The revolving door that is the Ottawa Senators’ front office kept turning Wednesday morning as Jim Little was relieved of his duties as CEO after less than 2 months.
However, Little chose not to sit idly by as others have before him and let his name be dragged through the mud by the Senators, essentially calling them out in a statement released Wednesday afternoon:
“The statement made today by the team contained some language that deserves some clarification. On Valentine’s Day, the owner and I had a personal disagreement over the approach that I had been pursuing. I am a strong-willed person, and the disagreement included me using some very strong language with him over the phone, including swearing, which he did not appreciate and for which I later apologized.”
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Reading Little’s statement in contrast to the Ottawa Senators’ Board of Directors’ statement released hours earlier is shocking to say the least:
“The decision was made as a result of conduct inconsistent with the core values of the Ottawa Senators and the National Hockey League.”
By citing the National Hockey League, Eugene Melnyk stirred confusion amongst the fan base about whether or not this was potentially in relation to all of the head coaches being fired for past misconducts. A similar example would have been the sudden firing of the Dallas Stars’ Head Coach Jim Montgomery back in December for what was later revealed to be related to alcohol abuse.
If, in fact, Melnyk intended to create the narrative that this firing was due to reasons like that, that is absolutely despicable. No wonder Jim Little released a statement of his own to clear his name.
Twitter was buzzing as expected when Jim Little released his statement, as personalities in the hockey community chimed in on the most recent piece of drama to come out of Ottawa.
Media from all around the NHL weighed in with their thoughts:
The senators are such a joke. Their statement made it seem way worse than the actually story from Jim Little here https://t.co/moIN6M3IeI
— Ryan Whitney (@ryanwhitney6) March 4, 2020
This is why Jim Little was fired as CEO of the Sens. This. Like...this is the reason. He swore. He swore...on the phone. Talking to Eugene. On Valentines Day. That's it. Like...seriously. The Sens. I mean...the Sens. https://t.co/tujnMc6Kl4
— Sid Seixeiro (@Sid_Seixeiro) March 4, 2020
My sources tell me the main issue for the Ottawa Senators in this case was that Jim Little refused to put money in Eugene Melnyk’s swear jar
— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) March 4, 2020
While Sens twitter was fed up once again:
Can we get #MelnykOut trending again, Ottawa? It's a perfect time to remind people that he is not fit to run this franchise
— Trevor Shackles (@ShackTS) March 4, 2020
Being a fan of a team with such an awful owner really puts you in a bad place because the instinct is to defend what the team is doing but that effectively means defending Eugene Melnyk....which...well....good luck with that.
— Nate (@NKB121) March 4, 2020
Jim Little joins Cyril Leeder, Tom Anselmi and Nicholas Ruszkowski as people who have been fired by or left working for the Ottawa Senators in the last 3 years. There seems to be a common denominator here.
The 2019/2020 season was actually a reason to be optimistic about the state of the team. Given the fact that the Senators are 29th in the overall league standings should speak to how awful things have been in the last 3 years. But after yet another off-ice debacle, my skepticism is renewed: this franchise will not succeed with Eugene Melnyk at the helm.
#MelnykOut