Eugene Melnyk’s long and colourful run as owner of the Ottawa Senators ended with his untimely death on Monday at age 62. He will be remembered as the man who rescued the Senators from bankruptcy in 2003 and kept the NHL team in Ottawa, even if he infuriated fans at times by musing about moving the franchise if he couldn’t sell more tickets. This was the yin and yang of Melnyk. He burned through chief executives and financial officers the way some people toss out spent lottery tickets, and yet at his heart, he wanted the Senators to succeed in Ottawa, pushed hard to give them a bigger profile and burned to win a Stanley Cup. He came close — losing the Cup Final to Anaheim in 2007, and falling short with arguably an even better team in 2006, only to lose starting goaltender Dominik Hasek to an injury at the Olympics. Under Melnyk’s tenure, the Senators and the City of Ottawa played host to a World Junior Championship tournament (2009), an NHL All-Star Game (2012) and the NHL 100 C...