Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Was Monday Peter Forsberg’s final skate?


Hockey pool aficionados, everyday NHL fans and NHL General Managers will all be holding their breath for the next few days, with word that the past problems with the feet of Peter Forsberg seem to have re-appeared.

The Swedish sensation, who it has been reported was pondering a return to the NHL this month, pulled himself out of the line up of his Swedish team this past weekend, after the discomfort returned while out on the ice.

Forsberg’s medical troubles go back a fair ways now, as Bob McKenzie reported on the TSN blog page on Monday, in the blog piece, the congenital nature of Forsberg’s feet problems was detailed in a rather complete fashion.

The problem has so aggravated Forsberg, that on Monday the Globe and Mail reported that Forsberg offered up a rather stark assessment of his future: “I have to say, I've never been so close to saying my career is over right now.”

Not comments that NHL G M’s, let alone fans will want to hear.

Prior to his latest setback, there was a growing list of teams that were prepared to seek out his services in order to top up their line up for this season. In fact this week was to be a form of evaluation week for NHL GM's, who were planning on attending on their own or had sent representatives to Finland to watch the Karjala Cup, a tournament that features teams from Finland, Sweden, Russia and the Czech Republic.

Before the games are even under way the Swedish star has removed himself from the tournament because his ankles did not meet his personal test.

If the situation is a disappointing as the news out seems to indicate, then we could possibly already have seen the last of Forsberg in an NHL uniform. It would mark an unfortunate turn of events for a league that could certainly have made room for his speed and finesse.

He first appeared in the NHL in 1991 and was a member of the Stanley Cup winning Colorado Avalanche squads of 1996 and 2001 and was named the leagues most valuable player in 2003.

In the last few years his injury time seemed to multiply as a number of troubles seemed to keep him out of the line up more and more frequently. And if this latest setback is as severe as the reports seem to make it out to be, then it’s quite likely that Peter Forsberg will be out of an NHL uniform permanently.

An amazing talent, who found his time in the North American showcase cut short, far too quickly.

His deliberations have been flooding the Internet websites with updates all day long:

Philadelphia Inquirer--Forsberg injures right foot again
Philadelphia Daily News--Big setback for Forsberg
Rocky Mountain News--Forsberg is out again
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Photo above: from The Hockey News website

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