Monday, February 14, 2011

Two and Done, Peter Forsberg Retires

It is hard to believe that in a blink of an eye, Peter Forsberg was here at Bridgestone Arena and now he is gone. This morning, the Colorado Avalanche had a brief press release on their web site stating:

Peter Forsberg Announcement

Forward Will Announce His Retirement On Monday Afternoon

Colorado Avalanche forward Peter Forsberg will hold a press conference today at 2:30 p.m. MT at Pepsi Center.

At that time, he will announce his retirement from the game of hockey.

ColoradoAvalanche.com will provide a live stream of the event.

Just like that, half of the duo that provided all the Fisher vs Foppa frenzy on Saturday night is out of the game. If indeed, Forsberg does not make another comeback attempt in the future, the 17,113 in attendance at the game will go down in history as the last folks to see a great star play his final game.

Officially, in his two game stint, he had three shots, was a (-4), and had two weak penalties on Saturday night. It may have been the hooking penalty when he was getting beat by Jerred Smithson that best tells the story that Foppa had slowed to the point that he could not play at the level that he expected of himself.

Our condolences to all the Avalanche fans who were hoping to see one of their favorite players tonight in a game at the Pepsi Center against Calgary and to beat writer Adrian Dater who has followed Forsberg for his whole career and will miss all the comeback stories, if indeed this is truly the final rodeo.

Here is Dater's take including a clue dropped on Saturday night after the game. Here is a photo album of Forsberg's comeback including a few from the final game in Nashville.

Best wishes to Peter Forsberg and his family as he moves on toward retirement. Hopefully, he is at peace with the fact that he gave it all he had and can walk away from the game knowing that he is indeed finished.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

1 comment:

Unknown said...

wow ... I'm really surprised. I thought Forsberg looked pretty good Saturday night considering it was on a back-to-back and only his second game. He was hard on the puck like always ... tough to move off the roundel. I hate that PF didn't play one more so the home fans could have seen him one last time; however, I am honored that I got to see that last game and that we had a brief time with one of hockey's greatest players in Pred colors.