Daniel Alfredsson has officially accepted the invitation to join the Swedish national team in a tournament that is partly being played on home ice in the Globe Arena in Stockholm. That could’ve been the end of the story right there, if not for a few interesting quotes Alfredsson left us with, talking to various Swedish media outlets.
“I’ve been contemplating this for a few days and decided to go. I got permission from my wife. She is nice.” Alfredsson said to New York City-based Swedish journalist Per Bjurman.
“I’ve never won a gold medal at the World Championship tournament and I would really like to do that now. It’s obviously a little bit extra special that the tournament is played in Stockholm. That’s where I played my first Worlds tournament, so it feels a little bit like completing the circles.”
Completing the circles? Before you call your employer to tell them that you won’t be able to work November 11th (it’s gotta be November 11th, right?), your Swedish winger/captain/stick-thrower/mentor/god followed it up with another quote to re-assure everyone that he has not yet made a decision on his hockey playing future.
“I want to play at Worlds and then take a few weeks and see if I am motivated enough to come back for another year.”
As distinct as Alfredsson is trying to be in that last quote, one has to wonder about the previous one. I am sure there are very few Sens fans that would like to hear about Alfredsson completing any circles right now.
Alfredsson will stay in Ottawa for a few days and leave for Sweden Wednesday, and he might not be the only one. With Erik Karlsson, the Swedish Hockey Federation is dealing with the issue of the Norris candidate’s insurance. Him not having a contract in place apparently creates a little bit of a problem, but the feeling is that will be solved. An educated guess would be that #65 will be there for the tournament. Erik has previously expressed some interest in playing if they can solve the insurance issue, and Alfredsson going is not going to make him any less attracted.
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