Mendes Monday Musings

Well, that was quite a year.

Oh wait, has it only been a week since I wrote a column?

Damn. My apologies.

I guess that was quite a week.

Any time you’re worked into a meme on social media, you know it’s been a week to remember.

And I was on the receiving end of some haymakers from longtime colleagues in the industry like Greg Wyshynski, Sid Seixeiro and Mike Harrington. But I’ve been in the public sphere long enough to understand that criticism is part of the deal.

As Daniel Alfredsson once told me many years ago when I was a reporter, “Any criticism is fair – unless you make it personal or about someone’s family.”

Which is the perfect segue into our statement last week.

Why would we bother to shed light on something that Wyshynski, Seixeiro and Harrington didn’t know about until we posted it? Why did we needlessly create a Streisand Effect here?

Because we reached a tipping point on Thursday where this absurd rumour had spread out of control in our market. Our local media had been whispering about this for the better part of two weeks. National media members were also well aware of this storyline. Any attempts to shut this down via back channels weren’t successful. And the lie continued to spread unchecked until it spiralled out of control Thursday.

What was the trigger point? My guess is our simple decision to place Linus Ullmark in a non-roster spot to open the door for Lars Eller’s return. It ignited a firestorm that was spreading so fast it reached the players and their families that day.

We received multiple requests from our beat media – reporters who cover us on a regular basis – if we were going to provide a statement about what was happening online. I think that’s important context that probably hasn’t been shared until this point. Yes, we’ve been mocked by the media for providing a statement, but I think it’s very fair to point out that our local media also asked if we were going to provide a comment.

This tweet here – from roughly 4 p.m. ET on Thursday – is an excellent example of what we were dealing with in our market that day:

It was a no-win situation. Our silence only amplified things within our market and fan base.

Our local media asked for a comment or statement. And then the national media mocked us for making a statement.

But as an organization, we simply weren’t going to stand on the sidelines much longer and watch a player who was on personal leave be the receiving end of a ridiculous narrative. We asked for privacy around his personal leave and he wasn’t afforded that luxury.

So we came out swinging.

National reporters can mock us all they want. But our obligation is to protect our players and make sure the truth is out there in our market. That’s all we can do.

I thought Ron MacLean and Elliotte Friedman had a fair analysis of the situation in Saturday Headlines on Hockey Night in Canada.

As always, we love to hear from you and I’m open to hearing your feedback on our handling of our situation. The email address is [email protected].

Just don’t take any personal shots at my family and I think we’ll be fine.

Trivia time:

Mads Sogaard appeared in a game for us this week in Denver, marking the fifth straight season that he’s played at least one game for the Senators. Can you name the other five goalies in franchise history to play at least five consecutive seasons for the Senators?

Answer at the bottom of this column.

Absolute Non Sens podcast guest: Cyril Leeder

Our next episode of the Absolute Non Sens podcast is set to drop on Wednesday of this week and we’ve got our president and CEO Cyril Leeder as our guest.

As we approach the 30th anniversary of Canadian Tire Centre, we ask Cyril:

• Were there alternatives to Bryan Adams as the opening act for the building in January of 1996?

• The Palladium name only lasted a couple of months on the arena – were there other options on the table?

• Are there any features of the arena that he wishes he could have changed?

• Can he estimate how many slices of pizza he’s eaten at the building since it opened in 1996?

Cyril also gives us a small update on LeBreton Flats, so if you’re into arena-related stuff, this will be a fun episode.

Media roundup: Looking back at some interesting and fun Senators stories you might have missed over the past seven days.

Shane Pinto has accepted a sponsor’s exemption to play in the PGA Tour Americas Commissionaires Ottawa Open at The Marshes this summer. Adam Stanley from Sportsnet has all the details.

Jordan Spence is midway through his first season with the Senators. Our Andrew Wilimek does a midseason check-in with the defenceman – who is having a solid season when he uncovers the underlying numbers.

Alex Adams has a nice feature on Ridly Greig – as we hosted Ridly Greig bobblehead night on Saturday against the Panthers.

Random thoughts:

If you really want to know the worst part of my week, it wasn’t dealing with the statement that we issued. Or that I discovered a crack in my windshield on Sunday. No, the worst part of my week came on Tuesday when our team departed for Salt Lake City. As I was trying to get through security at the Ottawa airport, the zipper for my winter overcoat got stuck. I couldn’t get my coat off and I was in jeopardy of holding up the entire security line. I then asked Dave Poulin for help to unzip my jacket, because I couldn’t seem to do it myself. To which Pouly replied without missing a beat, “No problem Ian, I can handle this. I had kids of my own.”

Trivia answer:

The six goalies in Senators history to play a game in at least five straight seasons: Craig Anderson (10 seasons), Ray Emery (5), Anton Forsberg (5), Patrick Lalime (5), Robin Lehner (5) and Mads Sogaard (5).