Being a Senators fan right now is certainly frustrating.
After the team came one goal away from advancing to the Stanley Cup Final during their magical playoff run last spring, the Sens are now all but guaranteed to miss the playoffs.
Not only are the Sens underpeforming out on the ice, the organization has undergone several changes to their front office in a short – relatively speaking – amount of time.
Not to mention, their best player and one of the top players in the world might soon see his days in Ottawa come to an end, perhaps on Monday, or sometime between now and when Karlsson's contract expires in the summer of 2019.
Multiple players from the team have seen their names dragged through the rumor mill as the deadline approaches. Centre Derick Brassard might've been the first domino to fall, as he was traded to the Penguins late Friday night in a complex three-team deal.
On Saturday afternoon, the Senators welcomed the red-hot Philadelphia Fyers to the Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata, Ontario, and things didn’t go too great in the Nation’s Capital.
During the first intermission, a fan sitting front row holding up a sign that read “Take Eugene, not Karlsson” was approached by security and was informed that his sign needed to be put down, otherwise it would be removed.
Thanks to Twitter user 'Figbdl,' we have footage of the incident.
Thanks to 'Drew_cb31' on Twitter, here's another angle.
As you can see, another Senators fan is talking with one of the security guards as the sign was taking away, presumably because he started recording the encounter on video.
We’re not entirely sure if that actually all occurred – it’s conceivable enough to be true – but it's still alledged at this point.
You could imagine how the one fan would refuse to hand over his phone given that it's his property dispute being inside the team arena.
Sens fans have unified together by creating a GoFundMe account to pay for billboards, newspaper ads, and social media campaigns circulated around the #MelnykOut hashtag.
As of Saturday night, the pledge had surpassed its initial goal of $6,500 by $1,200. The extra proceeds will benefit the Ottawa Senators foundation that’s ironically run by the Sens owner.
Times are certainly tough in Ottawa.
Perhaps the signs were just blocking people's views, because in the NHL rule book, there's nothing on signs in the code of conduct. You obviously can't bring in anything offensive that the arena security would have issue with.
What do you think?
