Plenty of interesting content in the interview (full transcript available here) but the comments that jumped out at me were his plans after hockey, in particular his desire to be a coach when his playing career is over.
Interesting that he emphasized the fact that it wouldn't be any time soon.
- I would like to know if you see yourself behind the Senators bench as an assistant or even a head coach in the NHL eventually? If so, would you be more of a strategy-minded or a motivator-type coach? (Pierre Larabie, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)
- I think I’d be both. I don’t see myself coaching too soon. I think it takes even more time at the rink than it does as a player to prepare! [chuckles] Right now, I don’t think I’m ready for that. But I like the strategic aspect of the game. I think I read the game really well. I try to talk to our coaches about things I’d like to see at times. I’m interested in how the coaches think. I like that part of it. So I think I’d be a bit of both types. I think I can also challenge guys and motivate them in different ways.
It was also nice to hear Alfredsson say flat out, he will retire as an Ottawa Senator. People still like to speculate about the possibility of Alfie chasing a Cup with another team but it really doesn't sound like Alfredsson has any interest in going that route.
- When you decide to retire from the NHL, will you retire as a member of the Senators, or have you considered playing one last season in the Swedish Elitserien? (Christoffer Olofsson, Stockholm, Sweden - via Facebook)
- I will retire as a Senator. I won’t play in the Swedish league again. There are a few reasons. Once I feel like I’m done in the NHL, I think I’m done because mentally and physically I don’t feel like I can contribute as much as I would like or motivate myself. You know, if you go back to the Swedish league and try to play when you’re not motivated, it’s even worse, because it’s more skating and it’s even harder. So I will retire as an Ottawa Senator.
Quoting RUSHRLZ:
[quote name="SNOOPY SENIOR"]This is surely " not racism " as we know it !
Not directed at you personally...bu t do you really think any racist/Bigot person says "Hmmm its tuesday lets decide to hate everyone with black hair!!"?
No they think that their unfounded views of a certain demographic of people(based on what ever) is founded on facts. Sounds a hell of a lot like people saying Russian hockey players should never be drafted.
Onto the supject at hand...I like the comments you posted, can't listen to the whole thing atm though.
As for the Russians, I think peolpe cloud their judgement ebcause of their failures. Most failures or players without heart simply get sent to AHL or ECHL and we never hear of them again. With Russians they "bolt" to KHL which makes them all seem greedy
For every dud of a russian pick, there are 2 dud Canadians. Its a fact
If Thornton was Russian he wouldn't have a job right now. That I'm fairly certain about. No heart, only in it for money, you can already start hearing what would be said
One thing you can't take away from Russians is their love for their country. Ovechkin and Semin still want to rep their country and arrive in time for 1/4 finals. I still can't get over Stamkos choosing not to go. Talk about heart now
so is it racist to say that a 5'5" kid is a risk because he is short?
are we being racist agains short people... c'mon people are stating facts on what some of the Russian players have been doing in recent years. They are making their decisions which is every bit their right to play in the KHL, where for all we know, they think is a better league for them.
this is not racism
They are grown men who can make their own decisions, and I feel that from what we have seen as Sens fans, Russian players have not been able to help out our team very much, so if given the choice between two equal calibre players I would rather have a North American player, to play on our hockey team.
Thats it, other than that I love most if not all Russians!
it is not racism
I think the racism talk on here stems from people categorizing "all russians are the same". Some people are saying to avoid Russians at all cost, because they are lazy, bolt for KHL and have no heart"
That is taking a stereotype and generalizing it across a population, which is where the racism talk comes from
End of it !!!!!!!!
The other consideration is that if it's going to be Jason's team, would it hurt Jason's leadership if Alfie was constantly around? Would we sort of need Alfie to disappear for a while to truly get into the Spezza era?
This has a lot of merit, and I definately see Alfie more in a GM assistant role to begin. This way BM can tecah him the asset management aspects of the game, scouting and talent development etc etc
This way Alfie can learn the ropes, and when he is ready he can dive into any position he sees fit
And you gotta know Alfie would go over well as a scout in Sweden.
LOL
Nobody's talking about having Alfie as a head coach or even an assistant just yet (other than some jabs at the current PP). Alfie himself wouldn't take on a role he felt he was 100% ready for.
Just sayin'.
However, I see the NHL & other European leagues eventually merging in the future. I could see the winners of each league playing each other in a playoff tournament similar to the Memorial Cup, where the champion of each league plays off in a tournament to determine the world champion. I imagine that players could have the choice of staying in their respective countries to play for their respective teams but I also think there will always be some who move on to somewhere else in order to get more ice time. If they don't eventually merge I would guess we will see less & less European players as their leagues & teams can afford to pay their players to stay home. We are already seeing how competitive European teams are, we are no longer dominating World tournaments as we did in the past, parity is slowly developing around the world in men's hockey.
Then we can talk about management
http://twitter.com/DarrenDreger - With 1 year left on contract, Brandon Wheat Kings let head coach Cory Clouston go.
This is an idea i have been toting around for a few years. Similar to how the NFL mixed in two leagues in its origins.
The only issues i have with this setup would be:
- Ice size
- Home ice advantage
- Capped salary (NHL) vs un-capped salaries (EU/World)
- Drafting
Time committments and IIHF schedules play a factor as well
NHL goes until June now, World Champs are May, several of the best players really only get two months off (July/August) and August for the most part is beginning conditioning as is
So any extra merger for world supremecy would almost make hockey 12 month job. Injuries would be killer
It was more of less noting what former NHL players that had played in Russia mentioned about how scary it was to fly there... It was meant as nothing more than that. If I offended anyone with that ... I apologize.
As for Alfie... would he take the same type of role that Yzerman took? But he probably would make a good coach...
I have a feeling we see him for 1 more year.. provided he comes out of the Worlds without any incidents.
Ne douche pas, SVP.
Next coach of the Caps - clearly Ovechkin had a word.
Hey Sandy for those us who have read your posts before, there was no apology required, we know you would never speak insensitively regarding such a tragedy,
Sweden is using Alfie & Karlsson on the point on their PP.
Think about it for a second, if you were given the choice...do your monotonous gvt of canada job in Ottawa(or wherever you are from) or move to Russia and do it, what would you pick?
Most likely 95% would chose to stay close to loved ones, guess you are all heartless and without drive or motivation because the transition would be too much to even attempt.
Don't even take into account language barrier/culture shock...
Again, I must be missing the posts where people are saying that playing in the KHL=heartless. I think the vast majority of posters here are pretty liberal and open-minded so not sure what's got you so upset T?
I will stop haha
And don't forget they aren't subject to entry level contracts. Radulov was making 5 million a year, I would have done the same thing. If the new collective agreement is even more restrictive on young players, whose to say the next Stamkos, Tavares or Yakupov won't go/stay in Russia and reap the financial benefits until they are old enough to be a UFA in the NHL?
I agree that drafting a Russian player has issues attached to it that are not present with players of other nationalities. Saying that is a statement of fact, saying not to draft a Russian because he is bound to be lazy, worthless, smelling of borscht, greedy, only interested in money isn't.
Because we love the game and the players so much we sometimes forget that this is just a job to a lot of these guys and there are very human reasons for some of the decisions that are made.
Of course I didn't find the language too much of a barrier when I came here, although I find Canadians in general have a poor grasp of cockney rhyming slang and the least said about the differences surrounding the term cottaging the better.
Great post about Alfie, I like the comment about not being ready. I think this last season being as good as it was for him, will be too much for him to pass up on. Alfie will be back next year!
Anyone watch that NY vs NJ game last night? I only caught the 3rd period, but everyone was saying that NJ deserved the win. Now isn't that the same comment we heard in the Ottawa series as well as the Caps series? If the other team is continually more deserving of the win, where does that put the Rangers? They've had two straight 7 game series, can they continue to pull these performances out of there arse? To me, when this type of "deserving" comment is used, it means only one thing.. the goalie is rocking it. Damn you Lundqvist! lol
As always, you've nailed it. So you grew up in London?
"when i was growing up it was called getting your bell rung. noone my age ever had a concussion. now it seems it happens all the time. I dont know if its environmental or the way we eat and our skulls are thinner now or what but this is happening too often."
someone suggested equipment changes being harder now
"thats a part of it i'm sure, but there is more than that too...."
thats last i heard. the way he talked with such concern on the subject to me made me realize how real of a topic it is, that even players are thinking about it. I thought it was an interesting perspective anyways
If I could thumbs down this I would
I'd love to have him as well as I go to a lot of Flames games but the asking price will be very high. I'm sure he'll give the Flames a very short list of where he would go as well. They won't move him unless he asks, at least that's what Feaster and Ken King have said.
if they were smart they would start selling in my opinion, and we have a lot of good prospects in the loop as well as a goaltender they might be interested in should kipper decide to move on to greener pastures. i think they are turning down the leafs road right now and id hate to see them hit 10th or 9th every years (the flames)
atleast he followed up by saying
Everybody relax doesn't mean talks won't be held with Carkner just none to date. #Sens
i would have never thought id be pretty mad/disappointe d that we wont be getting carkner back. only thing that would REALLY piss me off is if we resign gilroy.
http://www.tsn.ca/draftcentre/feature/?id=49649
do your self a favour bud. NEVER read what craig button predicts for rankings. i can name tons of non sense things he has said such as last year puempel going 10th and zibanejad going 11th. or dougie hamilton not being drafted till 14th? and ryan murphy going 4th compared to where he actaully went i believe 13th?
my point is, this guy literally looks like he picks name out of a hat and throws them up on a list saying thats the order, a huge percentage of his guess are completly off.
Does that mean yet? or not at all?
As for the draft.. why would Kevin Lowe have Ryan Murray at the Worlds to get a look at if he wasn't interested in him. Could Edmonton trade down? Why would Grigorenko fall so fast?
100% yes on the murray and oilers part, taking advtange of some last minute scouting. and grigorenko to many scouts will still go top 5, some believe at points he challenged for number 1. its just there was rumours of him heading back home, which i have a tough time believing. The rumours started because some believed grigorenko is 1 season away from being an NHL regular and that means he may have to stay in the QMJHL and that right away sparked the "he will chose to go to KHL to make a lot of money"
They said Stamkos had an injured shoulder.
Let me start by saying I am cheering for L.A and picked them from the begging believe it or not. Given all of this I am still legitimately feeling terrible for Pheonix right now. This nut job of a ref has lost control of the game. Not in terms of fights at all but in terms of setting a tone with certain calls and ended up having to make ridiculous calls instead of just letting them play. O'Rourke is the ONLY refferee I've noticed enough throughout this year that I can actually remember his name.
On top of that the linesman are being just ridiculous. Don Cherry, as much as I think he can be a little out in left field, has been mentioning this for a while now. I mean it's getting to be a little much. They purposely fake the guys out, and the first one to make a substantial move gets waived out. Then when the next guy comes in, he drops it imidiately almost every time. It's pretty disgusting to be honest. Imagine how much time you'd save if the linesman would drop the puck right away. We have a fast game, that's the best thing about it. Let's keep it that way
Tyrant, you are absolutely right. I had the pleasure to chat with Button over a bottle of vino last year and he is incredibly knowledgeable and friendly. The problem is with him trying to remain relevant on tv. He is almost as loud and obnoxious on camera as Steve Kouleas! I actually removed TSN2 from my cable package because I can't stand having two people yell their opinions at me, I already have a wife and mistress for that! His tv persona is the polar opposite of the real Craig Button and he is just spewing crazy shit to stay employed. Google his picks for the past few years and you will see for the most part they are out to lunch compared to other pundits and reality.
Leaving now seems a bit short, kind of have the feeling Alfie is pressured from his wife to retire
Not buying he does not want to play another year.
excactly so why would you waste your pick on someone who has every right not to come play on your team,
thanks for proving my point TCharger
Who are you going to cheer for?
Game will be bright and early Saturday morning...
Maybe he wasn't the best coach for us at the time, but he did seem like a character guy, and went so far to not be bitter and defended his players even after he had been fired, even Elliot and look at what he accomplished this year...
I'm glad he is gone from the Senators but I'm sure not dancing for joy every time he gets fired someplace else. Why such hard feelings?
Agree with you Rush,
He seemed like a decent man, but not the right coach for us, but was all class as he was escorted out of town we have obviously upgraded, and he also treated our prospects well with Stone, but like you I do wish him well, except when playing against our Sens
neither
everybody has every right not to come play on your team - it's hockey, not slavery
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