In April 2013, Ottawa Magazine honoured the captain with the “Alfie Pack,” deconstructing the Senators’ icon with 11 essays on No. 11. By July, he was a Detroit Red Wing.
On December 1, Alfie and the Red Wings visit the Canadian Tire Centre for the first time since the deal was done. In the lead-up to the big event, Ottawa Magazine revisits our 11 essays — one essay per day for 11 days. (Want a copy? Back issues for sale here.)
Turning It up to 11: Alfie as Valley Boy
He likes huntin’ and fishin’. His brother Henric works for the Ottawa Police Service. He has two snowmobiles, even once riding one of them to practice at Scotiabank Place.
By Roy MacGregor
It is often said that certain people were born in the wrong era — they would have fit in better, say, in the Roaring Twenties or Victorian England or maybe all the way back to the Dark Ages.
Rarer is the person who was born in the wrong place.
Take, for example, Valley lad Daniel Alfredsson. His birth certificate says Gothenburg, Sweden, December 11, 1972, but it could just as easily say Carp or Calabogie or Killaloe.
Consider the evidence: He lives on a rural stretch not far from the Ottawa River. His children — there are four of them: Hugo, Loui, Fenix, and William Erik — go, or will go, to public school in Carp. He likes huntin’ and fishin’. His brother Henric works for the Ottawa Police Service. He has two snowmobiles, even once riding one of them to practice at Scotiabank Place.