Love him, hate him, replace him with a cabbage, regardless of how you feel towards Nick Kypreos as a hockey personality, he did make some interesting comments regarding the Ottawa Senators on the FAN590 yesterday.
Filling in for Sid Seixeiro during the first hour of Tim and Sid, Kypreos touched upon the Daniel Alfredsson situation and the fans' response to Alfie's return. You can listen to the audio here (note: the comments concerning the Senators start at around the 20:00 mark).
On Ottawa's positive response to Alfie's return…
“Yes, and good on (the fans). Obviously there are people still hurt about the whole situation. It’s one of those things where time will heal everything, right? Eugene Melnyk, I think, sent out a tweet before the game to obviously calm the waters down, if in fact there were waves before that, and good on him. And the more time that goes between Alfredsson signing with Detroit, the more (Ottawa) will heal and when this is all said and done, I really believe that there will be a place for Alfredsson within the Ottawa organization despite this. I look at it, and although it hurt, it will end up feeling more and more like a Ray Bourque situation where he just left and joined another team. And that doesn’t mean that the Boston Bruins will look anything less at Ray Bourque than Ottawa should at Daniel Alfredsson.”
Is there any redemption in the idea that Detroit is now seven points clear of Ottawa…
“No, I don’t think so and I know that… I think it was a poor choice of words originally by Alfredsson. ‘A better chance to win the Cup’, that’s so not true. He just, for whatever reason and ultimately, he’ll know, he just wasn’t comfortable moving forward in the next two years with Ottawa. And if you ask me personally, and I have no knowledge of this and this isn’t inside information, but I don’t think… I think he lost trust in Eugene Melnyk. He just lost trust in him. It wasn’t a Bryan Murray thing. It wasn’t a fans thing. It wasn’t anything else. I really believe in my heart that he just lost trust in Eugene Melnyk and he needed a change to finish out his career.”
Now, it's worth reiterating that this is only his personal belief, however, I don't know why he would put this out there without having anything to substantiate what he "believes in his heart".
Moving on…
With the emergence of Rogers' agreement with the NHL, television rights are becoming a conversational topic more than they normally would be and with Ottawa's regional television rights with Sportsnet expiring at the conclusion of the 2013/14 season, there's a lot of speculation as to whether TSN will become major players for Ottawa's regional broadcast rights.
Considering they already own the team's local radio rights, it's not a stretch to think that they'll make a push, especially since they will be desperate for some live sports content during these winter months. And conveniently, it's difficult to ignore the fact that TSN came to Ottawa for Sunday's national broadcast in which Daniel Alfredsson made his triumphant return to Ottawa.
But hey, maybe TSN won't even have so much of a bidding war for Ottawa's rights according to Kypreos – who spoke on the matter during yesterday's Hockey Central broadcast.
“I don’t know if you’re going to get another contract from Rogers if you don’t make the playoffs.”
Ooooooooooh, that sounds like a threat.
Kypreos could be talking out his ass here, but it wouldn't be surprising to see Sportsnet move on from the Senators regional broadcasts. Rogers is already sitting atop its throne constructed of money and it simply may not feel obligated to spend more money and risk oversaturating its hockey content or engage in a bidding war to secure Ottawa's rights.
Or they might, who the hell knows?
Whatever the case, I'm sure Bell Media would love to secure these rights and I'm sure there are a number of fans in Ottawa who would have no objections embracing TSN as the Senators' new regional broadcast provider.
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