Mar 24, 2017
Senators owner Melnyk irate over Crosby's slash on Methot
Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk was on TSN 1200 Radio in Ottawa Friday morning to discuss Marc Methot’s injury suffered against the Pittsburgh Penguins, suggesting there should be a lengthy suspension for plays like the one that resulted in Methot’s injury.
TSN.ca Staff
Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk was on TSN 1200 Radio in Ottawa Friday morning to discuss Marc Methot’s injury suffered against the Pittsburgh Penguins Thursday night, when Sidney Crosby slashed him in the hand.
Melnyk suggested there should be a lengthy suspension for plays like the one that resulted in Methot’s injury.
“You do anything that’s almost a certain injury and I think the only way to do it is you wipe the guy off the map,” Melnyk told TSN 1200. “Not one or two games, (but) 10. How about a season for a few of these guys? He takes my guy, I take your guy. That’s my attitude.”
“The guy that creates the injury should be sitting out; they should watch the games together for the rest of the season. That’s the kind of attitude I have. There’s no room for that.”
“You’ve got to think of it, Marc Methot, that’s who you saw. I see the things behind the scenes of what happens from slashes and they’re ugly. They’re just as ugly as Marc’s. But Marc’s was so visible; it was a terrifying thing to look at those pictures. I don’t even want to think about it, it was that disgusting.”
“So that’s the only way to do it. You hammer these guys. You take away their money, because they all understand money and you simply say, ‘you’re done for 10 games,’ and guess what, you guys are not going to get anywhere close to the Stanley Cup if it’s an elite player on the other side. There’s no room for it in the NHL.”
“We all know who he is, the guy is just a whiner beyond belief and you do this kind of stuff, I don’t care who you are in the league, I don’t care if you’re the number one player in the league, you should sit out a long time for this kind of crap.”
Crosby's agent, Pat Brisson, told TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger he believes Melnyk should be fined for his comments.
"In my opinion, a team owner who makes a negative comment about a player outside of his organization should be fined for such action," Brisson said. "It's worse than tampering and against the culture of our game."
Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said Friday Crosby deals with slashes from opponents every game and disagreed with Melnyk's claim he's a "whiner."
No, I don’t (think it's valid to label Crosby a whiner),” Sullivan told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “In my experience, we see it just the opposite.
“When I watch what Sid goes through on a nightly basis, what he plays through on a nightly basis, what teams try to do to defend against him and the tactics that they take ... and he doesn’t get deterred, doesn’t say anything, he just plays, and he plays through the process … When I hear comments like that, my experience of being around Sid for the time that I’ve been here is just the opposite.”
Sullivan added he believes Crosby was attempting to slash Methot's stick.
“I don’t think it was intentional,” said Sullivan. “He’s trying to slash on the stick. It happens numerous times in the game. It was unfortunate that he caught his hand. That’s how I saw it.”
No player this season has faced league discipline for slashing. Steve Ott was fined $2,222.22 in October for spearing Zdeno Chara.