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“I’m looking at all of it, right across the board, nobody is safe when you have a year like we just did,” said Melnyk. “The status quo would just get us there again next year and this team cannot survive not making the playoffs.

“We have to do it by guts, by hard work and we can get there. That’s what we need to do. Nothing more. You can’t just throw money at these things. We all know teams that would just throw money at things for decades and they’ve gotten nowhere. We need to do it a different way and I think we are.”

Melnyk hasn’t liked what’s happened with the Senators since Day 1. He was mystified by Cameron’s decision to sit starter Craig Anderson in the club’s home opener in October and give O’Connor, a raw rookie, the start in a 3-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens.

He was asked why it went so badly?

“No idea. Bryan and I sit there and we just nod our head. We can’t get it. We get it now. I remember back in December some of those games, three in a row that we lost by a goal we were leading. It was inconsistency and some stupidity,” said Melnyk, who then pointed at Cameron’s decision in Game 3 of the season.

“I go back to the very first game. You put in the second goalie. What was that about? On opening night and the guy gets clobbered. It’s not fair to him, not fair to the fans. Just a lot of little tiny mistakes that all of a sudden escalate and get serious and get in people’s heads.”

After making a miraculous run to the post-season last year, Melnyk felt the Senators should have been comfortable in a playoff position at this point and admitted it’s going to cost the team millions.