PUTTING TEAM FIRST RAISES STAR'S STOCK
By CHRIS STEVENSON -- Ottawa Sun
  Ron Tugnutt is uniquely positioned to gauge Alexei Yashin's progress.
 Gauge as in 12-gauge, as in bullet, as in "ouch."
 "He is shooting the puck so hard," said the Senators goaltender as he packed his equipment for the trip to Montreal for tonight's opener at the Molson Centre.
 "I said to him, `You trying to hurt me out there?' He said, `It doesn't hurt you if it doesn't hit you' as he beats me with it. He's a guy you're going to want to watch this year. He is just going to have a monster year."
 Tugnutt and Damian Rhodes, who will start in goal tonight against the Habs, will face more Yashin shots this season than any opponent's goaltender.
 Poor guys.
 They are in the best position to see who is coming on, who's taking their talent and squeezing more out of it, whose game is evolving rather then revolving.
 Tugnutt can see it in Yashin.
 It goes beyond what happens on the ice. As has been pointed out in this space before, Yashin has never been more confident, more at ease and more comfortable in his surroundings than he is now.
 The defining personality of the Senators' franchise since his arrival four years ago, the 23-year-old is poised to take his game and his team from the realm of the merely respectable in the NHL to the fringes of fear.
 Yashin is feared by his opponents because of his puck-handling skills -- there are none better in the league -- his whistling shot and his willingness to go into traffic in front for a scoring chance. He has the ability to make opponents look foolish, and that, perhaps, is the greatest fear of an NHLer.
 If you get caught looking foolish often enough, you wind up looking for work.
 Yashin's importance to this team is expected to be officially recognized today when the club names its alternate captains.
 If it comes to pass, Yashin will smile and say all the right things, like he did yesterday.
 "I don't need a letter," he said. "The guys in the room and the fans know who's working hard. It doesn't matter whether I'm an assistant or not. I know what I have to do. I have to do the best for my team."
 But it does matter.
 What will be more telling today, should Yashin emerge with an "A", is what is not said.
 The significance of an "A" on No. 19's shoulder today won't be in it being bestowed by club management, but in Yashin's accepting it
 He won't talk about it, but there is no doubt Yashin was deeply hurt and left feeling slighted when he was passed over as an alternate captain last year. He saw Daniel Alfredsson, who had been here a year less than he, given an "A".
 In the minds of Senators management, Yashin wasn't ready, or, in the harshest interpretation, didn't deserve an "A" last season.
 It would be human nature, after being hurt like that, to be bitter.
 The "A" on the shoulder that you thought had been rightfully earned would be replaced by a chip.
 It would be easy this season, after being approached by management, to turn down an "A".
 If you weren't worthy of it last year, why now?
 To turn it down for those reasons would be a self-satisfying, but selfish decision.
 Accepting it would be the smart thing to do.
 Like Yashin said, you have to do what's best for your team.
 An "A" on a player's shoulder signifies a leader, an overused word in today's hockey world if there ever was one. It represents an individual, who, for a variety of reasons, perhaps experience, perhaps skill, perhaps sheer force of will, is held up as an example for his teammates.
 Above all, it represents an individual who puts the good of the team before personal good, interests or goals.
 With this business behind him and his rightful place on the team now officially recognized, the path is clear for Yashin to assert himself this season.
 If you're a Senators' fan, be happy and hang on for the ride.
 If you're Ron Tugnutt, grab another bag of ice.