OTTAWA— If it’s Tuesday, then Dany Heatley is being flogged somewhere. 

On the Internet. On talk radio. In a newspaper.

That’s how it has been for the National Hockey League scoring star since his trade request from the Ottawa Senators was made public during the Stanley Cup final. 

Tom Molloy, an international hockey coach and former neighbour of the Heatleys, says the one-sided Heatley bashing from fans and media has been difficult for the family. 

“Dany’s parents (Murray and Karin) dropped over to our place the other day,” Molloy said by telephone from Calgary. “They said, ‘Everyone is crucifying Dany.’ His mother is very upset. And the attacks are all personal stuff, about his character. Nobody mentions that this is a guy who gives up a month of his summer every year to play for Team Canada (at the IIHF world championship).” 

Molloy wrote a letter to Ottawa Citizen sports department because the Heatleys told him they didn’t have “a forum” to express the other side of the story. 

The Heatley camp, including the two-time 50-goal man himself, doesn’t see the merit in speaking out so close to the July 1 launch of NHL free agency and a potential trade. Molloy is trying to get out the story of a strong player wanting to be a go-to guy.

“Nobody talks about all the good he has done,” Molloy said, “or that his teammates like him.”

According to Molloy, Heatley was with many of those teammates at a “bachelor party” last week for Senators centre Jason Spezza, Heatley’s longtime linemate.

“This is an organizational thing,” Molloy said. “Wade Redden was crucified in Ottawa despite all the work he did for underprivileged kids. They ran him off. 

“Marian Hossa signed a contract (with previous Senators management) and then they traded him the next day to Atlanta.

“If I was the owner of the Senators, I’d be calling my manager in and say, ‘Why don’t guys want to play here anymore?’ ”

Molloy has 17 years of experience coaching hockey at the Canadian college and university levels, including eight years as a University of Calgary assistant in the 1990s. He used to instruct Heatley, provide him extra ice at Molloy’s international clinics for kids. One summer, the extra ice helped Heatley become a midget triple-A scoring star in Calgary. Molloy spent last season as a development coach in Salzburg, Austria, and he has co-developed a coaching video called Hockey Coaching ABCs. 

Molloy’s letter to the newspaper began this way:

“I can’t express how disappointed I am in the press and hockey fans concerning Dany Heatley’s request to be traded. I was talking with his parents . . . and they can’t believe the awful things that people are saying about Dany. He simply wants to play on a team that believes in his abilities.

“The new coach (Cory Clouston) has decided that Dany is a second- or third-line player, uses him on the second power play and plays him 14 minutes a game. Dany had many closed door conversations with him and was told that the situation would improve, but it didn’t in the two months they were together.”

Though he was used on the second-unit power play, referring to Heatley as a “second- or third-line player” under Clouston is a stretch. Though his ice time did dip, Heatley usually played alongside Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson on the first line. 

“I have been in this game for a long time and make my living coaching hockey,” Molloy wrote. “I see Dany making the right plays and doing his job defensively. Dany isn’t a hitter, but he wins his one-on-one battles using skill. I ask myself, ‘How can a guy with the best one timer in hockey, and great vision, be on the second power play?’ ”

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Some other interesting tidbits from this Heatley family friend:

• Heatley was injured in Game 1 of the 2007 Stanley Cup final against the Anaheim Ducks when Chris Pronger “cross-checked Dany and then sat on him.” After that chest injury, Heatley was not effective the rest of the series, Molloy said. 

• The Senators decline since ’07 was a factor in Heatley wanting out.

“Two years ago they looked like the old Montreal Canadiens,” Molloy said, “but they haven’t been able to right the ship since.”

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There is no question Heatley’s power-play production fell off noticeably under Clouston. Past the halfway mark of the season under Craig Hartsburg, Heatley had 11 power-play goals. In the final 33 games with Clouston, Heatley scored four. 

Heatley also saw his ice time drop in many games — a shockingly low 12 minutes 44 seconds on Feb. 11 — though he played significant minutes, 23:07 and 22:24 over the final two games of the season.

Molloy surmises, and this will make management cringe, that maybe the Senators wanted to force Heatley to move by making things difficult for him. 

“Alfie is a god,” Molloy said of Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson, “and nobody wants Spezza in a trade.”

Is it too late to resolve this mess and patch things up between Heatley and the Senators organization?

Said Molloy: “It never hurts to talk.”

(Ottawa Citizen)