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On Tuesday morning, all cameras at Canadian Tire Center were trained by Ottawa Senators Assistant Coach Martin Raymond.
The media group – whose numbers looked like a playoff game rather than a home game against New Jersey in November – analyzed Raymond's interactions with the Senators players in the morning session.
At the end of the session, Raymond had a prolonged conversation at the center of the ice with Matt Duchene, who was seen laughing at some point during the chat.
That's important because Duchene was a central figure in the Uber dashboard video released Monday, in which several Senators players made fun of Raymond's style and coaching techniques.
None of the players who appeared in this video – Duchene, Chris Wideman, Thomas Chabot, Colin White, Alex Formenton, Dylan DeMelo and Chris Tierney – were made available to the media on Tuesday morning.
But the Senators players who spoke on their behalf were not happy with the revelation of the story of their teammates criticizing an assistant coach.
"It's unfortunate that someone decides his right to record this. And then, someone finds him worthy of the news and publishes it. It's a private conversation. It's disappointing. You expect something like that from TMZ, not from Ottawa, center Zack Smith I said.
Head Coach Guy Boucher had to contain his anger over what happened to Raymond when the subject was discussed when his media was available before the game.
"Personally, I will choose my words carefully. I do not know who makes the decision to put things in place. But when you deliberately try to hurt another human being … ", said Boucher, visibly upset, as his voice erased. "I do not want to spend too much time on it. Especially probably the best human being I know.
Behind the scenes, the seven actors and the organization are livid and question the ethics and legality of the embarrassing video publication.
It is believed that the Uber pilot uploaded the video to YouTube sometime last week, but it did not get much attention. There were fewer than 50 views on the video – probably because there was no mention of Senators or players in the description. It was simply a group of random numbers, so it would not have been easy to find it through standard search.
But last weekend, Uber pilot went on Twitter and tweeted a link to the video to several members of the Ottawa media that cover the Senators.
In one of the tweets that he sent to a reporter from Ottawa, he wrote, "Your senators have a problem. Cheap children titled. There was a link to his dash-cam video.
The driver apparently did not seek compensation for the video of his tweets to the Ottawa media. The tweets have since been deleted.
On Sunday, Postmedia was in possession of the video and contacted the Senators to authenticate the truth. The team declined to comment, but set the wheels in motion to try to get ahead of the story if the video came out. A copy of the video was sent to the entire team by management.
The Senators contacted Uber on Sunday and asked the driver to remove the video – which had only seen about 50 views on YouTube. That's when Postmedia released a copy of it on its platform Monday night as the story exploded.
Senators players and staff had a meeting on Sunday and it should be noted that there was a meeting for players following the 4-3 overtime loss to Tampa Bay that night.
While the public had only heard of this article on Monday night, the Senators organization had already had at least 24 hours to assimilate the information. At this point, the club felt that the problem had been solved internally.
Last year, several internal stories seemed to be out of control and were not handled appropriately. This time, the staff and the players were trying to get out of the controversy.
"As soon as we became aware of it, we told ourselves this year that we were going to be quick. And we were very fast on that. It was settled a few days ago, "said Boucher.
The players echoed this sentiment, saying that the weekend meeting about the video had been handled satisfactorily.
"As soon as we became aware of it, we immediately addressed it. We were aware of this well before it was published. We discussed it internally and we took care of it, "said the veteran goalkeeper. Craig Anderson I said.
"We dealt with this issue well before the release of this video," added Mark Stone. "As coaching staff, as managers and as players, the internal process is handled as it should. And we will go ahead and grow. "
Senators have been wrestling with controversies and negative scenarios for most of 2018. The last few weeks have been relatively free of controversy, but this latest story is another unwanted puzzle for the organization.
"We do not want negative things on our team. It was a hiccup, "Stone said. "The guys have gone to great lengths to fix their relationships. This will only strengthen our team in the future. "
Some players have admitted that this entire incident was a necessary reminder of the dangers of social media and the pitfalls of being top athletes.
"There is a glimmer of hope in the end. It's a valuable lesson for all concerned and many outside of this organization, I think, "said Smith. "You never know who is recording you and it's not because the person you're talking about is not there that it's not theirs."
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