Even now, as a senior co-captain and one of the top two pivots for the Providence Friars, Alyse Ruff insists that her jersey number 21, the exact same digit Cammi Granato once donned in the exact same uniform, carries no extra weight.
No sense of privilege. No glowering pressure to honor any jersey’s previous individual occupant –even if that individual was, historically speaking, the PC women’s answer to Bobby Orr. Not even a healthy boost of spur.
“No, not at all,” Ruff said. “It’s just the number I wear and the number I like.”
Maybe if retired sweaters were commonplace in this realm of the game, Ruff would feel different. By now, she may even have been coaxed into an abdication ceremony a la Ray Bourque turning in Phil Esposito’s No. 7 in favor of 77.
Then again, the reminders and relics are still present. Granato’s Team USA jersey, which sports the same “2-1” numerals on the back, is in plain sight along with the Olympic gear of eight other alumnae for the current Friars to see every time they walk down to their office. And around campus, one can still find a shot of Granato and her six schoolmates who partook in the 1998 Nagano Olympics flaunting their gold medals around the PC Zamboni.
Not quite the same as reeling those players’ names and numbers to the rafters of Schneider Arena, where the tokens of history would be more visible to the public eye. Even so, just in case the peerless, pioneer legacy itself was not strong enough to hit home on its own, the visual aid in the runway to the locker room is there to give that puck a final nudge into the net.
“It’s kind of ironic, I guess,” Ruff said. “Coming into here, it wasn’t like ‘Oh, I want to be No. 21 because Cammi Granato went here.’ I had that number in high school. But I like it. I’m tempted to write her or meet her one day and ask for her autograph just because I wear 21.”
The number, and its most famous female owner, will assume yet another immortal position Monday night when Granato joins Canadian counterpart Angela James as the first two female players ever enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame. And some 17 years after she graduated from the NCAA ranks with a career transcript of 139 goals and 256 points in merely 99 games, Granato’s collegiate descendents are primed to reap some gifts by association.
With her assistance, they have already built up more than enough P.R. momentum in recent years. Since she retired from international competition in 2006, Granato has claimed a share of the Lester Patrick Award, been inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame and U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, and become the namesake of the Hockey East MVP trophy.
Current head coach Bob Deraney, who arrived in Providence six years after Granato snagged her degree and one year after the landmark Nagano Games, also noted that this is coming a year after former PC men’s hockey patriarch and current New Jersey Devils executive Lou Lamoriello was honored at the Toronto museum himself.
“It’s interesting,” he said. “For the second consecutive year, there’s a Providence College graduate going into the Hockey Hall of Fame and we’re very excited.”
Deraney added that he plans to be on hand and will actively take part in Tuesday’s ceremony, opposite his assistants Karen Thatcher –who was the newest PC Olympian last winter- and Bob Bellemore –the program’s only holdover from Granato’s playing days.
“It just shows you the position that Providence College has on the landscape of women’s ice hockey, and I think that’s the statement that’s going to be made,” he said.
“But obviously, all of the accomplishments are all hers and she’s put in the hard work and dedication and commitment to be basically the best player who’s ever played women’s ice hockey in the United States. There’s no woman more deserving to be one of the first women to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. It’s very exciting, we’re very proud of her.”
Al Daniel is the Hockey East correspondent to Beyond the Dashers
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