Two decades after playing the villain in the Battle of Ontario, Daniel Alfredsson prepares to coach against the Ottawa Senators from the Toronto Maple Leafs’ bench. DOCX
For the better part of two decades, Daniel Alfredsson was the player Maple Leafs fans came to boo. On Saturday night he will stand behind their bench instead, coaching against the Ottawa Senators for the first time since he left that organization’s staff this summer to join one of the clubs he spent a career trying to beat.
The building has already told him where it stands. On opening night against the Montreal Canadiens, Alfredsson was introduced as the Leafs’ associate coach and drew a loud cheer. He was not sure what was coming.
“It felt great,” Alfredsson said Saturday. “Obviously, opening night in the NHL is a big deal, and you know, obviously excited to get started on the season. Camp came fast and furious this year, short in camp and very intense for players and coaches and staff. So it was nice once we finally started playing games.”
He expected the city to be easier to disappear in. It has not been.
“I thought I would be more incognito in the city, but they still remember my face, some of them,” he said. “So I love it. I do. They’re great, and I’m sure it’s going to be ups and downs for everybody in the season. But I think it’s important to be out and about. Love the city so far. It’s been a hectic first month here, but I look forward to what’s ahead.”
The face they remember belonged to the captain of the other Ontario team. Drafted 133rd overall by Ottawa in 1994, Alfredsson won the Calder Trophy in 1996, wore the C from 1999 through 2013 and left as the Senators’ all-time leader with 426 goals, 682 assists and 1,108 points. He finished with 444 goals and 1,157 points in 1,246 NHL games, almost all of them in Ottawa, plus one final season in Detroit. His No. 11 is retired in the nation’s capital. He entered the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2022.
The rivalry filled in the rest. Between 2000 and 2004 the clubs met in the playoffs four times. Toronto won all four. The moment that stuck came in Game 5 of the 2002 second round, when Alfredsson delivered a disputed hit from behind on Darcy Tucker late in the game and scored the winner while Tucker was still on the ice. Leafs fans treated him as the villain from then on. In 2004 he guaranteed a Senators win in Game 6, got it, and watched Toronto close the series in seven. There was also the night he needled Mats Sundin after the Leafs captain was suspended for accidentally throwing a broken stick into the crowd. Skill, edge, and a habit of showing up in the biggest games: Alfredsson posted 35 goals and 75 points in 84 regular-season meetings with Toronto.
Two decades later, the old combatants have made their peace. Alfredsson ran into a collection of Leafs alumni at the club’s golf tournament, Tucker included.
“We kissed and made up,” he said. “Ran into quite a few of them at the Leafs alumni golf tournament. Darcy played in the group in front of me.”
Did he hit into him?
“He was too far ahead,” he joked.
The decision to change rooms was slower than the joke. Alfredsson came back to Ottawa in player development and liked the ice time with the players. When Jacques Martin took over in December, about two and a half years ago, he was asked to join the bench. He was hesitant. After a couple of conversations he stayed for the rest of the year, found he enjoyed it, and remained when Travis Green arrived, working with a staff that included Mike Yeo. He learned a lot. He also was not certain where he fit, or whether he fit, and by the end of last season he was looking at what came next.
Sundin, a former Swedish national teammate and the captain on the other side of those playoff series, had a couple of conversations with him. Toronto asked Ottawa for permission. Alfredsson was unsure for a long list of reasons. Sundin’s belief in the fit, and the relationship that went back to their playing days, moved him. So did the talks with Jim Hiller, including one sit-down that ran about an hour before the formal interview.
“At first, it wasn’t, I wasn’t sure. Can I do this?” Alfredsson said. “But as we talked and had a few more conversations, you know, obviously talked to Jim (Maple Leafs head coach Jim Hiller). If I want to be a coach, you got to experience different situations and different scenarios, different systems, and that’s kind of where it went in my head. How can I evolve and get better as a coach if this is the route I’m going down?”
Hiller has been more interested in why Alfredsson took the job than in the old headlines. A playing career that long set him up. He does not need the early mornings or the grind of an 82-game season.
“He has the financial freedom not to have to do that. So it’s a personal choice, and he’s shown a commitment to that. That was really important to me, too,” Hiller said. “I see a guy who’s just fully committed, who didn’t need to be, and for many reasons, he just loves the game that much.”
What he has enjoyed most is that the passion carried over.
“You probably don’t become the player that he was without tremendous passion for the game, and he has that in the coaching capacity as well. Just all aspects, he loves it all, and it’s been fun being around him.”
Hiller also thinks the path helps him coach. Alfredsson was not a surefire high pick ticketed for a Hall of Fame career. He climbed.
“A tremendous work ethic and drive and understanding of the game,” Hiller said. “I think that one is one that can relate to all players, whether you’re on the fourth line or you’re the star player.”
On the power play the work is collaborative, but the responsibility is primarily Alfredsson’s.
Saturday will not be the harder night. Alfredsson said the most emotional return to Ottawa was the one he made as a Red Wing, riding to the rink with Erik Karlsson and then peeling off to a different room, walking into a building that had been home. Coaching will not land the same way. It will still bring memories. He has not had a dinner with the Senators group. He moved a couple of days ago. His wife and youngest son arrived Friday. He said hello to a few people when he got to the rink Saturday morning, waved to others at the morning skate, and plans to stop by later.
They already saw each other in the preseason. That was a taste. This is the first real one.
“It’s different. There’s no question being on the other side,” Alfredsson said. “But it’s also something we all know in this league. It’s gonna happen, and still got good relationship with a lot of the players and staff. So obviously wish them the best and wish us a little bit better.”
Hiller expects him to keep most of it in.
“He’s a pretty calm and obviously professional guy. He’ll probably keep most of that in, but I can’t imagine he wouldn’t be anything but just a little bit emotional deep down.”
The part of the job Alfredsson keeps coming back to is simpler than the provincial history. He likes watching players get better, on the ice and off it, technical and tactical. He compared it to watching his own kids grow up. He spent a career studying who was best at each piece of the game and trying to borrow it. Now he is trying to hand that on, in a building that used to boo him, against the team that used to be his.
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