After the 95/96 championship, Forsberg did not spend a single Enhael season from bell to bell. Another misfortune - chronic groin pain, presumably associated with an ankle defect - threatens not only to ruin the current championship, but also to put a fat cross on the whole career.
There are players who, entering the "twilight zone", in other words, hanging between the locker room and the infirmary, turn into invisible people, quietly leaving the hockey proscenium. Age takes the reins of a career. Inveterate sores dictate the will of an exhausted body. And the pros quietly waddle to rest, leaving behind only a vague shadow of former glory. Forsberg is not like that.
Each fall of the Swede pains in millions of hearts and causes a mean male tear in those who are used to seeing the genius of their favorite game in Peter. His departure is simply impossible to arrange without noise. He won Olympic gold twice from the adored Sweden national team, twice became world champion, twice drank champagne from the Stanley Cup with Colorado. Besides him, only Vyacheslav Fetisov and Igor Larionov can boast of such a “triple double”!
The second triumph with avalanches was overshadowed by a rupture of the spleen. Recovery after the hardest operation to remove it took the whole next championship. However, in the playoffs of 2002, the striker miraculously returned and even managed to score 27 points in 20 matches before Detroit blocked the way in the final of the Western Conference ...
Even this season, limping on one leg and beware of the sword of inguinal problems hanging over him, Peter turned out to be quite combat-ready for local feats. Recall that it was the captain of “Philadelphia” who inspired the “pilots” for the first three-match winning streak in the regular championship. For two consecutive meetings, he stamped three assists and was broken only in the third match, with which, in fact, the march of his team ended. 26 points on the system “goal + pass" in 29 games - a very good indicator. Especially when you consider that the Flyers have not yet won without a charismatic leader.
What awaits Peter next? Since his contract with Philadelphia expires on July 1, the pilots must either renew the agreement or try to exchange the striker before February 27. After this date, transfer deals overseas will be frozen, and the Flyers risk losing their main strike force for free. We especially note: a trade can take place only with the consent of the player himself, since there is a corresponding clause in his contract.
“I came here and want to stay in this club,” says Forsberg. “Philadelphia is going through a difficult year, and it would be the last thing to drop the ship going to the bottom. The psychology in our league is simple: if it comes to the fact that some the team won’t get into the playoffs, other clubs are trying to push its best bayonets away. I don’t want to be a burden. Besides, there is no guarantee that my problems will be solved. Philadelphia believed in me, and I can’t help but reciprocate "
Meanwhile, there are plenty of people who want to lure Peter. Here is the “Montreal”, with its characteristic optimism, seeing the light at the end of a long Swedish tunnel and dreaming at the expense of an elite playmaker to revive the second link with Samsonov and Kovalev. Here and “Atlanta”, and “Calgary”, and “Rangers”, and “Toronto”, plus a good dozen more ambitious teams, for the time wishing to remain anonymous. An annual salary of $ 5.75 million does not scare away for two reasons. Firstly, no one doubts that Forsberg will work out the money. Secondly, taking into account its deplorable physical state, the bar will certainly be lowered.
In addition, the decision of “Carolina”, which a year ago enlisted the support of the highly experienced Doug Waite, is still fresh in my memory. We will not argue that the veteran single-handedly brought “hurricanes” to the Stanley Cup, but the fact that he walked in the forefront is beyond doubt. Forsberg is a proven cup fighter, and his 137 points in 139 playoff matches is the best confirmation of this.
In the summer, he plans to return to Sweden and seek help from people who have never refused him. At the Turin Olympics, Forsberg more than himself believed the national team head coach Bengt-Oka Gustafsson, team doctor Lennart Huvelius, traumatologist Niklas Lantz and inguinal specialist Stefan Hedstrom. "I have to get her to work! Sometimes I want to chop off that damn leg and put a new one in its place. It's a pity, it's impossible. I have to put up with it, somehow adapt it for a normal existence. At times, my ankle is fine, and I'm full of hope. However, what surprises are prepared by the future, it is not clear. "
A significant part of the one and a half seasons spent with the “Philadelphia”, Forsberg injured. At the start of the last championship, he went on the ice in 21 matches in a row - this is his longest series in the camp of the “pilots”. In this championship Peter did not play for more than seven meetings in a row ... In words, the bosses of the Flyers want to extend the contract with the 33-year-old captain. They strongly believe that the next season will be for the team unlike the current one. Potential recruits should help - Philadelphia began the hunt for Chris Drury and Daniel Breer. However, no recruits can compare with the one and only Peter. There is only one Forsberg in the league.
“We plan to continue to fight on the problem of Peter. Specialists of the highest level will develop skate designs and other auxiliary devices for him until the hockey player comes and says:“ Enough. Enough, "said Paul Holmgren, general manager of the pilots recently." He wants to feel comfortable on the ice, he does not want to take risks. And we will do everything so that Forsberg is 100% sure that he can safely leave his 100% on ice. "
It doesn’t work out yet. Brigades of stubborn Aesculapius succeed each other. They are piece by piece, like a puzzle, trying to assemble the striker leg. But at the very last moment, when it seems as if everything worked out, Frankenstein awkwardly stumbles and falls. Falls accompany the Swede everywhere. He loses his balance in the center of the ice, behind the goal, when he tries to lay the usual steep turn, and even on the way to the bench. The foot is inexplicably inverted for learned minds, and the slippery path that Peter chose in his life becomes slippery.
“He dreams of returning, playing the NHL again. He does not want to end his career,” says Simon Gagnier, Sweden’s first-team partner in Philadelphia. And how all the same I want Peter Forsberg’s wishes to finally coincide with his fantastic capabilities!
Vladimir BYCHEK