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OTTAWA - On July 5, 2013, Daniel Alfredsson ceased to be the face of the franchise for many Ottawa Senators fans. On Dec. 4, 2014, his legacy could be restored. Alfredsson will announce his retirement Thursday in the city he called home for 17 years. The longtime captain will skate in pre-game warm-ups with the Senators one last time, take a ceremonial faceoff and in the process show that the damaged relationship between him and the organization has been repaired. It puts the shadow, whatever you want to call it - we dont need to talk about it anymore, really, Senators defenceman Chris Phillips said. All the fences have been mended and rightfully so. Alfredsson, the Senators captain from 1999 through 2013, stunned the hockey world last year by leaving to sign with the Detroit Red Wings. His departure after 1,178 games, 426 goals and 682 assists, several playoff runs and a trip to the 2007 Stanley Cup final left raw emotions on both sides. Once back problems prevented the 41-year-old right-winger from playing this season, he told the Red Wings and Senators that he was ready to call it a career. Its only fitting that he does it in the nations capital. Im really happy to see Alfie kind of reconcile with the team, said Dallas Stars centre Jason Spezza, who was Alfredssons successor as the Senators captain. How things ended and him moving on was, I think, a move that he felt was necessary. I think it was probably the right move for him. But now that its over and hes decided hes going to hang them up, I think its good that Ottawas welcoming him back. Spezza, who asked for and was granted a trade this past summer, said of Alfredssons situation that its a little bit of water under the bridge and time heals wounds. Plenty of time has elapsed since Alfredsson spurned the Senators to go to Detroit, where he tied as the Red Wings leading scorer. Thursdays Welcome Home celebration takes the healing process to another level. Alfredsson will announce his retirement at Canadian Tire Centre in the morning, then take the ice for warm-ups with the Senators before their game against the New York Islanders. Itll be the last time the No. 11 is worn on a Senators jersey and the last chance for the future Hall of Famer to soak in the adulation from the crowd before his number is raised to the rafters at some point soon. Its a unique chance for the seminal player in Senators history and the fans to say goodbye to each other. Its great that theyre going to get a chance, coach Paul MacLean said. Lots of times once you leave, its over and done with. So the opportunity of him coming back gives the fans I guess some final closure. Skating in warm-ups is also a first-of-its-kind idea, one that the Senators needed to get special permission from the NHL to execute. The league gave it, and friend and teammate Erik Karlsson is glad to be a part of it. Its the honourable way to end (his) career and celebrate a player thats done so much for this organization and this team, even before the time that most of us got here, said Karlsson, the Senators current captain. Its going to be a thing that everybody will remember for the rest of their careers. Alfredssons career is impossible to forget because as he went, so did the Senators. A native of Gothenburg, Sweden, he was a sixth-round pick, 133rd overall, in 1994 and over the years played in 121 of the 126 playoff games in franchise history. Along the way, lifted the Prince of Wales Trophy and was the spokesman and the symbol of the team for almost two decades. He was a pillar and a foundation of that organization, Spezza said Tuesday in Toronto. Theres not a lot of tradition yet in that city, and he is the first real big player thats played (almost) his whole career there. I think its good that they can recognize him and give him the recognition that he deserves. Last week the team unveiled a video montage of some of Alfredssons most memorable moments with the Senators and the Swedish national team. Set to Coming Home by Ditty-Dirty Money and Skylar Grey, lyrics like let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday and back where I belong set the tone for an emotional reunion. Owner Eugene Melnyk wrote on Twitter last week that Dec. 4 will be a truly special and historic day for the Ottawa Senators. On Monday he wrote that he had spoken to Alfredsson to finalize what will be the biggest Welcome Home celebration Ottawa has ever seen. Even though I think hes come to terms with the decision he made with retiring, I think it might hit him a little bit harder when he comes in the rink again and sees all the people, Karlsson said. I think its probably going to take him a while to realize what really happened. As a young player in the NHL, Alfredsson wasted little time making an impact on the Senators, winning the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year in 1995-96. Defenceman Mark Borowiecki, who grew up a Senators fan outside Ottawa, said that season was a glimmer of hope for fans. That was pretty early on in our time as a franchise, Borowiecki said. It was pretty neat to see kind of a top-end-talent player like that in Ottawa. Alfredsson spearheaded 15 trips to the post-season, most notably in 2007 when the Senators went to the Stanley Cup final before losing to the Anaheim Ducks. He won a gold medal with Sweden at the 2006 Olympics in Turin as the teams leading scorer and helped lead an injury-ravaged 2013 without Spezza and Karlsson for major parts of the season to the playoffs. He was a guy that, through any changeover, he had been there, Spezza said. He had seen the good, the bad and the ugly. He had kind of been a part of things from the start when they were really bad, and he was with us and our captain when we had really good teams and we were knocking on the door to win the Cup, and he kind of saw us regressing a little bit towards the end. Hes a guy thats really been through it all there. Alfredsson went through it all and then some, including the ugly breakup in the summer of 2013 that was hard to see coming. In spite of that, many fans still wear Alfredsson jerseys to games, and pictures of him can still be found all over the arena. Hes etched in Ottawa sports history, something that will be front and centre as he laces up his skates with the Senators one final time. This is where he should retire, Karlsson said. He still loves this organization and this city. As of right now, the Ottawa Senators really show that they love him back just as much. --- Follow @SWhyno on Twitter Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version had the incorrect dates of Alfredssons time as captain. C. J. Miles Jersey . Carey Price made 27 saves for Montreal (30-21-6) for his fourth shutout of the year and second in four games. David Desharnais added an empty netter for the Canadiens. Reto Berra stopped 25 shots for Calgary (21-28-7). Bojan Bogdanovic Jersey . Chris Heisey followed with a two-run triple and Billy Hamilton added an RBI double, all but sealing Cincinnatis fourth straight victory and seventh in eight games. Brandon Phillips, celebrating his 33rd birthday, hit a go-ahead homer in the ninth for the Reds before pinch-hitter Buster Posey tied it with an RBI double off hard-throwing closer Aroldis Chapman in the bottom half. https://www.cheapjazzonline.com/288e-jer...ersey-jazz.html. The Miami Heat star tops the leagues global list of top-selling jerseys for the 2012-13 season, edging Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls, Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder and James Heat teammate Dwyane Wade for the No. Larry H. Miller Jersey .Former NBA forward Morris Peterson has been added to TSNs Toronto Raptors broadcast team. Matt Harpring Jersey . -- Ryan Gropp scored in overtime as the Seattle Thunderbirds shut out the Spokane Chiefs 1-0 in Western Hockey League play Tuesday.Im going to talk margins in todays blog. The knife-edged difference between success and failure. Moments in a game, and in a season that can swing your fortunes dramatically - especially in a league like MLS. There were one or two of those in the World Cup Final. A bad back pass here, a post hit off a corner there, with the stakes infinitely higher for both Germany and Argentina. In the end, one brilliant moment 117 minutes in will be remembered for a lifetime in Deutschland. A priceless memory, even though with even the slightest of variables, it could have been so much different. As the Whitecaps reach half-time on their 2014 campaign, think for a moment about how Caps supporters are feeling today, compared with how they might have felt had their team managed to beat Chivas USA on Saturday night. With three points, Vancouver would be sitting second in the West alongside Real Salt Lake, with a four-point cushion above the playoff bar. They would have also been two points ahead of last years pace - an impressive achievement given Carl Robinsons dependence on youth. Instead, the Whitecaps sit in fifth - two points behind last years pace - with the LA Galaxy, Chivas and Portland bearing down in the rear-view mirror. There you have the margins in an MLS season. Then there are the defining ones within a game. Carlyle Mitchell found a yard of space in the penalty area before nodding home his first MLS goal between Dan Kennedys legs. The cross from Pedro Morales had to be inch perfect. Johnny Leveron lost his man for one second, and Agustin Pelletieri equalized from a Chivas corner. That corner itself appeared contentious, until further review when the ball appeared to havve just marginally brushed off the top of Steven Beitashours head.dddddddddddd A twinge of irony too, as it was Pelletieri who was sent off in the two teams earlier meeting in Carson. The decision was probably incorrect, but the Whitecaps couldnt take advantage on that day. Jordan Harvey was one second late and one yard behind his tackle on Oswaldo Minda, and was sent off. Nigel Reo Cokers right foot was one inch too open, and his side-footed effort from an Erik Hurtado cutback was a yard wide from giving Vancouver the lead. Erick Torres found an extra yard of space, and he took full advantage as the 21-year-old Mexican scored a remarkable 13th goal, and a fourth straight game winner. Think about his value to the Goats having contributed 65 per cent of their goals this season. And Dan Kennedy had at least four fingers and part of a palm on top of the ball that sat on his goal-line, before Morales poked it in during second half stoppage time. Just enough to be considered "in control" of the ball under the FIFA laws. The problem for Coach Robinson right now is that he needs two players to swing some of those critical moments in his favour. The challenge is, some quick math will tell you there isnt a whole lot of margin on the payroll to add the elite central defender and certified goal poacher that can swing more moments in the Whitecaps direction. Saturday ended the Whitecaps eight-game sellout run. Would another second half season slump turn people off? The decisions Whitecaps brass make in these next few weeks may ultimately decide the margin of error between playoff soccer, and another off-season of "what-ifs" in Van City. ' ' '
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