Less than a week after reports surfaced that Daniel Alfredsson had reached a critical juncture in his decision-making process and was ready to officially his announce his retirement, we finally have confirmation that Alfredsson is ready to hang up his skates for good.
An official announcement obviously never transpired when the Senators played the Red Wings this past Monday in Detroit as was speculated. Instead, an official announcement will be made on Thursday, December 4th in Ottawa where his career began (and should have ended).
Nothing appears to be forthcoming from the Senators in terms of how they plan to honour Alfie on that day, but the Senators are conveniently playing the New York Islanders that night. You can buy tickets for that game here.
The closest thing to an admission from the organization that something is planned comes from owner Eugene Melnyk.
TSN‘s Ian Mendes spoke with the owner a few weeks ago and asked him about whether the Senators had planned on honouring Alfredsson in the event that the organization’s former captain retired.
“If I told you the answer to that, I would have to kill you,” he said with a wry smile. “You will just have to wait and see.”
Anticipation over what the Senators will do will continue to build over the next week, but it would make sense to see Alfie conduct a press conference and then attend that night’s game where some packaged video could be displayed on the scoreboard at some stoppage during the game. From there a camera pan to a box where he would be sitting thus allowing fans to see him salute their applause and chants of “Al-fie. Al-fie. Al-fie.”.
Fans hoping for some kind of elaborate on ice ceremony where Eugene Melnyk and Alfredsson put aside their differences like Murtaugh and Riggs for the greater common good might be disappointed, but the fact that the Senators and Alfredsson are slowly mending their relationship bodes well. Fans shouldn’t have to pay the price and wait as long as Montreal Canadiens fans did to see Patrick Roy’s number finally be retired.
As sad as everyone was to see Alfredsson move on, it sure as hell feels good to see him move on now and put aside whatever differences he and the organization had.
Thursday, December 4th can’t come soon enough.
A Thought on Zibanejad’s Benching
Paul MacLean raised some eyebrows yesterday by making Milan Michalek and Mika Zibanejad “healthy scratches” for the team’s game yesterday versus St. Louis.
Not only did this statement cause waves here in Ottawa, it was noticed elsewhere around the league.
The Edmonton Oilers’ search for a center has been well documented and considering Zibanejad’s pedigree, age, underlying numbers and past production, he’s probably a player who would be of interest to them in a trade. His benching even piqued the interest of Jonathan Willis, but it was the response of Yahoo! Sports‘ Nick Cotsonika that really grabbed my attention.
@JonathanWillis Out of shape.
— Nick Cotsonika (@cotsonika) November 26, 2014
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsCotsonika would eventually elaborate on his comments when asked for clarification by other Senators fans.
@carteciel It’s not a guess. — Nick Cotsonika (@cotsonika) November 26, 2014
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If Zibanejad is “out of shape” per se and Cotsonika insists it is not a guess or speculation, then it stands to reason that he received that information from the organization itself. If you’ll remember last year, Zibanejad had some undisclosed health scare in the latter stages of the season that got swept underneath the rug and were generally forgotten about.
Some have already suggested that this “out of shape” comment could be the by-product of the organization telling Zibanejad to tone down his offseason training because of this “scare”, but I’m not going to speculate on a player’s health. I don’t know the specific details, nor is it any of my business. Speaking about it any further is completely unfair to the player.
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