Senators try to repair fallout from video in Uber ride
Ottawa forward Mark Stone dismisses the latest drama to the Senators season as a “hiccup” and says the team is already repairing the frayed relationship between players and coaches that was laid bare in a video.
The video showed seven Senators players during an Uber ride in Phoenix last month insulting the team and assistant coach Martin Raymond. Stone said Tuesday the matter already was addressed before the fiveminute clip surfaced.
“It’s disappointing the way the video got released,” he said. “We dealt with this long before this video was released. As a coaching staff, as management, as players it was dealt with internally and the way it should be, and we’re going to move forward and grow from it.
“We don’t want negative stuff surrounding our team and this is a hiccup. I think guys have made a great effort to repair relationships. This is only going to make our team stronger going forward.”
The video was the latest humiliation for the organization over the past two years: owner Eugene Melnyk threatening to move the team; alleged cyberbullying involving the wife of former star captain Erik Karlsson; and harassment allegations against former assistant general manager Randy Lee.
The players in the Uber were Matt Duchene, Chris Wideman, Chris Tierney, Thomas Chabot, Alex Formenton (since sent down to the juniors), Dylan DeMelo and Colin White.
They were discussing the team’s ineffective penalty killing and mocking Raymond in what appears to be a recording from a camera mounted on the dashboard.
In the video, Duchene, one of the Senators’ alternate captains, is heard saying: “Marty Raymond, the only coach in NHL history to have the worst power-play and the worst PK within a calendar year.”
Duchene later adds that he hasn’t “paid attention in three weeks” in Raymond’s meetings.
The players apologized to Raymond in a statement.