Candid Video of Senators Players Released
The video from an Uber ride was released on, then removed from, YouTube
Well, it was a nice run of almost two months without any new off-ice controversy for the Ottawa Senators. Last night PostMedia reported on a video of seven players filmed from a dashboard cam in an Uber. The original copy has since been removed by YouTube, at Uber’s request.
The video shows Thomas Chabot, Dylan DeMelo, Matt Duchene, Alex Formenton, Chris Tierney, Chris Wideman and Colin White in the vehicle as the conversation rips on various aspects of the team’s play, teammates and the coaching staff. Out of respect for what they believed to be a private conversation, we will not be linking to the video, or detailed breakdowns of its content.
Via the media last night, the team released a statement from Guy Boucher, and a joint statement from the seven players involved.
Here is Sens statement from Guy Boucher & players involved in Uber incident. pic.twitter.com/Gmyvusl0vm
— Ian Mendes (@ian_mendes) November 6, 2018
After today’s morning skate, several players as well as Guy Boucher claimed the team had been aware of the video for several days and the issues related to it had already been dealt with internally before the video hit the news. This may explain Chris Wideman’s 4:34 of ice time in the last game.
According to Mark Stone, they became aware of it when the video was sent to management. It’s unclear at this point if it was sent to the team before being put on YouTube, or if it was a link to the YouTube video before the media reported on it.
None of the players involved in the video were available to the media this morning.
As for the legality of the video itself, Arizona is a single-party notification state when it comes to recordings. This means that as long as one person party to the conversation was aware of the recording being made then nobody else needed to be notified, and the driver was in the video and did briefly speak to the players.
Releasing the video isn’t as clear cut though, and gets in to expectation of privacy, contract law, and if it was put online for financial gain (ie: monetized ads on YouTube). Uber does allow their drivers to install cameras and film their rides, but specifically for safety purposes. Any of these avenues may open up the driver to potential civil liabilities or consequences from Uber.
As for the team itself, Boucher and the players that have spoken have been tight lipped about just how the situation was dealt with, or if there are any changes being made in the wake of it.
