MELNYK ‘EXCITED’ TO TAKE ANOTHER RIDE
Sens owner remembers thinking ‘let me die in peace’ last time team made the playoffs
The last time the Ottawa Senators made the playoffs in the spring of 2015, owner Eugene Melnyk was laying in a hospital bed in Toronto, in need of a lifesaving liver transplant, wondering if he’d even be around in the summer and getting daily updates on the state of his hockey team.
Every morning, alternate governors Ken Villazor and Sheldon Plener, both close friends of Melnyk’s, would come into his room at the University Health Network, where he was waiting to find a match for a transplant, to let him know how the Senators had fared with goaltender Andrew “The Hamburglar” Hammond leading the charge.
The Senators went 23-4-4 down the stretch and qualified for the playoffs on the final day of the season.
“They’d come in before 7 a.m., I’d look up with one eye and think, ‘I don’t need to get up yet, I need 10 more minutes of sleep,’ but they’d look at me and they’d be smiling,” Melnyk told Postmedia in a telephone interview Friday. “I’d ask, ‘Is it over?’ And every morning they’d come in and say, ‘No, they pulled it off.’
“Sheldon, of course, would have to show me on his phone all the replays. It was the last thing I cared about. I was like, ‘Leave me alone. I’m dying here. Let me die in peace.’ He’s showing me this. I read every single article they brought in for me and I was trying to enjoy it and trying to put myself in my head of a fan going through this whole run with the Hamburglar and it was surreal.
“You just couldn’t believe it and it’s too bad (he didn’t get to enjoy it) because I would have gone nuts if I was in Ottawa like a lot of the fans did. I never enjoyed it because I never had the chance to. I was delighted, but it was paled over by the prospect of not being around for the second round to be honest with you. This was all great, but what does it matter? I’m not going to be around.”
Melnyk, who is trying to bring awareness to organ donation with the launch of the The Organ Project last month, recalled a story he told at last week’s gala at the Royal York Hotel with singer Carrie Underwood — the wife of former Senators forward Mike Fisher — donating her time to help raise money.
“Here I was waiting daily for an organ and people are coming and say, ‘Hey, what are you doing this summer? I’m not even sure I’m going to be here.’ The second round, to me, was something that may happen one day, but they got knocked out, which was unfortunate. With or without me, I was the biggest fan,” said Melnyk.
This time, after qualifying for the post-season following a 2-1 shootout victory over the Bruins in Boston on Thursday night, Melnyk is going to enjoy and cherish every moment. The Senators missed the playoffs last spring and, as a result, changes were made on and off the ice to get the team back to respectability.
Now, here are the Senators with only two games left in the regular season, with the possibility of clinching home-ice advantage for Round 1 if they can get beat the New York Rangers on Saturday at Canadian Tire Centre. Melnyk couldn’t be happier to see the success the team had under first-year GM Pierre Dorion, coach Guy Boucher and the staff.
“You can’t describe it. Every morning you wake up and you know that you’re getting there to get to the playoffs and that was the No. 1 objective,” Melnyk said. “The smile this morning was ear to ear. It still is and it still will be all weekend.
“I’m more than proud. I’m proud of the coaching staff, Pierre and his staff and all the players that have stepped up. You’ve got to hand it to everybody in there. You can’t be more excited than I am and I guess every fan is feeling the same way because now we’re looking forward to another three weeks of excitement, great hockey and a lot of fun.”
Melnyk said when he looks back now at Ottawa’s trip to the Stanley Cup final in 2007, he realizes how difficult that journey was.
“I didn’t appreciate what it took to get there because I was kind of a newbie (as an NHL owner),” said Melnyk, who purchased the franchise out of bankruptcy in August 2003, just months after the Senators had reached the Eastern Conference final before bowing out to the New Jersey Devils in seven games. “Now I fully appreciate where we are and how serious it is.”
He has been thrilled to see the support at the gate after struggling early in the season to get people into the seats. Playoff tickets will go on sale Saturday at 9 a.m.
“I hope that we legitimately have very strong games where people say, ‘This isn’t a fluke and these guys are a force to be reckoned with,’ and outside of Ottawa people say this is a legitimate, talented team that will be competitive for years to come and will get respect around the league,” Melnyk said.
“I just want to make sure people in Ottawa have fun and I hope we can get more than two (home playoff ) games. I would love to see this run as long as possible to a Stanley Cup, of course. I’m hoping for the best like everyone else is. There’s a lot of exciting stuff going on and being in the playoffs, it doesn’t get better.”
I was trying to enjoy it and trying to put myself in my head of a fan going through this whole run with the Hamburglar and it was surreal.