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Maybe the reason Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk is now also self-appointed team president has nothing to do with saving money or being unable to find someone who can work with him.

Maybe he just wants to be like Donald Trump.

In trying to salvage his relationship with fans, Melynk has declared the reporting of fake news, which is both a modernized version of the pathetic old “I’ve been misquoted” claim and a card often played by the leader of the free world.

The really interesting part is that Melnyk’s evidence actually proves he’s guilty, that he actually did say the things he now denies he said about relocating the franchise if it became a “disaster” in Ottawa, and he said them in a manner in which they were reported, not in his bit of revisionist history.

This, from audio posted on Twitter by a season-ticket holder after Wednesday morning’s town hall session:

“If you take a look at the tape of what I really said, versus what was published that I said, you’d think, ‘Where did this disconnect happen?’ ” Melnyk says. “I’ve seen the tape, 25, 30, 40 times and I know what I said because I know what I was thinking. I was shoved into a camera and I was asked, ‘Would you ever move the team?’ because there was rumours about this. I really thought about it because the easy answer was no. I wanted to give an honest answer. I think for a second and I said, ‘Yeah, in a disaster.’ I wanted to make a point about disaster. What’s disaster? If we have 5,000 people showing up at our arena, that’s a disaster. If the team goes bankrupt, I’m not even involved in the decision making. It’s the team, not me.