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Once more with feeling: Peter Forsberg to practice with Avalanche - Last chance at a comeback?

forsberg

Thus proving that it’s never truly a dull moment in the day until there’s some wacky news about a Peter Forsberg comeback, Colorado announced today that Forsberg will, indeed, be practicing with the Avalanche starting tomorrow. Is he just working out for the heck of it because he’s in Denver? Does skating in the altitude make him feel better? Did he miss the Rocky Mountain Oysters?

No, it’s much more serious than that.

“I need to see where I am physically and practicing with NHL players is the best way to find that out,” said Forsberg.

A player doesn’t get to practice with a NHL team because he feels like it. Granted, Forsberg essentially has carte blanche in Denver to do as he wants to. But another attempt at a comeback? Oh boy.

We’ve roasted previous stories about Forsberg even discussing making a comeback in the NHL and gotten a good chuckle out of it just the same and this is no different. After all, he stopped playing for his Swedish taem MODO because he was still having issues with his forever injured foot. The fact that the Avalanche have swung the doors open for Forsberg to practice with the team either speaks to their need to replace Tomas Fleischmann, who’s out for the season after discovering he has pulmonary emboli, or to the fact the Avalanche are having a terrible time drawing fans to Pepsi Center.

The Avs are drawing an average of 14,470 fans per game, good for 82% capacity, 23rd best percentage in the NHL (source). Despite the team being youthful, fast, and exciting to watch they haven’t been able to win fans back after the Avalanche struggled to go deep in the playoffs for a few seasons. Gone are the days of Forsberg, Joe Sakic, and Patrick Roy and gone with them have been the sellout crowds that were synonymous with Avalanche hockey. If bringing Forsberg back even just to practice with the team will get the casual fans to take notice again then, hey, that’s a great move and doesn’t really do anything to affect team chemistry.

If the Avs really think that Forsberg can be a contributor to the team they’re out of their minds. We’ve seen this act from Forsberg before in ill-fated seasons with the Flyers and Predators where anything positive he tried to bring to those teams was eventually submarined by injury problems.

A player has the right to play as long as he wants to, but in this case, it seems like most fans want to remember Forsberg for being the dominating power forward of the late 90s/early 2000s and not for being the NHL’s answer to Brett Favre.