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ANAHEIM — It sometimes seems like he's spent most of his life proving himself.
But never before has it reached this urgency.
The expectations on Ottawa Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson have never been as high as they will reach this week as the Senators try and come back from being down two games to none to the Anaheim Ducks in the Stanley Cup final.
It is hard to believe, under the current circumstances, that he once had few expectations of himself and that others, at times, had even less.
Related Information
- Anaheim Ducks
- Boston Bruins
- Edmonton Oilers
- Florida Panthers
- New Jersey Devils
- New York Rangers
- Daniel Alfredsson
- Dany Heatley
- Travis Moen
- Rob Niedermayer
- Jason Spezza
"We gotta come back," he said after the Senators lost 3-2 in Game 1, a resolve that takes on far more meaning following Wednesday night's 1-0 loss in Game 2.
What was particularly painful was that he was on the ice for the winning goal, a score that came about when Alfredsson's teammate Dany Heatley coughed up the puck and Alfredsson himself failed to make the check that might have made the difference.
"I tried to poke the puck away from him," said a disappointed Alfredsson, "but I couldn't reach it."
But Alfredsson has surprised before. He turned from a plodding defenceman to a quick forward in his native Sweden, passing all notice when he reached the usual draft age of 18. He did not get his chance until he was 21 — a player who came to his first training camp to discover he wasn't even listed in the media guide, but "in the system."
He was the 133rd draft pick — a strong hunch played by Ottawa's then-director of player personnel John Ferguson — yet went on to win the Calder Trophy as the league's best rookie. Now, 11 seasons on, he is desperate to bring his team its second major trophy, the Stanley Cup — and in doing so become the first European captain to raise the North American symbol of hockey supremacy above his head.
As of Wednesday night, that chance seemed increasingly remote.
It has put a lot on Daniel Alfredsson's shoulders — and perhaps never so much as in the next two games in Ottawa.
When he first joined the Senators and began getting compliments around the league — including one from then Florida Panthers general manager Bryan Murray — he shook them off with "I had a lot to prove yet."
But there will be no more shaking off. It is now 2007. Alfredsson is the veteran captain of the Ottawa Senators, Bryan Murray is the coach, that the expectations have reached a point where there will be no patience.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but Alfredsson had a stinker of an outing in Game 1, as did his much-heralded linemates, centre Jason Spezza and winger Heatley. They were a combined minus-3 on the night, held to a mere five shots on net and none in the final period. The checkers who all but deleted them from the score sheet — Travis Moen, Sami Pahlsson and Rob Niedermayer — had more than twice as many shots as the Ottawa line that is supposed to be doing the scoring.
Wednesday night it was the same line, with Pahlsson scoring the winner. Alfredsson had two superb chances in the dying moments, but could not do what he must.
It was Alfredsson who held a mini-summit after Game 1 with Spezza and Heatley, the three of them blaming themselves for such a tepid start and acknowledging that if there was going to be a recovery, it would have to begin with their play.
And it will have to begin in Game 3 — or else.
Earlier this week, Ottawa general manager John Muckler compared Alfredsson's leadership potential the equal of Mark Messier, who won five Stanley Cups with the Edmonton Oilers and a sixth with the New York Rangers.
"Blasphemy!" shouted one Edmonton newspaper, pointing out that Alfredsson has yet to win his first.
But Muckler was adamant. "I've coached some good leaders in this NHL," he said, "and one was Mark Messier and Daniel Alfredsson is leading this hockey club on a par with Mark."
Muckler should know his history, since he was there for many of Messier's more legendary feats, but Alfredsson might not. He was not in the league, after all, when Messier led the Oilers in a 1990 comeback against the Chicago Blackhawks, scoring twice and adding two assists in a 4-2 victory that pulled Edmonton back even with Chicago and sent the Oilers on to win the series and, ultimately, to another Cup triumph.
Nor was he there in Messier's most famous moment, blithely "guaranteeing" a victory for his New York Rangers over the New Jersey Devils in Game 6 of the 1994 conference final, then heading out to score a hat-trick that night and virtually delivering the victory all by himself.
Alfredsson is not Messier, despite Muckler's wishful thinking, but he is Daniel Alfredsson who, as Muckler says, "has everything you want as a leader."
Except, at the moment, the goals and assists that will be required to Seput his Ottawa nators back into this series.
It is time — and he knows it.
