Fumble: Senators owner blows up

One of the golden rules we talk about when media training is about being aware of never parroting back negative words or phrases. You need to be watchful and recognize them as they come at you in an interview. This week, Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk was asked a typical hockey question losing teams get peppered with at this time in the NHL season: shouldn't you just blow up the team, trade your top players for draft picks and begin a rebuilding process? It's standard sports jargon. But Melnyk latched onto the negative phrase and parroted it back. "Anybody that says we should blow up this organization should get their own bomb and go blow themselves up, okay?" he shot back. By using the phrase, Melnyk took ownership of it. The question didn't appear in news reports, only his answer, like the boldfaced Star headline "Volatile Melnyk says critics can 'blow themselves up.'" Sadly, Melnyk's use of the negative obscured an otherwise good answer he provided, saying the Senators team "needs fine-tuning, it needs some tweaking, it needs a player here, a player there, a few good bounces and that's it." The lesson is: resist the temptation to reflect back a negative phrase and stick to your real answer. Use your own words.