The precipitous plunge bythe Senators from the brink of the Stanley Cup Final happened overthe course of a calendar year. It's hard to fathom how so much has gone wrong for one franchise in such a short amount of time, but Ottawa's Murphy's Law season wasn't just a coincidental stroke of bad luck. There's plenty of institutional blame to go around. Start with Eugene Melnyk, their mercurial owner and Ottawa's Public Enemy No. 1 at the moment. MORE: A fish rots from the head down and Melnyk, throughrelocation threats, rankling franchise icons and generally poor management,ismost responsible for creating thiscultureof dysfunction,maybe the worst in allprofe sional sports.Complaints against the regimerun the gamut, manifesting in theirown communal movement complete .And the latest legal me ses expose a dangerous level of toxicity from within, setting an ominous tone for the offseason and the franchise's future. How does it recover under current ownership? Will the NHL finally say enough is enough? Melnyk has owned the team since 2003, so the history ofineptitude extendswell beyond 2017. But to try and understand how the Senators reached this new low point, below Markus Howard Jersey is a timeline review of the last 12 awful months in Ottawa. July 1, 2017 Daniel Alfred son, thepreeminent figure in Senators history,was two years into his second stint as asenior advisor of hockey operations when he abruptly quit amid the bustle of one of the busiest days on the NHL calendar. The circumstances around his departure were, at the time, a bit mysterious, but rumors of a rift with Melnykbecame the city's worst-kept secret. ThisMay, amid the ongoing arena strugglesbetween Melnyk and Ottawa lawmakers, :We hope we get a new owner. BERKSHIRE: Sept.7, 2017 A month before the regular-season opener, the Senators announced a 1,500-seat reduction insideCanadian Tire Centre, a pa sive-aggre siveattempt to compensate for poor attendance during the 2016-17 season. You'll recall Melnyk's criticism of Senators fans on the run to the 2017 Eastern Conferencefinals. Tarps covered the upper sections at both ends of the arena all year long, capping capacity around17,000. The Sens have eliminated about 1500 seats for the upcoming season. The top of both ends Brent Wallace (@tsn_wally) Nov. 5, 2017 Even in the greatest moment of optimism for Senators fans over the last year, joy was fleeting. Ottawa pulled off , acquiring coveted center Matt Duchenefrom the Avalanche in the buildup to the teams' highly publicized series in Sweden. Little did they know, the Senators were about to head into a downward tailspin from which they would not recover. Duchenewas slow to acclimate with just six points in his first 24 games in a Sens sweater. Among other a sets, the swapcostthem Kyle Turris, who played at a point-per-game pace acro shis first month in Nashville, adding insult to injury. MORE: Nov. 16-Dec. 22, 2017 After back-to-back wins over Colorado in games played in Sweden, the Senators took off on a road trip from Hell. They lost 12 of their next 13 games, spending 27 of the next 36 days away from home. The pal of despair actually hung over theteam throughout the entire month of December, when Ottawa went 4-8-2 and management thought it a good idea to engage in a public tug-of-war with the face of the franchise. Nov. 30, 2017 Amid the losing streak, superstar defenseman Erik Karl sonwas asked about consideringa hometown discount to remain with the Senators beyond 2019, when he's scheduled to become a free agent.When I go to market, Im going to get what Im worth, and its going to be no le s, no matter where Im going, he responded, incitinga flood of think pieces about players maximizing their value. Management, privately, was irked, and it wouldn't be long before those feelings seeped into a public forum. MORE: Dec. 12, 2017 Karl soneventually walked back his comments in an attempt to pour water over the unintended controversy. With the Senators' season already approaching a point of no return, it was the first time he confirmed the submi sion of a10-team no-trade list, calling it "just a formality and it's busine s." Nonethele s, trade rumor flood gates opened. Dec. 13, 2017 A day later, SenatorsGM Pierre Dorion . "IfWayne Gretzky got traded, I think any player in the NHL can be traded," he said, asked about Karl son's comments. Dorion insisted he had full autonomy in hockey decisions, not thebudget-conscious Melnyk. Hours before, Turris, who had been seeking a new contract,blasted the embattled owner's frugality . lol Julie (@julieturris) Karl son tradechatter proved true and hit a fever pitch two months later prior to the deadline, but the Sens ultimately stood pat. Dec. 15, 2017 Le s than 24 hours before hosting the Canadiensoutdoors in the Scotiabank NHL 100 Cla sic, Melnykusedthe NHL'scentennial celebration as an amplifier to air his grievances against the city and its fans in thetirele s spat over a new arena. WithOttawa's Parliament Hillas his backdrop, Melnykcomplained about "fighting every day to sell a ticket" and threatened to relocate the franchise if the situation didn't improve. He attempted damage control , but this was the moment that fully mobilizedthe #MelnykOut campaign. 2018 UFARANKINGS: | | Feb. 9, 2018 Tucked into thebottom of a news release announcing a three-year contract extension for Pierre Dorion, the Senators revealedTom Anselmiwas"vacating his position" as teampresident and CEO.Anselmi, hired a little more than a year earlier (Jan. 27, 2017), was a central figure negotiating the franchise'sLeBreton Flats project, their solution to building a new arena in downtown Ottawa. March 22, 2018 A 6-2 lo s to the Oilers officiallyeliminated the Senators from playoff contention with two weeks remaining (ninegames) in the regular season. It was but a formality, of course, andmercy to a defeated fanbasewhichhad mostly tuned out by this point. April 10-11, 2018 Hoping to soothe public outrage over the 30th-place finish and unrelenting drama, Melnyk arranged a pair of town hall events withSenators season-ticket holders. On back-to-back nights, a couple hundred fans grilled the owner andDorionabout offseason plans, relocation, andtheir controversial statements earlier in the year. Did it make a difference? Probably not. May 30, 2018 Senators a sistant general manager Randy Lee , while attending the NHL's scouting combine and is facing a charge of second-degree hara sment. He's accused of making lewd comments and unwanted advances toward a 19-year-old male hotel shuttle driver. The driver has since been granted anorder of protection. Lee, whopleaded not guilty, is expected to participate in the Senators' draft June 22-23. He's due in court July 6. June 4, 2018 Health Canada i sued a recall on a series of onesie babywearbearing the Senators' logo, deeming them a choking hazard to infants (no injuries have been reported). The jokes on social media wrote themselves, because how fitting? June 12, 2018 The Ottawa Citizen uncovered legal documents alleging Monika Caryk, the fiancee of Senators forward Mike Hoffman, and cyber bullying targeting Melinda Karl son, wife of team captain Erik Karl son. The Karl sons requesteda protective order against Caryk, the May 4 filings revealed, citing"over 1,000 negative and derogatory statements" made viapseudonym social media accounts, including posts about March 19. Ottawa police have opened an investigation into the criminal hara smentallegations. Jerami Grant Jersey