Saying Goodby

Daniel Alfredsson - Thank You...!

Daniel Alfredsson signed a one-year contract with the Detroit Red Wings Friday. (AP File Photo)

 

The City of Ottawa, and its NHL franchise team, the Senators, are in disbelieving shock. They have lost the one man on the team on whom cohesion, stability, hope and future aspirations appeared to rest. At age 40, this transplanted Swede who arrived in Ottawa 17 years ago and never wanted to leave, has one more year of hockey before a planned retirement date. He decided to transfer that one more year to Detroit, to play for the Detroit Red Wings.

That one year of continued playing will come at a price. A $5.5-million one-year contract for Detroit, which the Ottawa Senators was determined to match. What Ottawa couldn't match, unfortunately, was the elusive drive to win the Stanley Cup. And that drive was one that Daniel Alfredsson identified as burning desire within the Detroit Red Wings far more than with the Ottawa Senators.

The other cost is the dissipation of trust and affection from Ottawa to "Alfie".

He is no longer fondly, their very own. He must have conducted an inner struggle between his personal ambition and his often-enough-demonstrated loyalty to the Ottawa team and the Ottawa public that so adored him. Now, young hockey players feel that when Daniel Alfredsson returns wearing another team's sweater to play against the team he captained for so many years, they'll hiss him.

Daniel Alfredsson has led a charmed life. As a personable, caring, generous human being he has a wife and four children, and an assured place in anyone's hockey hall of fame. He won an Olympic gold medal at the 2006 Turin Games with Sweden. He was a finalist for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy; was awarded the Mark Messier Leadership Award by the NHL, and now he wants to cap his memorable career with a Stanley Cup win.

He is also the trusted captain who said time and again that he had no intention of leaving the Senators, of playing for any other team. People are entitled to have second thoughts. This is a man who never hesitated to support a good cause. Someone who gave of his time, his energy, his fame and his funds to support mental health at the Royal Ottawa Hospital.

He supported the Boys and Girls Club, and the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. No one could ever have done more than this man did, unstintingly, to prove how integral he was emotionally and practically, to Ottawa's well-being and the well-being of its children. No one should take it upon themselves to judge him.

"This happens all the time in business and hockey is a business. People can get too passionate about it. They should sit back and relax. You've got to respect the Sens for what they've done, and you've got to respect Daniel for what he's done. Life's too short. Move on.
"The guy wants to win. He's going to Hockeytown and they don't call it Hockeytown for nothing. The organization there might be one of the best organizations in all of North American professional sports. They were one goal away from beating Chicago and going to the Cup (final in June). They're a contender.
"And they have a commitment from their owner to make it work, whereas I don't know whether that is evident in Ottawa. The message here is that another organization was more committed."
Tony Rhodes