Sens at Land’s End

I just thought I would take a moment here to acknowledge the excellence of Sens captain Daniel Alfredsson. I’m not speaking of his hockey excellence — that is something I totally take for granted: he’s Alfie, and he’ll always be there, and one terrible day when he retires I’m going to get a nasty shock — but rather of his excellence as a human being.

What brought this on? Well, I read today that he is lending his support to a Royal Ottawa Foundation campaign which is “aimed at raising awareness and reducing the stigmatization of mental illness.” The campaign’s website (You Know Who I Am) points out that one in five people will suffer from some form of mental illness in their lifetime, but many people never seek treatment because of the stigma attached to it. Here is why I give big love to Alfie for doing this:

When I was a kid, I went through a horrible phase where I would be so scared to go to school in the mornings that I would cry and throw up and refuse to go. For a long time, I would get sick every year on the first day of school, without fail. I was too scared to go on field trips. I hated going to parties because I’d get so stressed out beforehand and often made up excuses so I wouldn’t have to go. I couldn’t eat in restaurants because I’d feel too anxious. I still don’t like eating at other people’s houses. I never wanted to tell anyone about any of this because I was too embarrassed. I only ever referred to my problem as being “nervous.”

Then a couple of years ago I had a panic attack. I thought I was dying, but it was panic. Then I had another one, and eventually I went to my doctor and told her about my symptoms as about my previous issue with “nervousness,” and the doctor said I likely had a mild anxiety disorder. It made a huge difference to me to put a name on it, because I was finally able to tell people my problem instead of just avoiding it. When I looked up a list of anxiety symptoms on the internet I found things that I’d had but never knew what they were. It was a great comfort. Once I started telling people about my problem, I soon discovered that many other people had similar problems, which was also very comforting. It occurs to me often that a whole lot of people suffer from this kind of thing, and no one really talks about it. I think that needs to change, and I think having Alfie’s image associated with the problem will actually help, given the way he is perceived around these parts: if Alfie, who was strong/brave/tough enough to play in the playoffs with a torn MCL this year, is telling us a condition is serious, then it surely must be serious.

That is why I think Alfie is excellent. Well, one reason.

In other Sens news, it seems New Coach Uncle Ben spent a lot of time on the phone this weekend, introducing himself to various Sens players. (Though I guess it wouldn’t take that long to phone all the players, given that we only have about half a roster right now. Oh how I’d laugh if it didn’t seem so dire!) Here is what Alfie, in all his awesomeness, had to say about his telephonic tete-a-tete with Hartsburg:

“We had a talk and it was a chance for him to introduce himself,” Alfredsson said yesterday. “I know everybody talks about us having to have this guy who has this no-nonsense approach. Whether he has that approach or not, we all want the same thing here: We want to win.

“If we’re not doing the things that it takes to win, then he’s going to help us to get better. He’s an ex-player, who was an elite player. He knows what it takes for us to be successful. I think we’re really going to welcome that approach. It’s going to be a positive situation.”

I don’t know whether the mental health campaign has me extra full of confidence in Alfie today or what, but that seems like a really super good point and it made me feel even more positive about the new coach. I revisited his Wikipedia page (it is my #1 source of info) to see what I could find out about the man’s playing career — specifically his playoff experience — which I had not really looked at before. I found that he made it to the Stanley Cup Final with the Minnesota North Stars in his second season in the NHL (1980-1981), but Minnesota lost to the New York Islanders. He also made it to the Conference Final as a rookie in 1979-1980, but aside from that there wasn’t a lot of playoff action happening in his career and so in the end, I did all that work clicking around Wikipedia and I still come up wishing he had more post-season experience.

Despite that one shortcoming, I do like the way the coaching staff is shaping up. The Sun is now reporting that it is Calgary Flames assistant coach Wayne Fleming who is the top candidate for the second assistant position in Ottawa, and not Regina’s Curtis Hunt as they had previously said. Fleming and Hartsburg were assistants to Ken Hitchcock together in Philadelphia for two seasons. In 2003-2004 they took the Flyers to the Eastern Conference Final.

By far the most important news of the day, though, is that this blog got its first ever link back, from Senators Lost Cojones at Five for Smiting! To celebrate, I’m buying myself a new pimp hat.