Sportsnet.ca http://sportsnet.ca/author/ian-mendes/feed/ Thu, 28 Mar 2024 20:11:06 EDT en-US hourly 1 AP/Bill Kostroun michalek_milan640 Michalek has unorthodox treatment on knee Mon, 09 Sep 2013 13:34:34 EDT Mon, 09 Sep 2013 14:28:44 EDT Ian Mendes Instead of another major surgery, the Ottawa Senators’ Milan Michalek opted for a non-traditional procedure this summer that involved blood injections to his chronically injured knee.

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Milan Michalek did not want to face the prospect of recovering from another major knee surgery.

So instead of going under the knife, the Senators winger opted for a non-traditional procedure this summer in Germany that involved blood injections to his chronically injured knee.

Michalek says the overseas procedure was a resounding success and he will be ready for the start of Senators training camp on Wednesday.

“If I had a surgery it would have been long, so I wanted to go this way, and hopefully it’s going to be good,” Michalek said on Monday. “I went there right after the season, so it helped me right away. I’ve been progressing every day and it feels good now and I’m 100 per cent.”

Michalek spent a week in Germany after the Senators were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs by the Penguins. The blood serum treatment was administered by Dr. Peter Wehling, who also has done similar work on high-profile NBA athletes such as Kobe Bryant.

The procedure involves extracting blood from the patient, then spinning it in a centrifuge to separate the white blood cells. The cells are then heated and injected with a serum that has healing properties, which is then re-injected into the site of the injury.

While it may sound like an unorthodox procedure, it has been approved by the FDA in the United States.

Michalek has been increasing his work load over the summer and has been skating now for about a month with no setbacks.

“I skated really hard this summer. I tested it a lot and it felt good and hopefully it’s going to be good,” he said.

Michalek’s health has been a major concern since he broke into the NHL in 2003. He has been sidelined with multiple knee injuries and other ailments that have hampered his production. A fully healthy Michalek scored 35 goals for the Senators two seasons ago, but he was limited to just four goals in 23 regular season games during the lockout-shortened campaign of 2012-13.

This is a significant year for Michalek who enters the final season of a six-year, $26 million contract he signed when he was still with the San Jose Sharks. If he has another injury-riddled campaign, it may hurt his negotiating power as a free agent next summer.

“It’s a big year for me, but I’m trying not to put too much pressure on (myself),” added Michalek. “If the team’s not doing good, I’m not doing good. I just want to stay healthy and hopefully we’re going to do good this year.”

Michalek’s production in the 2013-14 season may also depend on his linemates. He has shown good chemistry with Jason Spezza in the past and now that Bobby Ryan is in the fold as well, there is a chance Michalek could be placed on a line with the team’s two biggest stars.

“I didn’t talk to Paul yet, I just got here yesterday. We’ll see how it’s going to go in training camp. For sure, it would be nice to play with these two (Spezza and Ryan) — they’re great players. But we’ll see.”

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Sean Kilpatrick/CP maclean_paul640 Ottawa Senators; Paul MacLean MacLean: Players won’t vote on Sens captain Fri, 30 Aug 2013 15:00:03 EDT Fri, 30 Aug 2013 15:02:18 EDT Ian Mendes Paul MacLean said he won’t be putting the decision of who will replace Daniel Alfredsson as the Ottawa Senators’ captain to a locker room vote.

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Ottawa Senators players may have an opinion on who their next captain should be, but Paul MacLean won’t be putting the decision to a locker room vote.

Speaking to reporters for the first time since Daniel Alfredsson decided to sign with the Detroit Red Wings, the Senators head coach says he has started the process of selecting the next captain, but hasn’t come close to making a decision just yet.

“I don’t think we’ll ask the players to vote. We are going to talk to a number of players who are in consideration,” MacLean said Friday afternoon. “There are a lot of different players who people believe are qualified to be the next captain of the Senators. And I believe the same thing, so the process that Bryan (Murray) and I and my coaching staff have to go through is sifting through it and finding who is the best guy to represent the whole group.”

MacLean indicated that he’s not putting a firm timeline on making a decision on a new captain. Training camp for the club opens in less than two weeks, but MacLean did not seem pressured to name a new captain by a certain date.

“We’re going to go through a process. I have to spend some time talking to the individuals, talking to (general manager) Bryan Murray, talking to my coaching staff,” MacLean said. “We’ve done a lot of preliminary talk with it, but it’s going to be a process. I don’t think it’s going to be a difficult one and we just have to take the time and get through it.”

It’s believed that long time alternate captains Chris Phillips and Jason Spezza are the front runners to inherit the captaincy from Alfredsson. The head coach believes that whoever doesn’t end up wearing the “C” on his sweater will still carry a significant responsibility inside the dressing room.

“We have a lot of confidence in the leadership group we have left and that one of them — and it’s not going to be one guy step up — but one of them is going to represent as Daniel did with the captaincy,” said MacLean. “But leadership isn’t a one person thing or a three person thing — it’s an everybody thing. With me, it’s everybody. That’s still going to be the expectation — that everybody is expected to come to the rink everyday and provide leadership.”

MacLean also made his first public comments about Alfredsson’s surprising departure in early July. The reigning Jack Adams Award winner said he holds no hard feelings towards his former captain, who shocked the hockey world by signing a one-year contract with the Red Wings.

“I was disappointed like everybody. But at the same time, Daniel’s earned the right to make that decision,” MacLean explained. “He’s made it and moved on and we’re moving on and we’re going to progess without him and start down a new path. It’s a great opportunity for a number of our players to step into that leadership void and show they can be a bigger part of the team than they’ve been in the past.”

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Adrian Wyld/CP alfredsson640 Mendes on Senators: Best Alfredsson memories Mon, 08 Jul 2013 12:49:46 EDT Mon, 08 Jul 2013 20:37:27 EDT Ian Mendes After a stint in the Ottawa Senators front office and 12 years at Sportsnet, Ian Mendes has his fair share of Daniel Alfredsson moments. Here’s a look at his favourites.

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I always knew I would write a piece about what it was like to work alongside Daniel Alfredsson.

But truth be told, I assumed that story would be written after he retired here in Ottawa.

When he announced he was coming back for another season last week, I incorrectly assumed I would have at least another year to gather my thoughts and notes together to write a comprehensive piece.

Instead, Alfredsson surprised us all with his decision to leave Ottawa and sign with Detroit.

So I was forced to spend a chunk of my weekend writing this piece, because I felt it was really important for our viewers at Sportsnet and fans of the Ottawa Senators to know what it was like to really cover Daniel Alfredsson.

I have been working at Sportsnet for 12 years and prior to that, I worked in the Senators front office. During that time, I was fortunate enough to develop a strong working relationship with Alfredsson. The piece that you’ll read today isn’t a bit of hero worship from a media member who is fretting over the loss of a superstar in his city.

Instead, I wanted to express my appreciation for an athlete who understood my job as a journalist; who respected us every day when we came into his workspace.

Here are my 11 favourite personal memories of Daniel Alfredsson:

1. The first time I ever met Daniel Alfredsson, I was an 18-year-old journalism student at Carleton University. It was November 1995 and my roommate and I had the brilliant idea of doing one of our second-year assignments on the life of an NHL player. So we faxed the Ottawa Senators PR department (yes – this story is so old that a fax machine played a prominent role) and put in the request to speak with two players. We debated who our targets should be and figured our request would be rejected if we asked for high-profile players like Alexei Yashin or Alexandre Daigle.

So my friend Chris asked to speak with goaltender Don Beaupre and I decided to ask for the Swedish rookie named Daniel Alfredsson. To our amazement, the PR department granted our wish and invited us to come cover a Senators practice at the Kanata Recreation Centre. We had to take a number of public buses to get out there, since neither of us owned a vehicle.

I clearly remember meeting Alfredsson for the first time and being completely in awe. Prior to this, the biggest interview I had landed was with the student body president at Carleton, so my knees were shaking when I was in the presence of an NHL player. I can vividly recall Alfredsson giving me terrific answers into my oversized 1995 journalism-school-issued recording device. I went back to residence and for the first (and possibly only) time in my academic career, I was genuinely excited to finish a project.

I can pinpoint that as the moment when I realized I really wanted to do this for a living. And somewhere buried in my basement, I still have the story I wrote on Daniel Alfredsson from that day – slightly yellowed and with the perforated edges from a dot matrix printer. I just never imagined that our lives would intersect like they would down the road.

2. Just a few years later, I would end up working directly with Alfredsson when I was hired by the Senators to work in their media relations department in the spring of 2000 (sadly, he didn’t remember me as the awkward teenager who had interviewed him five years earlier).

When you work in the media relations department, you end up wearing a lot of hats. I once had to mail Zdeno Chara’s hydro bill for him – but that’s a blog topic for another day. One of my jobs was to sometimes get the players to autograph various items for charity. I had to get Alfredsson to sign a jersey for us and I tracked him down in the back of the dressing room one day during my first training camp.

I was still fairly nervous about approaching NHL players, so I was probably very shaky when I approached him and said, “Daniel – do you mind signing this for us?” He grabbed the Sharpie that I had in my hand and quickly signed it for me.

A young Chris Neil was walking by at the time and caught this exchange.

“You realize nobody calls him Daniel, right?” he said. “It’s Alfie.”

I felt kind of sheepish and Alfredsson looked at me and said, “It’s true. Nobody in here calls me Daniel.”

From that day forward, I never called him Daniel again. Even when I interviewed him years later on television, I ended my segments by saying, “Thanks for this Alfie.”

3. When you work in the media like I do, people are always rushing to tell you stories about players they’ve met. I have heard countless stories about Daniel Alfredsson over the years; enough to fill this entire blog.

So I figured I would share just a single story here — one that was passed on to me by a family I met during the playoffs in Montreal this spring. They came up to me at the Bell Centre and said they were huge Senators fans that had made the drive up from Toronto. And like so many other people, they had a personal Alfredsson story to share.

A few years earlier, the Senators were visiting Toronto and this family was celebrating their son’s Bar Mitzvah. On a whim, the mother went down to the Senators team hotel at the Westin Harbour Castle and was hoping to tape a video greeting from Daniel Alfredsson to her son.

She got to the hotel and used the courtesy phone to ask for his room. Surprisingly, the hotel operator connected her and 30 seconds later she was speaking to Daniel Alfredsson. She explained her story and Alfredsson agreed to come down to the lobby to tape the video greeting for her son. But that’s not the end of this story.

As she was walking out of the hotel, she realized that she did not record the greeting properly on her camera. It was completely erased. Distraught, she went back inside the hotel. She saw a member of the Senators organization in the lobby and explained her situation. And a few minutes later, Alfredsson came back to re-tape the segment for this family. I probably wouldn’t have believed that story, but I’ve heard too many like those about Alfredsson over the years to doubt it.

4. You might wonder how Alfredsson is able to stay so down-to-earth. The primary credit goes to his parents, Hasse and Margareta. I had the pleasure of visiting their home when the Senators had training camp in Sweden back in 2008. They told me about the time that seven-year-old Daniel wrote a school essay saying he wanted to be a professional hockey player when he grew up.

I learned about a son who waited for his dad to come home from work every day and the two would go to the park around the corner to play soccer. His parents talked about how Daniel would always protect his younger siblings from bullies – especially his sister Cecilia.

Daniel’s mother Margareta has been in a wheelchair for 30 years and while Alfredsson doesn’t talk about her often publicly, she is a major source of inspiration for him.

Those close to the Alfredssons always tell you that Daniel gets his stubborn and persistent side from his mother and his terrific sense of humour from his father. Spending that day with them in Sweden was truly an eye-opening experience for me and I realized what has made Alfredsson so grounded after all of these years.

5. Speaking of that sense of humour, Alfredsson was always quick with a one-liner.

One of my favourite lines came on April 1, 2012. The Senators were playing the Islanders that day with a chance to clinch a playoff spot. I was standing on the bench during the warm-ups when Senators PR wiz Brian Morris came to me and said, “Spezza won’t play today – he went home to have his baby with his wife. And Alfie is out with the flu.” I immediately thought this was an April Fools joke given the date, but Morris was dead serious.

Despite missing their two biggest stars, the Senators cruised to a 5-1 victory and clinched a playoff spot. I was standing outside the visitor’s dressing room in Long Island waiting to do post-game interviews and Alfredsson was there in his suit, high-fiving his teammates as they came off the ice. He walked over to me and said, “We won that game because we finally got rid of the dead weight.”

I always loved the fact he never takes himself too seriously.

6. Another story I can vividly recall is the night Alfredsson celebrated his 36th birthday.

We were on a road trip in Washington and in typical Alfredsson fashion, he told me that he didn’t do anything big to celebrate his special day. His cell phone was broken that day, so he said he didn’t even get any birthday text messages from friends and family to read. But when he walked into his hotel room, his wife Bibbi had arranged for a birthday card to be waiting on the bed for him. He had a quiet dinner, but made sure he was back in his hotel room in time to watch an Anderson Cooper special on climate change that was airing on CNN. If you were a multi-millionaire celebrating your birthday in Washington, is that what you would do?

Probably not – but that’s what makes Alfredsson unique.

7. Speaking of hotels, I remember covering a Senators-Canadiens game at the Bell Centre last March. After the game ended, I walked back to the Sheraton Hotel across the street from the arena and got into a crowded elevator back to my room. I heard my name being called out and I turned around and saw Alfredsson standing at the back of the elevator. I was perplexed, because the team had left on a bus for Ottawa after the game.

Alfredsson explained to me that he had asked Paul MacLean for permission to stay overnight in Montreal and bring his family with him. It was March Break for the kids and a rare opportunity for his sons to tag along on a road trip. MacLean agreed to this plan and Alfredsson was able to sneak an extra night in Montreal with his family. He smiled as I got off the elevator and told me, “I won’t be at practice tomorrow in Ottawa. I think they’re going to call it a maintenance day for me.”

The next day, people thought Alfredsson was nursing an injury when, in reality, he was just spending time with his family.

8. The best singular moment of Daniel Alfredsson’s career had to be the afternoon in May 2007 when he put the Senators franchise into the Cup final for the first time. When he scored the goal in Buffalo, it was like everything came full circle for him.

If you’ll recall, the previous year he was burned by Jason Pominville in overtime in Game 5 as his team lost to the Sabres. That afternoon in Buffalo, I’ll always remember how he downplayed his OT heroics. He was kind enough to do a 1-on-1 interview with me, even after he had been swarmed by the media and done countless interviews.

That’s the thing I always appreciated with Alfredsson; he basically never turned me down for an interview. The only time it ever happened during a game was in Carolina this season, when he was coming off the ice after a frustrating shift and he shot me down. But after the game, as we were walking over to the team bus, he actually came over to me and apologized for blowing me off for the intermission interview.

9. You’re probably thinking that Alfredsson only made time for me when things were going well. But the true measure of a person’s character is how they respond when things are really bad.

In the fall of 2006, there were trade rumours swirling around Alfredsson and even a report that he was going to be dealt to the Los Angeles Kings. As it happened, the night that story broke I was attending a fundraising event where Alfredsson was also present.

I ran into him and chatted about the trade rumours. I told him there was going to be a lot of media attention on him the next day. I’ll never forget what he said to me: “I’ll be at my locker – same place as always. You know where to find me.”

Sure enough, the next day, Alfredsson was there and didn’t duck a single question from the media.

Another moment that sticks out to me is a game in New Jersey during the 2008-09 season.

We were doing the broadcast from Newark and it was an ugly night for the Sens, as they lost 5-1. After the game, we had to fill some time in our show and we absolutely had to have a guest join me. Standard protocol dictates you don’t get a player from the losing team to join you as a live guest after such an embarrassing finish. But we were desperate for any guest to join me and I pleaded with the Sens PR man Phil Legault to give us anybody.

A couple of moments later, Alfredsson walked over to my live location and did the two-minute segment with me, which totally saved our show. I thanked him profusely for coming out under such difficult circumstances and he said, “Any time for you, Ian. That’s my job.”

10. Another memory I have of Alfredsson in New Jersey happened a couple of years ago.

We usually stay at a hotel across the street from a mall and since it was Christmas time, a lot of the players were doing some last-minute shopping. I ran into Alfredsson inside the mall and he asked me a bunch of questions about my family and Christmas. He wanted to know what our daughters were asking for and what they were interested in.

Athletes who genuinely ask you about your own family and personal life are a rare breed. Usually, the questions only come from the reporter to the athlete – not the other way around.

And last September while I was standing inside the Marriott Marquis hotel in Manhattan covering the NHLPA meetings, I was speaking to a colleague when felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and was surprised to see Alfredsson there. He asked about how I spent my summer and how the kids were doing. He could have walked right past me because my back was turned to him and yet he stopped to chat with me. It’s those little things that I’ll always remember about him.

11. My last story comes from the night in Pittsburgh when the Senators were eliminated from the playoffs this spring. I had finished doing my live hits for television and decided to head down to the Sens dressing room area to see if I could chat with any players.

Our newest Sportsnet reporter, Shawn McKenzie, was with me on this trip and he tagged along with me down to the dressing room. As we came around the corner, we ran into Daniel Alfredsson in the Zamboni area at Consol Energy Center. I stopped and chatted with him for a couple of minutes about the loss to Pittsburgh.

While we were having this conversation, Alfredsson’s eyes kept moving towards Shawn; it wasn’t that he was annoyed that there was a third person in our conversation. He genuinely felt rude that he was ignoring him. So halfway through, Alfredsson stopped and reached out his hand to introduce himself to Shawn.

Even after his team just was eliminated from the playoffs and he was still probably feeling emotional from the loss, he still had the decency to introduce himself to a complete stranger. He is the epitome of class and grace, even in the most difficult situations.

That – in my opinion – is Daniel Alfredsson in a nutshell.

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CP/Adrian Wyld alfredsson_daniel640 Mendes on Senators: Time to prove Alfie wrong Sat, 06 Jul 2013 12:52:46 EDT Sat, 06 Jul 2013 12:52:46 EDT Ian Mendes Daniel Alfredsson may have given the Ottawa Senators the best gift of all — the desire to prove him wrong.

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Let’s make one thing very clear: Daniel Alfredsson’s ex-Ottawa teammates respect his decision to go to Detroit.

After spending 17 seasons in this city, Alfredsson has earned the right to make his own decision — especially after being the consummate leader and teammate inside the dressing room. You will never, ever hear a negative story about Alfredsson from one of his old teammates. And that includes players and staff going off the record.

But while the Sens players respect Alfredsson’s latest choice, they do not agree with his decision. They were initially shocked when they heard the news. That shock turned to disappointment when they heard Alfredsson’s public explanation that the Red Wings were closer to a Stanley Cup than the Senators.

And while Alfredsson had no intention of slapping his old teammates in the face, that’s exactly what he did. He admitted his decision was “selfish”, so he honestly meant no disrespect to Erik Karlsson, Jason Spezza, Chris Phillips and Chris Neil. But thru a strange and backhanded way, the manner in which he left town could be the best thing that ever happened to this group that remains in Ottawa.

Instead of wallowing in the departure of their captain, the Sens players can view this as a galvanizing moment. Someone who was inside their locker room believes he has a better chance of winning with Detroit than he does in Ottawa.

In the world of professional sports, there is nothing more satisfying than proving the doubters wrong. And when the doubter just happens to be your ex-captain, it makes the motivation all the more intriguing.

If Alfredsson had made this decision two years ago, when the on-ice product was in a state of disarray, nobody would have questioned his thought process. After the 2010-11 season, it was clear the Senators were at least three years away from contending. If he signed with Detroit or Boston in the summer of 2011, the prevailing sentiment from the nation’s capital would have been “Good luck and we understand.”

But we’re now in Year 3 of that re-build. The Senators have made the playoffs in each of the last two years — showing a marked improvement with Paul MacLean behind the bench. They have the goaltending. They have arguably the best defenseman on the planet. And they have a decent group of forwards in their prime — including Jason Spezza, Kyle Turris and now Bobby Ryan. This is the best the Senators have looked since reaching the Stanley Cup final in 2007.

In his post-season news conference in May, Bryan Murray boldly told the media that his team should be viewed as a contender for next season. The general manager then proceeded to tell Alfredsson about his plan to acquire Ryan from Anaheim — and yet that was not enough to sway the decision for the captain.

So when Alfredsson decided to leave Ottawa for Detroit, the sentiment around here was not “Good luck and we understand”, it was more of a collective “Umm…what just happened?”

If he had chosen Boston as his destination, that would have been easier to swallow. The Bruins are clearly the class team of the Eastern Conference, with two trips to the Stanley Cup final in the last three years. Alfredsson could have convinced all of us that the Bruins were his one final chance to hoist the Stanley Cup. That would be a tough one to argue with.

But the Red Wings do not appear to be any closer to a championship than Ottawa and that’s what makes this situation so hard to digest for the players inside the room.

Both teams finished the regular season with the same number of points and both were bounced in the second round. Detroit’s core of players is older and hasn’t won a Stanley Cup since George W. Bush was in office. You can call the Red Wings a lot of things, but a team on the rise isn’t one of them. If you think the Senators trip to the Stanley Cup final is a distant memory from 2007, just remember that Detroit’s last Cup win came the following year. In hockey terms, that’s ancient history.

Some have also argued that it would have also hurt less if Alfredsson made his decision to leave earlier, so Ottawa could have received some sort of compensation for him. But in reality, Alfredsson didn’t leave the Senators empty-handed when he chose to sign in Detroit on Friday.

By leaving them early, Alfredsson may have given his teammates the best gift of all — the desire to prove him wrong.

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CP murray_bryan640 Murray expects Sens to re-sign Alfredsson Thu, 04 Jul 2013 15:20:42 EDT Thu, 04 Jul 2013 19:30:46 EDT Ian Mendes Bryan Murray isn’t buying into the speculation that Daniel Alfredsson may leave town and expects to sign the longtime Ottawa Senators captain to a one-year contract.

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Bryan Murray doesn’t understand all the commotion surrounding Daniel Alfredsson.

From the general manager’s perspective, he doesn’t buy into the speculation that the captain of the Ottawa Senators will be moving on to another team via free agency this week.

“I guess it’s the big issue in town. I didn’t realize it was that big an issue because we’re going to get it done, I assume,” Murray said on Thursday.

In the past 48 hours, stories have circulated that other teams are targeting Alfredsson as a potential free agent.

Several teams — including the Boston Bruins and San Jose Sharks — have reportedly held discussions with Alfredsson since teams are now allowed to negotiate with unrestricted free agents.

But Murray is not worried about the threat from rival GMs who might be eyeing his star captain.

“I understand if another manager calls. That’s their job — that’s my job,” explained Murray. “I’m calling other free agents and they belong to other teams. That’s our job to investigate every player that could be out there. So I’m doing that. And if Boston is doing that or San Jose is doing that, good for them.”

Murray and Alfredsson’s agent JP Barry have spoken several times on the phone in the past few days. They are now negotiating a one-year contract for the 2013-14 season — although Murray has said the two sides have not exchanged hard financial numbers.

Murray said his phone conversation with Barry on Wednesday ended on very friendly terms.

“It was simply like this: “Talk to Alfie and ask him how much he needs to play in Ottawa,” Murray said. “I assume they will call me today and we’ll have an opportunity to talk and decide where we’re going. That’s where it’s at.”

The Senators general manager also refuted suggestions that his club may not be able to afford Alfredsson, given the tight financial constraints of operating a small market team.

Murray said he has spoken to owner Eugene Melnyk about 10 times this week and the owner has been fully supportive from a financial perspective.

“All these other stories of Mr. Melnyk not allowing this to happen or that to happen financially, I don’t know where this comes from,” said Murray. “He’s given me the green light to go get a free agent if I can. I told him the target I had. We are getting comments made that I don’t understand.”

Murray also confirmed that his primary free agent target is New Jersey right winger David Clarkson. The forward spent the day in Ottawa on Wednesday as the club made a hard sales pitch to lure him to the nation’s capital.

“It was a recruiting day. I’m sure he’d be intrigued, but he’d get the same story from a few teams. He did come to Ottawa and he did want to talk to us,” said Murray. “We did show him the neighborhood and did some things to encourage him to come here. We gave it our best pitch.”

Clarkson had a breakout season in 2011-12, collecting 30 goals and establishing himself as one of the best power forwards in the NHL. Murray admits he would add a much-needed dimension to the club’s forward unit.

“He’s competitive, gritty and tough. Last full season he had 30 goals. We hope that he chooses us. He is one person we’ve targeted and he fills the role that we’re looking for.”

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AP/Bill Kostroun alfredsson_brodeur640 Mendes on Senators: Alfredsson playing it smart Wed, 03 Jul 2013 17:17:19 EDT Thu, 04 Jul 2013 08:18:10 EDT Ian Mendes By not immediately signing a contract with the Ottawa Senators, Daniel Alfredsson is taking a page out of Martin Brodeur’s playbook that helped the goalie get a better contract last off-season.

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Daniel Alfredsson is taking a page out of the Martin Brodeur playbook.

And in all likelihood, it will land the veteran captain a more lucrative deal with the Ottawa Senators.

A year ago, the hockey world was turned upside-down when Brodeur announced he was going to test the free agent market for the first time in his career. He hired Pat Brisson as his new agent to handle negotiations leading into the opening of the free agent market on July 1.

Nobody could wrap their heads around the idea of Brodeur playing for a team other than the Devils. But Brisson knew exactly what he was doing when he let it be known that Brodeur was going to test the market.

The Devils were initially offering Brodeur a one-year contract and it was clear the netminder wanted the security of a two-year deal. Lou Lamoriello and the Devils weren’t budging from their stance, so Brodeur and Brisson played the most powerful card they had in their deck and announced they were headed to the open market.

Shortly after the free agency period opened last year, Brodeur and Brisson were flooded with calls. And two teams — believed to be the Chicago Blackhawks and Toronto Maple Leafs — were so aggressive in their pursuit of Brodeur that they offered the legendary netminder two-year contracts.

And suddenly, Brodeur had the one thing that all free agents are seeking: leverage.

He and Brisson went back to the Devils with the new offers and within a few hours, they had hammered out a new two-year contract with New Jersey. Lamoriello knew he had to match the offers that were on the table for Brodeur and by July 2, he was re-signed in New Jersey.

Fast forward to today and Sens fans are getting nervous about the prospect of seeing their captain suit up for another team. Peter Chiarelli and the Bruins have already stated their interest in Alfredsson and there are certainly other teams who have made contact with him now that they are free to negotiate with players. So just like Brodeur, Alfredsson and his agent JP Barry are doing their best to create a little bit of leverage for their side.

The smart money here says this situation plays out exactly like Brodeur’s did last year. The Senators captain is simply creating a little bit of leverage for himself — something he could not have if he negotiated exclusively with Ottawa. To maximize this leverage, he might follow Brodeur’s path and drag this out for a couple more days so that he even gets a concrete offer from a team like Boston.

But Alfredsson will take that offer back to Ottawa and surely Bryan Murray and Eugene Melnyk will either match it or come close enough to where the captain feels like it’s an easy choice to return to the Senators organization.

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CP/Fred Chartrand alfredsson_daniel640 Sens’ Alfredsson not close to deciding on future Mon, 27 May 2013 14:01:55 EDT Mon, 27 May 2013 14:06:28 EDT Ian Mendes Daniel Alfredsson won’t make a decision on his playing future anytime soon as the Ottawa Senators captain said he’ll need some time for reflection before announcing his intentions for next season.

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Daniel Alfredsson won’t be making a decision on his playing future anytime soon.

The Ottawa Senators captain told reporters on Monday that he will need some more time for reflection before he makes an announcement about his intentions for next season.

“There are no thoughts as of now actually. It’s always an empty feeling once you lose out in the playoffs,” Alfredsson said. “I’ll probably take at least a week before I allow myself to think about it and go from there. It’s been a mentally draining season with the schedule and everything. I just feel like I need to give it a little bit of time and freshen up and take it from there.”

Alfredsson will likely follow the same path as he did last season, when the retirement question also swirled around him. He took almost 10 weeks to make the decision that he was coming back for the 2012-13 campaign. And just like he did last summer, the 40-year-old is citing the rigors of the off-season training program as one of the major hurdles in his return.

“Do I have it in me again to go through another summer of training and getting ready for another season?” Alfredsson admitted. “I wish you could just take the summer off and come in and play, but it doesn’t work like that — especially these days. Is the motivation there and do I have the energy to go through that, that will be one of the biggest questions.”

Alfredsson had a solid season with the Senators and led the club with 10 points in 10 post-season games. He only missed one game due to injury during the shortened campaign and says that his body is feeling as good as it possibly can at the end of the season.

“Physically, this is the first time in a long time that I haven’t been injured at all. It’s been really nice,” Alfredsson said.

His teammates are openly campaigning for him to come back next season, but they ultimately know that the decision is in the hands of Alfredsson and his family.

“I think that he knows and everybody knows that it’s quite obvious that he can easily play another year — if not four or five years,” Kyle Turris said. “That’s going to be his decision and we’re just praying he comes back.”

“We’re definitely going to pressure Alf to help his decision along, but he’s going to need some time,” Jason Spezza added. “We’re hoping he comes back for sure.”

The captain also shot down any thought that the Sochi Olympics would serve as a motivation for him next season. He has represented Sweden at the previous four Olympics at which the NHL has been a participant, but he made it clear that he was not thinking about that for next season.

“If I play, it’s to come back and play for the Stanley Cup,” Alfredsson added.

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CP/Adrian Wyld alfredsson_daniel640 Alfredsson remarks blown out of proportion Thu, 23 May 2013 11:52:45 EDT Thu, 23 May 2013 12:39:32 EDT Ian Mendes Daniel Alfredsson’s comments after Game 4 sparked much debate whether the Ottawa Senators captain had quit on the team and decided he was finished with hockey when in reality neither is true.

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In the snap of a finger, the Ottawa Senators went from pesky to pessimistic.

Daniel Alfredsson — who was the hero for his last-minute goal in Game 3 — was being roundly criticized by fans and media for his post-game comments on Wednesday night.

The Sens captain answered “probably not” when asked about the possibility of his team winning three straight games against the heavily-favoured Pittsburgh Penguins.

“I mean, with their depth and power play right now, it doesn’t look too good for us,” he said.

There were a lot of Sens fans who were upset that the captain sounded like he was going down with the ship. If you were hoping that Alfredsson would channel his inner Mark Messier and produce a bold guarantee, this statement was the complete opposite.

However, I would ask you to remember an incident involving Manny Ramirez, whose team was in the exact same situation a few years ago.

With his Red Sox trailing 3-1 in their championship series against the Cleveland Indians in 2007, Manny Ramirez provided one of his most memorable quotes of all time.

“It doesn’t happen, so who cares? There’s always next year. It’s not like it’s the end of the world,” Ramirez said after his team lost Game 4.

Those comments from Ramirez were viewed as defeatist by many of his critics. How in the world could an athlete suggest that his team was finished? Ramirez took a beating from members of the media across North America. Apparently, he didn’t know the script is supposed to read, “We’ll take it one game at a time” when you’re trailing 3-1 in a series.

But here’s the funny thing: In Game 5 of that series, Ramirez went 2-for-4 with a home run in a decisive Red Sox victory. Boston went on to win Games 6 & 7 of that series as well. In fact, after Ramirez’s controversial comments, his Red Sox outscored the Indians 30-5 in the final three games.

Boston then swept the Colorado Rockies in the World Series, so they actually won seven straight games after Ramirez’s pessimistic comment to the media.

So do post-game comments have any impact on a series or a player’s mindset? I think the Ramirez incident answers that question. (Maybe we can make “Alfie being Alfie” into a slogan here in Ottawa).

There was also a significant amount of attention placed on the fact that Alfredsson picked up the puck at the end of Game 4. To many, it was a clear sign that the captain knew it was his last game on home ice. But I can tell you with a great degree of certainty that Alfredsson has not made up his mind — one way or another — about next season.

If you’ll recall last year, we went through the same exercise with him during the Rangers series. In Game 6 on home ice, two of Alfredsson’s sons came out to skate with the flag before the game — and many people took that as a sign that it could be the captain’s final game on home ice.

And when the Senators let that game slip through their fingers, Alfredsson had a rare meltdown on the bench. He slammed his stick and stomped on a water bottle. Again, many people interpreted this as Alfredsson knowing he had just played his last game at Scotiabank Place.

All of the signs pointing towards retirement were there last season and yet Alfredsson returned for another year. The betting here says that Alfredsson will do the same thing this summer. He’ll wait a few weeks and then announce his intentions for next season. If he feels like he can handle the mental and physical workload during the off-season, I think he’ll come back for one more year.

But don’t expect that decision to come moments after the Sens are eliminated. Choosing to retire is process that requires time and reflection.

And as Alfredsson proved on Wednesday night, sometimes athletes are a little emotional at the end of a hockey game.

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Fred Chartrand/CP spezza_jason640 Spezza to return on anniversary of playoff debut Sat, 18 May 2013 14:36:54 EDT Sat, 18 May 2013 20:24:17 EDT Ian Mendes The Ottawa Senators will have Jason Spezza back in the lineup for Game 3 against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday.

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Jason Spezza provided a spark for the Ottawa Senators in his first ever playoff game in the NHL.

Then a teenager, Spezza scored a goal and added an assist with his team facing elimination against the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference final on May 19, 2003. The 3-1 victory in Game 5 kept the Senators alive and Spezza — who watched the first 15 games of that playoff run from the press box — was the offensive hero in the win.

Now exactly 10 years to the date of that memorable game, the Senators are once again turning to Spezza to give them an offensive boost. The star centre has been sidelined with a back injury since Jan. 27, but appears ready to return to the lineup for a crucial Game 3 on Sunday night. The Senators trail the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-0 in their best-of-seven series and another loss on Sunday would essentially put an end to their season.

“The doctors said everything is fine and I’ve put in the work. It’s not like I’m expecting to play out of the blue,” said Spezza. There’s been a lot of skating and a lot of build-up towards it and I think I’m ready to go.”

Spezza confirmed that he was medically cleared by doctors to return to game action for Sunday’s game. He had a lengthy conversation with head coach Paul MacLean, who also confirmed that Spezza should be available for Game 3.

“We anticipate that Jason Spezza will be in the lineup tomorrow night and we’re excited about the skill that he brings back to our team. We’re looking forward to it,” added MacLean.

Spezza underwent back surgery on Feb. 1 and the club was optimistic that he would be able to return to the lineup in early April. However, at some point in March that timeline was pushed back by a few weeks. Spezza has been skating for most of the past three weeks and increasing the intensity of his workouts. While the club was in Pittsburgh for the first two games of the series, he remained back in Ottawa to skate with the team’s extra players.

“The obvious challenge is the speed of the game and hopping right back into the playoffs isn’t easy,” added Spezza. “You’re never going to be able to replicate playoff hockey in practice, but I’ve done quite a bit of bumping. You can never replicate big open ice hits. I guess you just try not to get hit.”

Spezza collected five points in the first five games of the season before experiencing back issues following a shootout loss to the Penguins on Jan. 27.

He finished fourth in league scoring last season and will certainly help the Senators with their struggling power play. MacLean said he anticipates putting Spezza on a line with Milan Michalek to start Sunday’s Game 3.

“I think he’s a world class player and he was probably our best player last year,” said Erik Karlsson. “To get him back would help our younger players and our older players as well. We would get a little bit of a boost offensively.”

The Penguins were anticipating the return of Spezza at some point during this series, so they are prepared to face the Senators best lineup in Game 3. And since they’ve met Spezza in the playoffs on three previous occasions, they are well aware of what he brings to the table.

“He’s got a ton of skill and he creates a lot. He’s someone we definitely have to be aware of,” said Sidney Crosby. “Adding a player like Jason, he’s a big part of their team. He’s definitely going to give them a boost.”

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CP/Sean Kilpatrick crosby_turris640 Mendes: 10 quirky facts about Sens-Pens Tue, 14 May 2013 09:17:13 EDT Tue, 14 May 2013 16:12:06 EDT Ian Mendes With Game 1 between the Senators and Penguins set for Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, here is a look at 10 cool and quirky stats and facts involving these two teams.

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With Game 1 between the Senators and Penguins set for Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, I figured I would do my usual pre-series look at 10 cool and quirky stats and facts involving these two teams:

1. The Ottawa Senators knocked off the No. 2 seed Montreal Canadiens and will now face the top seed in the Eastern Conference in the Pittsburgh Penguins. Under the current playoff format, only five teams have ever managed to beat the No. 1 and 2 seed in their own conference in the same playoff year:

2012: Los Angeles Kings (Beat No. 1 Vancouver and No. 2 St. Louis)
2007: Ottawa Senators (Beat No. 1 Buffalo and No. 2 New Jersey)
2004: Calgary Flames (Beat No. 1 Detroit and No. 2 San Jose)
2003: Anaheim Ducks (Beat No. 1 Detroit and No. 2 Dallas)
1996: Florida Panthers (Beat No. 1 Philadelphia and No. 2 Pittsburgh)

2. What’s remarkable about the list above is that Bryan Murray has a connection to three of those five teams. He was the general manager for the 1996 Florida Panthers and the 2003 Anaheim Ducks. (Those Ducks, by the way, are the only No. 7 seed to pull off this feat). And of course Murray was the head coach of the 2007 Ottawa Senators who also knocked off the top two seeds in the Eastern Conference. So maybe there’s a little bit of Murray karma going for the Sens this season.

3. Ottawa failed to beat the Penguins in three regular season meetings this season, so this marks the first time ever that Ottawa has faced a playoff opponent that they failed to beat during the regular season. (Technically, the Sens did not beat the Anaheim Ducks before meeting them in the Cup final in 2007, but they had a very good reason: the teams didn’t face each other that year).

4. This will be the fourth time the Penguins and Senators are meeting in the playoffs — tied for most all-time in Ottawa franchise history. The Senators have also faced the Sabres and Leafs on four occasions.

5. When this series shifts back to Ottawa for Game 3 on Sunday, the Penguins will feel very comfortable. They’ve won their last five playoff games at Scotiabank Place:

April 24, 2010 (Game 6) — 4-3 Pittsburgh win (OT)
April 20, 2010 (Game 4) — 7-4 Pittsburgh win
April 18, 2010 (Game 3) — 4-2 Pittsburgh win
April 16, 2008 (Game 4) — 3-1 Pittsburgh win
April 14, 2008 (Game 3) — 4-1 Pittsburgh win

* The last time Ottawa beat Pittsburgh in a playoff game at Scotiabank Place: April 19, 2007 (3-0 win that clinched series in Game 5).

6. The Sens are facing Sidney Crosby after he was named a finalist for the Hart Trophy during the regular season. In the past, Ottawa has faced a Hart Trophy winner or finalist on seven previous occasions:

2012 vs. Henrik Lundqvist (finalist) — Lost series in 7 games
2010 vs. Sidney Crosby (finalist) — Lost series in 6 games
2008 vs. Evgeni Malkin (finalist) — Lost series in 4 games
2007 vs. Sidney Crosby (winner) — Won series in 5 games
2007 vs. Martin Brodeur (finalist) — Won series in 5 games
2003 vs. Martin Brodeur (finalist) — Lost series in 7 games
1997 vs. Dominik Hasek (winner) — Lost series in 7 games

7. Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were on the list above and both have had success against Ottawa in the post-season. Crosby has points in eight of his last nine playoff games against Ottawa. During that span, he’s racked up a ridiculous 22 points — with seven goals and 15 assists. Malkin is also riding a four-game point streak against Ottawa in the post-season.

8. While a lot of Sens fans would like to see the struggling Marc-Andre Fleury in goal for Pittsburgh, Ottawa has had a fair amount of success against Tomas Vokoun. Since 2008, only five goalies have lost 10-plus games to the Senators — and Vokoun is on that list. Most losses versus Ottawa since then:

Ryan Miller — 15
Henrik Lundqvist — 12
Tomas Vokoun — 10
Martin Brodeur — 10
Carey Price — 10

9. Dan Bylsma won his Stanley Cup by beating Paul MacLean’s Detroit Red Wings in Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup final. MacLean is one of two coaches left in these playoffs who has not won the Stanley Cup as a head coach. (Bylsma, Tortorella, Julien, Babcock, Quenneville and Sutter have all won the Cup as head coaches). But MacLean and the other coach on the short list — Todd McLellan of the Sharks — hoisted the Cup together as assistants in Detroit in 2008.

10. How important is Game 1 to the Ottawa Senators tonight? The Senators have lost Game 1 of a playoff series 11 times in the past. They’ve only been able to come back to win this series on two occasions: 2003 versus the Islanders and 2002 versus the Flyers. Conversely, the Sens have won Game 1 of a series 11 times and have gone on to win the series on seven of those occasions.

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THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand senators_ottawa640 Mendes: Sens going classic with victory tune Sun, 12 May 2013 17:56:26 EDT Sun, 12 May 2013 17:59:56 EDT Ian Mendes Thanks to Zack Smith’s iPod, Hall & Oates “You Make My Dreams Come True” can be heard in Ottawa’s dressing room after every Senators’ victory.

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The first time I heard the song blaring inside the Senators dressing room, I had to do a double-take.

It was on the night of April 25th and just moments after the team had clinched a playoff berth in the Eastern Conference, I heard the distinctive beat of Hall & Oates “You Make My Dreams Come True” at the Verizon Center.

Surely it was a mistake, right? There’s no way that an NHL team in the year 2013 was playing Hall & Oates after a massive overtime victory. It gives a whole new meaning to another one of their other classic songs – “Out of Touch.”

I chalked it up to a complete accident. Or maybe somebody was being super clever. After all, they were just down the Hall from (Adam) Oates when they clinched the playoff spot. Whatever it was, I figured I would never hear that song played again while being within earshot of an NHL dressing room.

But standing outside the Senators’ room last Thursday night at the Bell Centre in Montreal, I heard the song again after they eliminated the Montreal Canadiens. And it became blatantly clear that this was not a one-off deal. Indeed, “You Make My Dreams Come True” had become the 2013 Ottawa Senators victory song.

But the question is why?

Was this a tribute to Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson – one of the few players on the team who was actually alive when this song came out in 1980? Alfredsson has always said his dream was to win the Stanley Cup. Maybe this song was about making his dreams come true.

So after Alfredsson’s media scrum broke up on Sunday afternoon, I approached him to ask about the meaning behind the song. If anybody was going to have the answer to a quirky dressing room story, it would probably be the captain. I was slightly nervous at the prospect of becoming the first person in media history to pull aside a superstar to discreetly ask him about Hall & Oates.

And while Alfredsson was gracious with his time – as he always is – he sadly offered no insight into the story I was chasing.

“I don’t know how that even got started,” Alfredsson admitted to me on Sunday afternoon. “Last year and this year, we’ve mostly had just dance music – something that is upbeat. And I don’t know if this started as someone playing a joke, but we’ve been playing pretty well since it started. So it’s kind of become the theme for us.”

So after wasting 45 seconds of Daniel Alfredsson’s life, I figured that I should try going to someone else inside the locker room to get the scoop on this story. And that’s when I saw Zack Smith – who just happens to be the one responsible for making this the theme song for the 2013 Ottawa Senators.

But there is no amazing story behind why the song was chosen. In fact, it turns out that it was a complete accident.

Smith told me that about a week before that night in Washington, he was the one responsible for playing the pre-game music inside the dressing room. When the Senators skated off the ice with a victory at home, Smith’s iPod was the one that was hooked up to the stereo. So the players urged him to start blaring a brand new victory song.

“I can’t remember exactly why, but we wanted switch up win songs. I was put on the spot because my iPod was on from the start of the game. I just grabbed it quickly. I didn’t know and I ended up picking that one,” Smith explained.

So by sheer accident, Smith hit the play button for Hall & Oates “You Make My Dreams Come True” and an instant classic was born inside the Sens dressing room. (There is part of me that wishes he accidentally played Mambo No. 5 – because that would have been an awesome blog to write as well). There are rumors that there could be some dancing that accompanies this song inside the dressing room, but that has not been confirmed by anyone willing to speak on the record.

You may be surprised that a 25-year-old guy like Zack Smith has some Hall & Oates on his iPod. But he admitted the song has been on there for a while after he and an ex-teammate agreed it was a catchy tune.

“I had it on my iPod because me and Bish (Ben Bishop) were listening to it one day and we thought it was a good song,” said Smith. “And it’s just a feel good song.”

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CP/Sean Kilpatrick spezza_jason640 Sens’ Spezza won’t be ready for start of Round 2 Sat, 11 May 2013 10:36:48 EDT Sat, 11 May 2013 22:03:31 EDT Ian Mendes There’s a chance Jason Spezza could return during the second round, but Ottawa Senators head coach Paul MacLean is ruling out the possibility of him being ready to play in the next few days.

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There’s a chance Jason Spezza could return during the second round of the playoffs, but Ottawa Senators head coach Paul MacLean is ruling out the possibility of him being ready to play in the next few days.

“No, not in my mind,” MacLean said on Saturday morning when asked about Spezza being available for the start of the second round. “I don’t know what the hope is, but he is in a rehab process. And that process has him skating. To me, it’s a long way away.”

Spezza has not played since undergoing surgery to repair a herniated disc in his back on Feb. 1. The club had initially hoped he would have returned in mid-April, but his rehabilitation process has taken a little longer than expected.

General manager Bryan Murray had stated on Friday that Spezza has begun skating with the club’s extra players – a sign that his rehabilitation process is trending in the right direction. The biggest issue for Spezza is that he hasn’t played since Jan. 27 and he could be thrown back into the lineup during the heat of a playoff series.

“He has to be able to play at the level that the team is playing at,” MacLean said. “The team is playing at a certain speed and if you can’t come in and play at that speed, you’re going to slow things down. That could be a detriment to the team as well."

MacLean pointed out that other injured players such as Craig Anderson, Erik Karlsson, Jared Cowen and Milan Michalek had the luxury of returning to the lineup during the regular season – when the pace and intensity of the games were much lower.

“That’s the important factor for me. Jason has to be up to speed to where the team is playing at. And the treadmill goes pretty fast in the second round of the playoffs,” MacLean said.

But as cautious as MacLean sounded on Saturday, he was quick to point out that he would welcome back his No. 1 centre if he pronounces himself fit to play.

“Don’t get me wrong: when Jason Spezza is ready to play, we want him to play,” MacLean added. “Nobody wants him back in the lineup more than the coach. But at the same time, the coach wants to make sure he’s ready and it’s not a detriment to the team when he comes back.”

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CP/Sean Kilpatrick gryba_eric640 Mendes: A little context to Gryba’s ‘blood’ quote Wed, 08 May 2013 18:10:32 EDT Wed, 08 May 2013 18:10:32 EDT Ian Mendes In the world of Twitter and instant news quotes without any context can be dangerous, as was the case with Sens defenceman Eric Gryba’s comments about finishing off the Canadiens.

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Twitter provides us with instantaneous sports news at our finger tips 24/7.

On Tuesday night, for example, I learned that J.A. Happ was hit in the face with a line drive, that Marc-Andre Fleury was imploding and that Brent Burns opened the scoring in San Jose.

I didn’t witness any of these events with my own eyes, but I trusted they actually happened because Twitter said they did.

While the platform is great for passing along timely information, it rarely provides us with any meaningful context. And I got another great reminder of that on Wednesday afternoon.

I tweeted out a quote from Senators defenceman Eric Gryba who told me, “We can smell blood. We can taste blood. And it’s time to put them away.”

Immediately, this quote caught fire on Twitter. People quickly connected the comment with the incident involving Gryba and Lars Eller from last week, which left the Canadiens defenceman injured on the ice.

I received a backlash of nasty and hate-filled notes directed towards Gryba. Here is a small sample of what was in my Twitter mentions today — and trust me, I had to edit out the ones that were unfit for print:

But as you can see in the video clip that runs along with this blog, there is no malice or ill-will from Gryba when he’s speaking. He’s clearly answering a question only about needing to finish off the Habs in Game 5 on Thursday night. The Eller incident is not on his radar because I didn’t bring it up in my line of questioning. There is no correlation to what Gryba said today and to what happened last week. I had a lengthy debate with our producers back in Toronto on how we were going to handle this video clip in our news show tonight. I made it very clear that we should not show the Eller hit, the blood and then run this clip. In my opinion, it’s irresponsible journalism to connect the two incidents.

If you want to suggest it was in bad taste by Gryba, that’s fine. But you should watch the entire clip before jumping to conclusions on Twitter. And that’s why I wanted to post this blog today with the video clip; it’s important you see the entire picture. This is a player who is talking about finishing off an opponent in a playoff series — nothing more, nothing less. If you look at this objectively — which is hard for certain people — you will see that Gryba is merely talking about Game 5 in this quote.

I always make it a point to tweet out one or two quotes from players every day. Today, for example, I also tweeted out quotes from Craig Anderson on not being a Vezina finalist and Paul MacLean on being “scared to death” about Game 5 in Montreal.

Last night in the dressing room, Cory Conacher gave me great quote about how the hockey gods were on Ottawa’s side. So naturally, I tweeted it right away.

But this incident with Gryba has me re-thinking that approach. Quotes without any context can be extremely dangerous on Twitter. You only have 140 characters to play with it, so it’s hard to even fit in a full quote — let alone provide any additional background information that goes along with it. I tried to explain in a follow-up tweet that Gryba was merely talking about having a killer instinct for Game 5. But at that point, the train had left the station and it was too late.

And that is the dangerous thing about Twitter and this instant news world of ours. As journalists, we are so obsessed with generating content that we often forget to provide the context to go along with it.

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Fred Chartrand/CP maclean640 MacLean: ‘I might be husky. But I’m not fat’ Sat, 04 May 2013 14:45:49 EDT Sat, 04 May 2013 15:46:42 EDT Ian Mendes Following the Ottawa Senators’ optional skate on Saturday, head coach Paul MacLean responded to Montreal Canadiens forward Brandon Prust’s comments on his appearance.

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Apparently, Paul MacLean doesn’t have an issue with Brandon Prust calling him a bug-eyed walrus.

But the Ottawa Senators coach does not agree with the Montreal Canadiens forward’s assessment that he is overweight.

“Bug-eyed? I’ve never been called that before. That’s a new one. Walrus? Nah — that’s too easy,” said MacLean on Saturday. “But I’ll tell you one thing: I’m not fat. I might be husky, but I’m not fat. So I took offence to that.”

Prust escalated a war of words between the two teams on Friday morning when he said, “We don’t care what that bug-eyed fat walrus has to say” prior to Game 2.

Saturday’s cover of Le Journal de Montreal featured a MacLean-walrus photo with the headline “A bug-eyed walrus.”

maclean_walrus

Several members of the Canadiens were upset that MacLean defended his own player Eric Gryba, for his controversial hit on Lars Eller in Game 1. MacLean suggested that part of the blame for the hit should be laid at the feet of Montreal defenceman Raphael Diaz, whose outlet pass to Eller put him in a vulnerable position. On Saturday, MacLean defended his organization and bristled off the suggestions that he was intentionally disrespectful towards Lars Eller’s injury.

“I was just trying to give the whole picture of what happened. If that is disrespectful they feel to them, then I guess we feel disrespected from the fact that all they want to do is talk about how dirty of a player and how vicious a hit it was from Eric Gryba. So that respect thing goes maybe both ways in this thing,” said MacLean.

Gryba also spoke to the media for the first time since he was assessed a two-game suspension for the hit on Friday. The Senators defenceman says he never had any intention of targeting Eller’s head on the play.

“I’m obviously disappointed with the league’s decision on that, but there’s nothing I can do on it,” Gryba said. “I still feel it was a shoulder-to-shoulder body check and a hockey play, but it’s out of my hands.”

Certain members of the Canadiens were also upset that MacLean refused to identify Diaz by name — only calling him No. 61 in press conferences. MacLean joked that there are too many names and numbers for him to keep everyone straight.

“I don’t even know who No. 61 is on my team, so you’re going to hold that against me?” he said. “There are an awful lot of different number combinations and different names. If I hurt his feelings — oh my God, I apologize for that — that I didn’t know the player on the other team’s name was. But if that’s the battle of words, I don’t see that. They’re going to say what they want to say. I’m just working real hard at coaching my team. I’m not trying to coach the other team.”

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CP/Graham Hughes canadiens_senators640 Mendes on Canadiens vs Senators: Ten quirky facts Thu, 02 May 2013 11:07:41 EDT Thu, 02 May 2013 11:07:41 EDT Ian Mendes The Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators are set to begin their first-ever playoff series Thursday, so here are 10 quirky facts and stats to get you set for the Habs-Sens matchup.

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The Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators are set to start their first-ever playoff series tonight at the Bell Centre.

Montreal fans are excited at the prospect of facing a Canadian team in the playoffs for the first time since they beat Quebec in 1993. Ottawa fans are thrilled to be playing a Canadian opponent that isn’t the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Here’s a look at 10 quirky facts and stats heading into this series between Ottawa and Montreal:

1. The last time Michel Therrien coached a playoff series, Paul MacLean was behind the bench. That was during the Stanley Cup final in 2008, when MacLean was an assistant with the Detroit Red Wings against Therrien’s Pittsburgh Penguins. Therrien was fired the following season by Pittsburgh, so this will actually be his first playoff series since facing MacLean five years ago.

2. Therrien was replaced by Dan Bylsma, who ultimately led the Penguins to a Stanley Cup championship in 2009. What’s strange is that Therrien entered this year’s playoffs with a better career winning percentage in the playoffs than Bylsma. Here’s a look at the top five coaches in this year’s post-season, ranked by career playoff winning percentage:

Mike Babcock (DET) – .607

Randy Carlyle (TOR) – .581

Michel Therrien (MTL) – .568

Dan Bylsma (PIT) – .560

Claude Julien (BOS) – .541

3. Therrien will face the Senators for the third time in his career — the only team he’s faced on multiple occasions in the playoffs. He lost to them in 2007 with the Penguins, but swept them in the first round the following season.

4. Speaking of that 2007 series against Pittsburgh, that’s the last time Ottawa had home ice advantage in the Stanley Cup playoffs. This will be the seventh consecutive series the Senators will start on the road.  (In case you’re wondering, the Los Angeles Kings have now started 16 consecutive series on the road, so the Sens aren’t anywhere close to the top of this list)

5. Here’s a look at how the Senators have fared in those last six Game 1s on the road:

2012 – AT NYR – Lost 4-2

2010 – AT PIT – Won 5-4

2008 – AT PIT – Lost 4-0

2007 – AT ANA – Lost 3-2

2007 – AT BUF – Won 5-2

2007 – AT NJ – Won 5-4

6. As for the Canadiens, this is rare for them to open up a series on home ice. Since winning their last Stanley Cup in 1993, Montreal has played 18 series. But this will be only the third time they’ve started at home. The other two occasions came in 2008, when they also won the Northeast Division title. That year, the Habs beat Boston in the first round before losing to Philadelphia in the second round.

7. Opening up the Stanley Cup playoffs at home is also rare for the Habs, but they’ve had a lot of success doing it. The last seven times they’ve opened the playoffs at home, they’ve won Game 1:

April 10, 2008 vs BOS – 4-1 win

April 19, 1992 vs HAR – 2-0 win

April 3, 1991 – vs BUF – 7-5 win

April 5, 1989 – vs HAR – 6-2 win

April 6, 1988 – vs HAR – 4-2 win

April 8, 1987 – vs BOS – 6-2 win

April 9, 1986 – vs BOS – 3-1 win

8. The last time the Canadiens opened up the Stanley Cup playoffs with a loss on home ice: April 10, 1985 (a 5-3 loss to the Bruins).

9. As for the Senators, the importance of winning Game 1 has been huge in their franchise history. Eleven times they’ve lost the opener of a series, but only twice have they come back to win.  Here’s a look at what happens when Ottawa loses Game 1 of a series:

2012 vs NYR – Lost series in 7

2008 vs PIT – Lost series in 4

2007 vs ANA – Lost series in 5

2006 vs BUF – Lost series in 5

2003 vs NYI – Won series in 5

2002 vs PHI – Won series in 5

2001 vs TOR – Lost series in 4

2000 vs TOR – Lost series in 6

1999 vs BUF – Lost series in 4

1998 vs WAS – Lost series in 5

1997 vs BUF – Lost series in 7

10. Things are a lot better for the Senators when they win Game 1 of a series. That’s happened on 10 previous occasions and they’ve gone on to win the series six times:

2010 vs PIT – Lost series in 6

2007 vs BUF – Won series in 5

2007 vs NJ – Won series in 5

2007 vs PIT – Won series in 5

2006 vs TB – Won series in 5

2004 vs TOR – Lost series in 7

2003 vs NJ – Lost series in 7

2003 vs PHI – Won series in 6

2002 vs TOR – Lost series in 7

1998 vs NJ – Won Series in 6

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CP/Sean Kilpatrick canadiens_senators640 Mendes on Sens/Habs: For the fan in all of us Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:33:38 EDT Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:49:53 EDT Ian Mendes My die-hard Canadiens fan days are behind me but a significant item in my wallet reminds me what it was like to be a fan and as the Sens/Habs series is about to start, I hope it’s very memorable for the fans.

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It’s time for me to make a major confession, as I get set to cover this series between Ottawa and Montreal.

I still keep a Montreal Canadiens fan club card inside my wallet:

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There are three things that immediately jump out:

1. The card is slightly tattered and is date-stamped from 1988
2. My middle name is Marc
3. The card is inexplicably pink — which doesn’t seem like a colour you’d expect from a Habs fan card.

I’ll get to why I still carry that card around in my wallet at the end of this blog, but what’s important here is that I was a die-hard Montreal Canadiens fan as a kid. I was born at a time when I was too young to enjoy the Canadiens dynasty of the late 1970s. My earliest distinct memory of the Montreal Canadiens is from 1984, when they made a magical run to the Wales Conference finals. They were eventually knocked out by the New York Islanders and if Denis Potvin wasn’t so physically intimidating, I would have exacted some revenge for my childhood disappointment while he slept next to me on an airplane.

I still have a grainy VHS tape somewhere in my basement that has Game 6 of the playoff series against Quebec that year. That was the night there were multiple bench-clearing brawls and I remember my mom was upset that my dad and I were watching such a violent hockey game on Good Friday.

My passion for the Montreal Canadiens extended into all aspects of my life. I was such a Mats Naslund fan that I made my parents buy me a Torspo hockey stick — making me the only kid on our team with such a light and whippy stick from Europe. My bed time would always be extended on nights when the Canadiens were playing, but I think my parents were secretly happy when Brian Skrudland scored that goal nine seconds into overtime against Calgary in the Cup final.

In the late 1980s, my passion became so crazy that I sent away for the fan membership kit. It came with that official card, a team calendar and a player poster. I think I submitted my entry so late that I was stuck with an 8×10 of Mike Lalor, but I didn’t care. I was just happy that the Montreal Canadiens technically had my mailing address.

As I moved into high school out in Vancouver, people knew I was a die-hard Montreal fan because I wore the obligatory Habs Starter jacket in the early 1990s. My dad would always buy tickets for every visit the Canadiens made to Vancouver. To this day, meeting Patrick Roy and getting his autograph at the Pacific Coliseum remains one of the all-time highlights of my life. I had a poster that hung over my bed that said “Patrick L’IncROYable”. Not surprisingly, I didn’t get any action with the girls in high school.

When the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup in 1993, it will probably go down as my greatest sports moment as a fan. I watched every one of those playoff games and can still recall all 10 overtime goals scored during that magical run.

I came out to Ottawa to attend journalism school in 1994, with every intention of becoming the visible minority version of Dick Irvin. And with the Montreal Forum just a short drive away, I had a chance to visit the hockey mecca for the first time. I went to the last ever game between the Leafs and Habs at the Montreal Forum and cheered wildly when Pierre Turgeon scored the game winner with one second left on the clock.

In the spring of 1996, the Bell Centre opened and I was able to get tickets to the first ever home playoff game there against the New York Rangers. I didn’t care that I had a major journalism exam the next day; I skipped the studying and went to the game because that was my passion in life. (The Habs lost the game and I got a B on the journalism exam. But truth be told, I would have taken a D on that exam if it meant the Habs would have won. My priorities were always in order).

I went through the rest of the 1990s like all other Habs fans. I was frustrated by Patrice Brisebois. I couldn’t understand why Brian Savage never scored after November 1st. And I tried to embrace Jocelyn Thibault, Andre Kovalenko and Martin Rucinsky, but something just never felt right about that damn trade.

After graduating from journalism school, I ended up working in the media relations department for the Ottawa Senators. And that’s where my passion for the Canadiens slowly started to die. I realized that working alongside Daniel Alfredsson could be a pretty cool thing. Jacques Martin used to phone me at 7 a.m. asking for his statistics to be delivered to his office. And I got on Roger Neilson’s Christmas card list. Working inside an NHL front office is an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.

When I flipped sides and joined the media, I could honestly say I was caught in between. I had 22 years of being a Montreal Canadiens fan and two years of working inside the Senators front office. But in all honestly, being torn like that actually helped me make the transition into an objective journalist.
I no longer cheered for the Canadiens in the same way I used to; but I had only been with the Sens for two seasons — so they weren’t completely my team either. As I’ve been a reporter now for more than a decade, I can honestly say that I cover things without any bias. And yes — that includes reporting on the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Now back to that fan card and the reason why I still carry around inside my wallet. It’s tucked right next to my NHL media card, which allows me access to any rink in the league. But I don’t hang onto it because I still have an emotional tie to the Montreal Canadiens.

I keep that card with me so I remember what it’s like to be a fan. Too often, those of us in the media forget what it’s like to be passionate about sports, because we’re too busy trying to be objective. We forget that we were once fans like 99.9 per cent of the world. It’s an absolute privilege for me to this job on a daily basis and I never want to forget that.

As this series gets set to start, I want Habs fans to know that I once cheered for your team with as much passion as anyone else. I want Sens fans to know that I cover your team with that same passion and energy.

And no, I won’t be cheering for either side to win. My only hope is that you get a series that you’ll get to remember for the rest of your lives.

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AP/Gene J. Puskar karlsson Mendes on Senators: 10 memorable moments this season Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:12:56 EDT Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:44:51 EDT Ian Mendes Despite everything that happened this shortened season, those “Pesky Sens” still managed to secure a spot in the playoffs. Here’s a look at 10 memorable moments from the Ottawa Senators’ season.

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A 48-game campaign was supposed to be abbreviated, but the Senators had so many memorable moments over the past couple of months that you could have sworn this was a full season.

From stunt-double coaches to a series of ridiculous injuries, here’s a look at the 10 most memorable moments of the Ottawa Senators’ 2013 regular season:

1. Paul MacLean’s stunt double
Nothing is going to top the night Mike Watson — aka Paul MacClone — sat directly behind the Senators bench at Scotiabank Place. Whenever our camera panned the home bench, it looked like you were seeing double. MacLean claimed that he didn’t notice Watson sitting there, but that’s probably because he thought he was looking at a reflection in the glass. Here’s hoping Watson buys tickets for at least one playoff game during this Habs series.

2. Kaspars Daugavins shootout move
Kaspars Daugavins unorthodox attempt against Tuukka Rask in March will go down as one of the all-time great moments in NHL shootout history, joining Marek Malik, Pavel Datsyuk….and that’s about the entire list. Daugavins’ move was so controversial that David Krejci told me after the game that he would be upset if one of his own teammates tried that stunt. Naturally, Daugavins was claimed off waivers by Boston a couple of weeks later and is now teammates with Krejci.

3. Erik Karlsson’s Achilles injury
In a season full of devastating injuries, this was the most crushing one to the Ottawa Senators and their fan base. The sight of Karlsson leaving the ice in Pittsburgh on one leg was the most deflating regular season moment in franchise history.

4. Erik Karlsson’s comeback and playoff clinch
When Karlsson suffered that injury in mid-February, we were told that he was likely done for the entire regular season and playoffs. What we didn’t know is that Karlsson is a freaking cyborg. I honestly think they were just waiting for his replacement part to come in from overseas and that’s why he missed 10 weeks. Of course, Karlsson picked up a pair of assists in his first game back at Washington on April 25, as the Sens clinched a playoff spot.

5. Craig Anderson’s injury
When Craig Anderson was bowled over by Rangers forward Chris Kreider, I naturally assumed that Scotiabank Place was built on an ancient burial ground. I mean, there was no other explanation for how the Senators could lose so many key players in such a short period of time. Anderson ended up missing almost six weeks with his sprained ankle, which probably cost him the Vezina Trophy.

6. Sens game in Boston cancelled
The Senators had the misfortune of being in Boston on Patriots Day this year and were just a few blocks away from the site of the Boston Marathon bombing. As a result, the Senators game at TD Garden that night had to be postponed and was replayed on April 28th — a matchup that ended up determining the fate of three different playoff series in the Eastern Conference.

7. David Dziurzynski gets knocked out
David Dziurzynski’s nickname of ‘Dizzy’ became all-too fitting when he was knocked out cold by Toronto’s Frazer McLaren on March 6th. The sickening thud of Dziurzynski hitting the ice is a sound nobody who was at the Air Canada Centre that night will forget.

8. The comeback on Long Island
On March 19th, the Senators entered the third period trailing 3-1 against the New York Islanders at the Nassau Coliseum. But Ottawa showed off their classic “Pesky Sens” mojo by picking up their peskiest win of the season — scoring four unanswered goals in a 5-3 win.

9. Colin Greening’s late goal vs. Toronto
Colin Greening scored with less than 30 seconds left to give the Sens their lone regular season win over Toronto on home ice. The best part of Greening’s heroics is that it allowed his ‘Single Ladies’ video from Cornell to resurface on the internet.

10. Andre Benoit’s first NHL goal — called back
Andre Benoit should have had his first NHL goal on February 3rd at Montreal, but it was called back because of one of the most ridiculous phantom goalie interference calls you’ll ever see. Jakob Silfverberg did not come close to invading Carey Price’s space inside the blue paint, but the officials didn’t see it that way. But let’s be honest, this wouldn’t be a legitimate Senators top 10 list without at least one referee conspiracy.

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THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick spezza_jason640 MacLean says Spezza isn’t close to joining Sens Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:31:41 EDT Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:34:55 EDT Ian Mendes Ottawa Senators’ players have been making miraculous recoveries from injuries lately, but it doesn’t sound like Jason Spezza will join that list — at least any time soon.

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Ottawa Senators’ players have been making miraculous recoveries from injuries lately, but it doesn’t sound like Jason Spezza will join that list — at least any time soon.

The star centre, who has been sidelined since undergoing back surgery on February 1, isn’t expected to return for the start of the playoffs next week.

“I think he’s been skating, but he’s at the public skating stage still. It’s significant because he’s started skating, but it’s public skating really,” said Paul MacLean on Friday, giving his most detailed update on Spezza this month. “He’s not even close to joining the team I think.”

On Thursday, Erik Karlsson made a stunning return to the lineup just 10 weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a torn achilles tendon. And earlier this month, Jared Cowen came back after he was told he would be out for the entire season with a hip injury. But Spezza’s back injury appears to have him sidelined for at least the first round of the playoffs if this latest update is any indication.


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MacLean acknowledged that Spezza is back on the ice, but only for basic skating drills. Karlsson and Cowen spent multiple weeks under the eyes of coaches Jason Smith and Marc Powers before their returns and clearly Spezza isn’t at that point yet. And until he starts doing more rigorous training with those coaches and rejoins the team, there remains no firm timeline for Spezza’s return to the lineup.

“Much like with Jared and Erik we weren’t hoping. I just basically wait until they come in say they’re ready to play,” explained MacLean. “I don’t like sitting around hoping and hoping that anything is going to happen. I like knowing way better. And until I know Jason is going to start practicing with the team and be able to play with the team, it doesn’t even concern me. And I know that might be cold, but I’m only concerned with the guys that are available to me and who we can put on the ice to win the game.”

The Senators are expected to open the 2013 playoffs on Wednesday and MacLean hinted he may give several players the option of resting for the season finale in Boston on Sunday if the game does not have significant playoff implications for Ottawa.

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CP alfredsson_daniel640.jpg Mendes on NHL: Alfredsson ready to join Twitter Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:20:12 EDT Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:20:42 EDT Ian Mendes Erik Karlsson’s return wasn’t the only news making waves around the Ottawa Senators. Marc Methot broke the big story that captain Daniel Alfredsson is ready to start up a Twitter account.

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As the Ottawa Senators team bus headed to the Verizon Center Thursday morning, Daniel Alfredsson leaned over to Marc Methot and said, “Start a rumour that I’m going to join Twitter. Let’s see what happens.”

So at approximately 10:20am, Methot tweeted: “Just heard a nasty little rumor…Alfie on twitter perhaps even today. Thoughts?”

Predictably, Methot’s Twitter account exploded with replies in the minutes that followed.

And let’s give Methot credit for breaking this story — because yes — Daniel Alfredsson will be on Twitter. In fact, the Sens captain told me he may even launch his account Thursday afternoon and his first tweet could happen after tonight’s game — provided the Senators win and clinch a playoff spot here in Washington.

I put my recording device away when I was chatting with the captain, so I don’t have any direct quotes to pass along, but I can confirm that Alfredsson changed his mind on Twitter in the past few days. He’s seen how Erik Karlsson has embraced it — racking up almost 30,000 followers since officially joining Twitter on Tuesday.

Alfredsson believes that Twitter can be a great tool for interacting with fans and thinks the benefits can outweigh the negatives if you handle it properly. Alfredsson also admitted that he’s venturing into the unknown world of Twitter because of his children.

His oldest son Hugo is 10 years old now and Alfredsson says his kids will be on things like Twitter and Facebook before too long. So he’s doing the responsible father thing and making sure he knows what dangers can lurk in the online world. And you can bet when @HugoAlfredsson launches his account, dad will be his first follower.

As for what Alfredsson’s Twitter handle will be, that is up in the air. Apparently @DanielAlfredsson11 is too long of a handle and isn’t allowed. And of course there are lots of fake accounts out there pretending to be Alfredsson, so trying to get those user names switched over to him could take a few days. For example @Alfredsson11 has more than 2,000 followers — even though the account has never tweeted and it’s clearly a fake.

It will be interesting to see if Alfredsson can match Karlsson’s pace of attracting so many followers in the first 72 hours of launching his account.

When I asked Karlsson about why he joined Twitter yesterday, he jokingly said “It’s something I wanted to do when I was 23 — and not 35 like you.”

I wonder what Karlsson thinks about 40-year-old Alfredsson joining Twitter.

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CP karlsson_erik640.jpg Sens confirm Karlsson will return vs. Capitals Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:00:17 EDT Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:04:35 EDT Ian Mendes The Ottawa Senators confirmed defenceman Erik Karlsson will return to the lineup Thursday night against the Washington Capitals.

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Exactly 10 weeks after he underwent surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon, Erik Karlsson will return to the Ottawa Senators lineup against the Washington Capitals.

“I’m in tonight,” Karlsson confirmed to reporters Thursday afternoon. “Been feeling good lately and I think it’s time to start playing hockey again.”

Karlsson’s return to the lineup is shocking, as most experts assumed he would miss at least four months after suffering a 70 per cent cut to his Achilles tendon on Feb. 13. While some are suggesting that he is putting himself at risk by returning so quickly, the reigning Norris Trophy winner says he cannot do any further damage to his leg.

“I don’t think I’m rushing it. The last couple of weeks have been really good and it’s been progressing a lot,” added Karlsson. “The scar has been healing as well as we hoped. Right now, it’s good enough to skate as well as almost everyone else.”

In the past few days, Karlsson has admitted that his leg feels awkward when he skates — a thought he reiterated on Thursday.

“I think I’m good enough to play. I don’t know exactly what percentage it is. It’s not the way it was before, but it’s still good enough to play hockey and hopefully I’ll show that tonight,” said Karlsson. “For me, it’s all about trying to find the feeling that I had before and get the pace in me. Just try to be focused and play well.”

His teammates admitted to being stunned that Karlsson is ready to return with three games left in the regular season.

“He said the day after it happened, he would be back in two months. We knew that was not possible and we never thought he would be able to come back unless we went really far in the playoffs,” said captain Daniel Alfredsson.

Karlsson will be paired with Marc Methot to start Thursday’s game with the Capitals. The duo was together for the first 14 games of the season before Karlsson’s injury.

“It’s a refreshing sight to see. As you could tell, it brings a lot of energy out of all the guys,” Methot said about being reunited with his partner. “It’s new life in our dressing room. Even with Alfie, you could tell he had a little hop in his step because he’s got his Swedish buddy back.”

Paul MacLean said that he will be mindful to manage Karlsson’s ice time tonight, making sure he’s not overworked in his return. When asked what his expectations were for Karlsson’s first game, he head coach cracked a joke.

“Play 35 minutes and be the first star of the game. Is that too much to ask?,” said MacLean. “Erik has worked hard to be back to be in the lineup. We just want him to come in and be him.”

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