More Heatley Fallout

In the post below I described the scenario of Dany Heatley not getting along with coach Cory Clouston as "bizarre", but Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun was correct and got the scoop before anyone else as far as I can tell.

According to TSN, who have filled in some of the details, Heatley was particularly upset with his minutes being reduced and being demoted to the 2nd power-play unit:

"The veteran forward became unhappy with his role in Ottawa last season, especially after the Senators made a coaching change. Heatley discussed his concerns about what he felt was the limiting of his ice time, and his shift from the first power-play unit to the second unit with head coach Cory Clouston in the Senators end of season meetings.

Both sides agreed some time away would help remedy the situation. So, the issues were left to settle while Heatley represented Canada at the IIHF World Hockey Championship.

Heatley returned and continued to consider his future before finally approaching Senators management with his trade request."

Many in the media are going to accuse Heatley as putting himself before the team, but this type of conflict happens all the time in the NHL - usually behind closed doors.

Star players don't like to see their minutes drop, I don't care who they are. But it often doesn't escalate to the point where a trade is demanded.

So I'm going out on a limb and guessing that there is a little more to this than just ice time.

Heatley has taken significant heat from the local media (particularly from the Team 1200 radio station which has been nearly rabid in their attack) and his attitude seemed to sour quite quickly. He was often defensive, if not outright surly during his infrequent relations with the media and you could really sense that this young man was somewhat unhappy.

It's unfortunate because Heatley is an elite talent and the Senators are going to be worse off without him.

But if he wants to leave, Murray has to deal him. He risks poisoning the already negative and chaotic atmosphere around this suddenly flailing organization even further.

With Stanley Cup hopes getting dimmer (which is probably not making Daniel Alfredsson very happy) the Senators find themselves in full continental drift at this point in their history.

With loyalty and tradition being casually tossed to wither in Kanata farm fields (uniforms, logos, theme songs, coaches and players), the Senators aren't too far away from a permanent state of mediocrity (although they are lucky to have passionate and caring fans, even if emotion tends to make them over reactive at times).

Bryan Murray is a respected hockey man who deserves some further rope, but even he might be starting to wonder what the hell is going on with this once stable and proud franchise.