Replay of the Day: When emotions are this high, it’s difficult to blame them from running over.
Ottawa Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson returned to what could be his last playoff hoorah after missing games 3, 4 and 5 with a concussion he suffered in Game 2 of the Sens back-and-forth controversy-laden battle with the No. 1-seeded New York Rangers.
On Monday night, the chants of “Alfie! Alfie!” rang loud and often throughout Scotiabank Place, in what could well be the 39-year-old winger’s final skate on home ice.
At one point during the TV broadcast, over the play-by-play chatter, you could hear fans counting down to begin the next “Alfie!” chorus, not unlike the way those two drunk guys in the 500 level of the Jays game count down to the Wave they’re trying to summon.
Alfredsson is so beloved in Canada’s capital that he has earned the team’s loudest cheers despite registering only a single point in this series. Mostly because of this guy:
So it was, with the desire to give his supporters of 16 seasons what they want and the craving to extend his own playoff life, that the normally composed veteran threw a little spazz-out on the bench in the third period of the Sens’ 3-2 loss to the Blueshirts.
“I was (really frustrated),” Alfredsson told reporters of his stick-breaking, water-bottle-stomping display of emotion after coach Paul MacLean kept him off the first PP unit. “We didn’t start on the power play in the third, and I can understand that because we weren’t very good, but we weren’t on the ice and then we take a penalty so we didn’t get on for a while after that. A little frustration, and I probably should have handled myself better.”