Daniel Alfredsson not ready to decide on future
It's possible that Daniel Alfredsson could have played his final game for the Ottawa Senators on Friday night.
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PITTSBURGH -- When Daniel Alfredsson said the Ottawa Senators probably weren't going to come back and win their Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Pittsburgh Penguins after falling behind three games to one, he was simply being honest and, quite frankly, very realistic.
Based on what happened on Friday night, he also might have been giving his team a little too much credit against a powerhouse Penguins team that looks like it's starting to get on a roll and play its best hockey of the season. There was no "probably" about it.
The Senators' surprising season, which saw them make the playoffs and advance to the second round in the face of several significant injuries to key players, came to a sudden end on Friday night with a second straight blowout loss (this one by a score of 6-2) at the hands of the Penguins.
It's also possible it could have been the final game that Alfredsson -- the Senators' 40-year-old captain, six-time All-Star and the best player in the 21-year-old franchise's history -- will play for the only team that he has ever known.
While he didn't make any official announcements following Friday's game, he did mention he has a few people to talk to before making any decisions. Alfredsson said he still loves the game and most everything that comes with it. He did mention that his biggest struggle on a personal level at this point is being away from his family. As part of his post-game comments following Game 4, he mentioned that he took the puck from what could have been his final home game because "I have a lot of kids at home."
"We'll have our meetings in the next couple of days. We'll take some time. I'll talk to Bryan [Murray] and see what he thinks," Alfredsson said following Friday's game. "He'll tell me what he needs, and we'll go from there. It's been a great year in terms of the group we've had, the adversity we faced. We became a tight group and stuck together. It's been a lot of fun. I'll take that with me when I decide on what to do."
Alfredsson appeared in 47 games for the Senators this season scoring 10 goals to go with 16 assists. He is the franchise leader in just about every major category, including games played, goals, assists, points, even-strength goals, power-play goals, shorthanded goals, game winning goals and shots on goal.
In 1,178 career regular-season games, he has scored 426 goals to go with 682 assists.
In other words: He has pretty much been the face of the franchise since being selected in the sixth round of the 1994 NHL draft.
If this is the end of his career, it has to be a rather difficult way to go out given how badly the Senators were outplayed in Games 4 and 5.
Alfredsson even drew a little criticism following their Game 4 loss with his candid remarks on the Senators' chances of coming back. Following Game 5, Alfredsson said he had no regrets about the remark.
"No. No. No, I don't," Alfredsson said. "It didn't work out, but I think maybe if we win one game it would have been a good comment. I think they were better than us in each and every game, and I just tried to put the pressure on them. I still believed we could do it. And if we win one game, I think that comment could have helped us. So that's where it comes from."
Senators coach Paul MacLean said until he is told otherwise, he is expecting Alfredsson to be back.
"He's a huge part of this team," forward Kyle Turris said. "Alfie is the heart and soul of Ottawa, not just our team. The possibility of losing him would be tough and it's something we would have to work through, but he's shown us what a great leader is and is somebody that we can model ourselves after."
