it

That is not how I interpreted what he said. He and Strang seemed to indicate that the story was about 95% but they got the final confirmation from sources after his death. It seemed that some people were reluctant to go on record earlier due to legal action or other retribution. It was on one fo the two podcasts that Mendes said they only got some of the final info after Melnyk's death. They asked some of the sources after he died how they felt about the story coming out now.

 

[Ice-Tray]

I’m not going to weigh in too far on this as I have some fairly strong opinions on anonymous information being used to tank a person in court of public appeal. It’s a circumvention of the very foundations of our judicial system and very dangerous all around in my opinion.

I do think that if people are going to be up in arms about a woman being called a in an email from her boss, surly there is enough sympathy to be shared for two young women having to simultaneously grieve the loss of their father while dealing with people happy to call him a piece of shit on every public forum available. If the woman receiving the email was also born of wealthy parents, would she then also be denied the sympathies of the ‘common folk’?

Certainly there is room for many of us in here to be better about the things we post about other people. There has been a lot of terrible things posted on this forum over the years about Melnyk, Garrioche, Dorion, And various players. We should be careful about pretending to be above the muck; there are lessons here to be learned for all of us I think though this recent discourse.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

I think Brucey wants the daughters to keep the team .

His best chance of keeping the access he has now

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

My dad died when I was just a few years older than Melnyk’s daughters and it is always a fresh wound. An article being released today or a year from now would hurt them the same imo, it’s just how it is. They will process it and learn from it, and ultimately hopefully they will be better than him. It’s tough but the only person that could’ve shielded them from it was Melnyk, by not treating others the way he did. He failed them, not the media reporting on it.

Well said.

There simply is not good timing from a family perspective. I definitely feel badly for the daughters. Losing a parent is hard. Having dirty laundry aired to the public isn't fun.

But it's a story that was eventually going to be written and public. I just hope these kids realize the hate and vitriol isn't directed at them.

 

[SENSational]

Holy crap...just read the article. Euge was a troubled man, to say the least. Completely unhinged, but I think it's important to remember that the article did point out a lot of the good he did too.

I’m not going to weigh in too far on this as I have some fairly strong opinions on anonymous information being used to tank a person in court of public appeal. It’s a circumvention of the very foundations of our judicial system and very dangerous all around in my opinion.

Except this has nothing to do with the judicial system...as far as we know Melnyk didn't break any new laws, he was 'just' a massive asshole. The Athletic/NYT have more than enough journalistic integrity and pedigree for there to be trust in their research and vetting practices for their content.

The daughters are lucky this didn't come out while he was alive. The underlying homophobia, racism, sexism would likely have forced the NHL to make him sell the team. Their father passed away, but at least they will be able to decide what happens with the team and potentially make a lot of money.

 

[Ice-Tray]

Holy crap...just read the article. Euge was a troubled man, to say the least. Completely unhinged, but I think it's important to remember that the article did point out a lot of the good he did too.


Except this has nothing to do with the judicial system...as far as we know Melnyk didn't break any new laws, he was 'just' a massive asshole. The Athletic/NYT have more than enough journalistic integrity and pedigree for there to be trust in their research and vetting practices for their content.

The daughters are lucky this didn't come out while he was alive. The underlying homophobia, racism, sexism would likely have forced the NHL to make him sell the team. Their father passed away, but at least they will be able to decide what happens with the team and potentially make a lot of money.

I meant more the court of public opinion not being based on the foundations of our other court system, namely innocent until proven guilty. I thought that was obvious, but my bad.

We are all quick to trust authority when it suits us, but the article’s writers are only as good as the word of their anonymous sources. This wasn’t a trust piece, and it wasn’t a victim piece either. It was an article to show that the owner was part philanthropist and part unhinged tyrant. It was a pretty shallow piece in terms of digging, but the goal was more to frame the legacy of the team owner as opposed to do any deep dive to try and bury him. It served its purpose I think.

I don’t think anything in the article is enough to label the man a homophobe or a racist. Poor decisions by any measure in my opinion, but those are heavy character accusations that aren’t proven by this article.

 

[SENSational]

I meant more the court of public opinion not being based on the foundations of our other court system, namely innocent until proven guilty. I thought that was obvious, but my bad.

We are all quick to trust authority when it suits us, but the article’s writers are only as good as the word of their anonymous sources. This wasn’t a trust piece, and it wasn’t a victim piece either. It was an article to show that the owner was part philanthropist and part unhinged tyrant. It was a pretty shallow piece in terms of digging, but the goal was more to frame the legacy of the team owner as opposed to do any deep dive to try and bury him. It served its purpose I think.

I don’t think anything in the article is enough to label the man a homophobe or a racist. Poor decisions by any measure in my opinion, but those are heavy character accusations that aren’t proven by this article.

And my point was that the "court" of public opinion has nothing to do with the actual judicial system. Being a total and complete asshole doesn't and shouldn't require the same burden of proof as the actual legal court. It's up to you to decide if the reporter should be trusted. Just because you think "anonymous" sources aren't good enough, doesn't mean that the journalist willy nilly trusts what these sources say without multiple corroborations, written, physical, and digital evidence (which the authors who wrote the article have seen, as they've pointed out).

No good journalist in their right mind will reveal their sources without getting permission. It's up to you to decide if the journalistic institution and their practices are trustworthy. It's funny though, even though there is no actual "court of public opinion", the two independent internal investigations the Sens did both came to scathing conclusions.

And I agree, you can't label the man any of those things based on this article alone, but the underlying connotations are there for all of misogyny, homophobia, and racism.

 

[Ice-Tray]

And my point was that the "court" of public opinion has nothing to do with the actual judicial system. Being a total and complete asshole doesn't and shouldn't require the same burden of proof as the actual legal court. It's up to you to decide if the reporter should be trusted. Just because you think "anonymous" sources aren't good enough, doesn't mean that the journalist willy nilly trusts what these sources say without multiple corroborations, written, physical, and digital evidence (which the authors who wrote the article have seen, as they've pointed out).

No good journalist in their right mind will reveal their sources without getting permission. It's up to you to decide if the journalistic institution and their practices are trustworthy.

And I agree, you can't label the man any of those things based on this article alone, but the underlying connotations are there for all of misogyny, homophobia, and racism.

Well of course it should. We shouldn’t be calling anyone an asshole without verifiable proof, in a perfect world. That wasn’t the point I was making though.

The burden of proof to label someone an asshole is pretty low in general, but of course that’s not where things stopped in this case. In my opinion you need a higher burden of evidence from a move from asshole to racist for example.

My point on trust and anonymous sources reflects coming to more serious conclusions, not being an asshole.

Anyways I’m pontificating on an emotionally charged situation. I always find how these kinds of things fall out on the public stage fascinating, and somewhat scary lol

 

[Micklebot]

I do think that if people are going to be up in arms about a woman being called a in an email from her boss, surly there is enough sympathy to be shared for two young women having to simultaneously grieve the loss of their father while dealing with people happy to call him a piece of shit on every public forum available. If the woman receiving the email was also born of wealthy parents, would she then also be denied the sympathies of the ‘common folk’?

Been giving it some thought and I honestly don't know what would be worse timing, while he was alive and ill would distract from any attempts at recovery, he certainly wouldn't have been in a position to defend himself and we'd be hearing about how cruel the timing was, yeah it sucks for this to come up while they are grieving, but it would be bad for it to come up in three months and open up all those emotions again too, do you pull the bandaid off fast and get it all in the past, or extend the suffering?

Silver lining for them is now it's in the rear view, and they can move forward. There's no good time to give people bad news, might as well hear it now and move on.

 

[umma gumma]

My dad died when I was just a few years older than Melnyk’s daughters and it is always a fresh wound. An article being released today or a year from now would hurt them the same imo, it’s just how it is. They will process it and learn from it, and ultimately hopefully they will be better than him. It’s tough but the only person that could’ve shielded them from it was Melnyk, by not treating others the way he did. He failed them, not the media reporting on it.

Exactly. It wasn't a concern for him when he was around, I'm not sure why it matters now...is it because he just passed? He's known for a while he was on borrowed time, didn't seem to change the way he conducted himself.

 

[Ice-Tray]

Been giving it some thought and I honestly don't know what would be worse timing, while he was alive and ill would distract from any attempts at recovery, he certainly wouldn't have been in a position to defend himself and we'd be hearing about how cruel the timing was, yeah it sucks for this to come up while they are grieving, but it would be bad for it to come up in three months and open up all those emotions again too, do you pull the bandaid off fast and get it all in the past, or extend the suffering?

Silver lining for them is now it's in the rear view, and they can move forward. There's no good time to give people bad news, might as well hear it now and move on.

Yeah agree with you. I think it’s probably best for us fans to be able to ‘rip the bandaid off’ so to speak and move on to a new chapter (EM’s family and friends notwithstanding).

Get all the talk out of the way, people can frame the legacy as they see fit with a broader spectrum of the man’s actions shared to the public sphere.

I know I’m ready