by Kitt Amundson
You either like him, or despise him. If you are on his team he can make you look like a genius, if he plays against you he can make you look like a fool. His opponents are incredibly hard on him yet no one is harder on him than he is on himself. Not even those closest to him seem to know what really led him to walk from his $10 million dollar salary and go home to Sweden. Sure, they know the party line, he was "hurt, physically, mentally and emotionally" and needed to let his body heal. Mystery surrounds the events themselves: surgeries over the summer, Forsberg pronouncing himself fit at training camp and then less than a week later walking away from the game. A third surgery in September, in Sweden, that was not disclosed until his failed return in January. At a much awaited press conference in Denver in January, the media was shocked to find out that Forsberg not only wasn't going to appear, but was in fact in the hospital recovering from yet another surgery on his foot to repair a tendon that had somehow remained unrepaired in all the other surgeries. It was a few weeks before Forsberg himself showed up to address the media. He left the game he said, because he was tired, he felt he had been fooling himself and those around him the last year of play, and that he need to allow himself to heal. That after the last surgery in September, he had dedicated himself to coming back bigger, stronger and better than he had ever been. That he had stayed in Sweden to allow himself to recover out of the limelight and out of the self-imposed pressure he would feel to rush his recovery. That he didn't feel it was right to stay in Denver on the injured reserve list and collect his salary, in fact he told the media that walking away from his salary was clearly more important to them than it was to him. That he was as surprised as anyone to realize that the "popping feeling" in his foot, needed to be fixed. That he would be patient, work hard and would try to come back this year but he would have to wait and see. On April 18, 2002, Peter Forsberg became the first player in the history of the NHL to miss an entire regular season and play his first game of the NHL season as game one of the playoffs. On April 21, 2002 he leads all scorers in the playoffs with five points in two games, including his first goal since April 30, 2001. Watching Forsberg at practice day in and day out, and game after game, you take him and his abilities for granted. As the playoffs grew closer, his teammates were peppered with variations on the question "Can you win again without Peter?" and "do you think Peter will be back in time for the playoffs?" They quoted the expected ".they would need to win with whoever was on the bench, and couldn't spend time thinking about who wasn't there." Those same teammates would have to be dead not to have been energized by the sound of the fans who roared at game one in the Pepsi Center when he took the ice for the pre-game skate or when they rose to their feet for his first shift at 18:36. "I heard the fans cheer before the game and I was happy", said Forsberg of the ovation after game one, "at least they remembered me. The fans were great tonight they kept us going all night. " In his usual, modest style Forsberg went on to describe his first game back in 355 days. "I don't think I ever got the legs, I was really tight all game. My legs felt a little heavy. The first one is always hard and I haven't played in a long time. I wanted to do a little better than I did, but we won the game and that was the main thing tonight. I think our line played pretty well. We didn't make any mistakes, we kept it in deep and we worked it down low." When a member of the media commented that it sure didn't seem like he'd lost anything in the puck-handling department, and that it looked like he'd never left the game, his answer was predictable. "I sure didn't feel like I'd never left the game or that my puck handling was where it was supposed to be. I wanted to feel better out there but I guess I am happy that we won the game. It is a long road back but the team played a simple game tonight and that made it much easier." He down played his assist in the first game, saying nothing more than it was good to get it out of the way. He got more excited about linemate Steven Reinprecht. "Our line played well and Steve Reinprecht has improved a lot since last year. He is flying out there and makes it really easy and it is simple to play with him." He ended game one with two assists. Game two saw him come back even stronger. He had two more assists and got his first goal. "The first game was tough because I haven't played in a long time, but today I felt a little better and we are two games into the playoffs. I don't look at myself personally, I look at the two wins we have as a team and that is what matters. It felt good to score a goal though, it's been a long time. I have a lot of things to work on so I can't get too excited. It is only the second game, it's going to be a long playoffs and we just have to be ready when we come to LA. Personally it's the same way, I can't look back I have to look forward." Perhaps the best summation on having Peter back came from the only guy on the team almost as modest as Peter, captain Joe Sakic. "It helps everyone on this club when he is back in the lineup. It makes the other team unable to key on just one line. He does so much out there for the other lines and on the powerplay as well, he creates a lot of open ice. He makes so much happen out there. I thought he played well in game one which was his first game in over a year, and I thought he picked it up even more today. He just felt a little bit more comfortable out there today." Imagine what can happen when he feels really comfortable out there.
