The Senators called more attention to a nasty online rumour, but in the big picture, their decision to make a public statement was the right one.
The Ottawa Senators’ decision to issue a public statement to deny an anonymous social media claim Thursday was a double-edged sword.
While the players were, to a man, highly appreciative that GM Steve Staios punched back online to stand up for them, the statement also amplified the post many times over. The original post was created on Thursday and was only up for a few hours before the account was deleted. By then, the damage was done, as other users screen-grabbed the post and ran with it.
It may have gone completely viral, no matter how the Senators reacted. We’ll never know.
But by putting their foot down with their statement, the Senators brought it into the public sphere for certain, taking it well beyond the hundreds of people muttering about it on Twitter and into the laps of millions.
As of Saturday, in less than 48 hours, 5 million people had viewed their statement.
After seeing it, not only did curious followers go searching for the original post to try to figure out what the Senators were talking about, but podcasters, broadcasters, and writers now had an opening to talk and ask about the story, causing their listeners, viewers, and readers to go searching for the scandalous post as well.
Interestingly, 24 hours later, the view count was only up to 5.1 million on Sunday, suggesting that the sudden attention and short-term pain were coming to an abrupt end. By addressing it and strongly condemning it, perhaps they’ll be able to put this behind them quickly, rather than having it linger for weeks and months, with people continuing to wonder and gossip.
The last, relatively modest consequence of issuing the statement came on Saturday, when Ottawa’s beat reporters now had both the opening and comfort to ask players about the situation after practice. When he was asked about it, no one came out firing more than team captain Brady Tkachuk.
“Yeah, not gonna lie to you, it’s pretty f***ing bullsh*t,” Tkachuk said, visibly irritated. “I mean, I don’t think anybody’s pretty happy about a narrative being spread like that. I think it’s okay for people to critique our honest performance, but when it gets into family, it’s f***ing bullsh*t. It’s embarrassing that it got to the point that it did. And yeah, I can tell you for free, I’m not happy about it one bit.”
Tkachuk expressed disappointment that society has taken a turn where people can say whatever they want with no repercussions or concern for the impact it has on others. Mostly, he said he feels badly for goaltender Linus Ullmark, who's on a personal leave of absence that the team asked the media and fans to respect.
“Nobody knows what he’s going through, but the fact that he has to even deal with this and even have to think about it… all we care about for him is getting what he needs. We said from day one that he’s had our support, the whole organization’s support, from day one. Now that he has to deal with this, it’s f***ing mind-blowing.”
If the social-media rumour were true — and the Senators are angrily adamant that it is not — there would definitely have been some hard feelings in the room. And Tim Stützle made it crystal clear that’s not the case.
“Obviously, what’s been said on Twitter and everyone’s social media is absolutely not true at all,” Sens' winger Stützle said. “We love him (Ullmark) in this room. There’s nothing that happened. And yeah, we have full support for him. Obviously, we want him back as quick as possible. He’s really beloved in our room, and hopefully he’ll come back really quick.”
Even head coach Travis Green, who can deke around unpreferred questions with the best of them, was willing to answer questions about the situation and the statement.
“I think it’s great what Steve did,” Green said. “You’re talking about a player that’s going through something personal, and I don’t think some people understand how that can affect a person. One thing about it is we’re a team — ownership, management, coaches, players — that care for each other and want the best for each other and support each other. You don’t want to see a player go through something he doesn’t have to go through.”
The Senators had two possible strategies: react to it or ignore it, and both were always going to open them up to criticism and second-guessing. We’ll never know for sure if they made the right choice, but I’m inclined to believe they chose the far less damaging option.
What's more, the players are coming out of this feeling that the organization has their backs. And that's huge too, because new ownership wants players to be excited to live and play here. There's not much the Sens can do about high-tax or brutal winters, but this group has been trying for the last two years to be best in class and scrub away the organizational dysfunction that former ownership fostered.
In the moment on Thursday, it felt like sending way too many fire trucks to deal with a simple grass fire, as all the neighbours came out to check out the sirens and lights. But now that it's been strongly extinguished, and everyone has gone back home, it feels like there's much less chance of hot spots breaking out over the weeks and months to come.
Steve Warne
The Hockey News - Ottawa
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