National Post (National Edition)
MORE BASHIN’ ON YASHIN?
FORMER SEN SAYS FANS HAVEN’T FORGOTTEN HIS PAST
This will be a homecoming for Alexei Yashin.
But, the former Ottawa Senators centre isn’t sure what kind of reception he’ll get.
Yashin, who had a love/ hate relationship with fans of the Senators before the organization finally gave him his wish and dealt him to the New York Islanders in June 2001, is looking forward to pulling on his old No. 19 jersey in Friday’s Alumni Classic game.
There are a lot of familiar names like Patrick Lalime, Wade Redden, Mike Fisher, Steve Duchesne and Martin Havlat among the participants in a format that will see Team Alfie (Daniel Alfredsson) face off against Team Phillips (Chris Phillips) at Parliament Hill as part of NHL 100 Classic festivities.
Speaking in an exclusive interview Monday night, Yashin was thrilled he was given an invite by the organizers because he had already planned to come to Ottawa to attend the main event, an outdoor game at Lansdowne Park between the Senators and the Montreal Canadiens Saturday night.
“It’s going to be nice,” Yashin said from Toronto where he was attending meetings with the CBC because he’ll be part of their hockey coverage at the Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, in February. “It’s going to be a great game. It’s on Parliament Hill, so there’s going to be beautiful pictures.
“It’s nice and they want me there, so I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be fun.”
The Peace Tower might be the backdrop, but the 44-year-old Yashin, the first draft pick in franchise history when he was selected No. 2 overall in the 1992 crapshoot at the old Montreal Forum, isn’t convinced that time heals all wounds.
“Listen, they might boo me, you know?” Yashin said. “Of course you want to have a positive reaction, but at the same time I did something that people haven’t let me forget.”
It’s true. If you wind back the clock on Yashin’s career with the Senators from 1993 to 2001 and the blockbuster deal that sent him to the Islanders for Zdeno Chara, a first-round pick used to select centre Jason Spezza and Bill Muckalt, there were good times, there were bad times and there was no shortage of drama.
Yashin had several contract disputes with the organization starting in 1995-96 when he refused to honour the terms of his contract unless he was the club’s highest-paid player. A deal was eventually struck between Yashin’s agent Mark Gandler and former general manager Randy Sexton, but that caused Ottawa fans to sour on him.
The off-ice trouble didn’t stop there.
A $1-million donation to the National Arts Centre in 1998 turned out to be controversial. Perhaps the final straw came in 1999-2000 when he refused to honour his contract and demanded a trade while skating with a team in Europe.
Rod Bryden, the Senators’ owner at the time who bankrupted the club in 2003, demanded Yashin return for the 2000-01 campaign to honour his contract and the organization won a case in front of an independent arbitrator. Stripped of the captain’s ‘C’ by coach Jacques Martin, Yashin returned to finish with 88 points (40 goals and 48 assists).
Of course, when you look back on it, it was quite a chapter in the club’s history and for Yashin’s career, but he maintains what happened off the ice never once affected the effort he gave every time he put on the jersey.
“There are things that you have to live by,” Yashin said. “When you’re on the ice, you play hockey 100 per cent for your team. When you have issues with business or something else, you just don’t play. I never saw myself as somebody who didn’t play good enough to try to force something business-wide.
“I always thought if I was going to come (to the rink) I was going to play and I was going to play as I can every game I play. People might not like some of my business decisions and it was a tough time with Ottawa, but everything about hockey I tried my best.”
LISTEN, THEY MIGHT BOO ME, YOU KNOW?
Still, it’s hard to believe people would actually jeer Yashin in an alumni game that’s about celebrating the game. He was always a popular figure anywhere he went around town, the fans who asked for his autograph always treated him with respect and the reality is he’s one of the best players to put on the uniform.
“What I’m saying is people have different reactions about my past,” said Yashin. “As a professional hockey player, on the ice, I always tried to do my best and I’m sure these days they boo superstars that come from another town or sometimes they even boo superstars on their own team.
“There’s a lot of things going on and we had some tough times, but hockeywise, on the ice, I always tried my best and we were able to get that team to another level because when (they first started) we weren’t very good.”
That’s exactly it if you look at his career in Ottawa objectively. Yashin played a big role in the club’s rise to respectability and he was there when the Senators made the playoffs for the first time in franchise history in the 1996-97 campaign.
“I hope (people remember that). Different people have different perspectives, but from my point I believe that’s what happened,” Yashin said.
He’s looking forward to spending time with old teammates and he’ll arrive in town to with enough time to visit with former strength and conditioning coach Mark Slater and longtime friend Tony Cuccaro.
“I know Havlat is going to be there, Chris Phillips, I heard (Alex) Daigle is coming, so it’s part of my life and I have a lot of good memories and we did a lot of good stuff together hockey-wise and I’m looking forward to it.”
Make no mistake, Yashin has a lot of good memories of Ottawa. Who says you can’t go home again?