Archive: 20 Years Ago, Avs Star Forsberg Thrilled His Homeland's Fans In Return To Sweden

In 2004, NHL players were locked out by the league and forced to ply their trade elsewhere. And in this cover story from THN’s Oct. 5, 2004 edition (Volume 58, Issue 6), senior writer Mike Brophy chronicled NHL superstar Peter Forsberg as he played in front of his countrymen in the Swedish Elite League.

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Forsberg was coming off the end of his first stint with the Colorado Avalanche in 2003-04 when he headed home and played for his hometown Modo Hockey Club – the same team he’d starred for in his early hockey years. And Forsberg was a huge hit in 2004, when he posted 26 assists and 39 points in 33 games. And the fierce physical style he used to help the Avs win a pair of Stanley Cups was once again on full display.

“There are times when you just want to say to him, ’Take it easy Pete, you don’t always have to go after the big guys,’” said Forsberg’s Avalanche teammate Adam Foote.

Forsberg didn’t win a Swedish league championship, but his incredible success in the NHL and on the international stage was a reason he was an easy choice for the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2014. And long after he returned to Modo – where he went on to play parts of the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons – Forsberg’s stature as an all-time great made him an instant draw for Swedish fans.

“I am the only (hockey) sports director in the world who has the opportunity to have the best player on the globe sign with me, so that is lucky for me, of course,” said Modo GM Bengt Hedin. “(Forsberg) is standing on the ground with both feet and that is great. He is the same guy who left us and that’s nice to see.”

RETURN OF A HERO

By Mike Brophy

Turns out not everybody is happy to have Peter Forsberg back home playing hockey in Sweden.

In Forsberg’s long-awaited debut with MoDo, he was given a double-major penalty for hitting from behind in the third period and left the ice to a chorus of boos from the locals supporting Brynas.

Forsberg also managed to score once in helping Modo to a 3-3 road tie in Swedish league play. It was his first game in the league since 1994 when his NHL debut was delayed by, of all things, a lockout.

“I didn’t think (the hit) was that bad,” said Forsberg following the game. “He was skating to the bench. I didn’t cross-check him. It was more like a push in the back. I didn’t see the replay, but I thought he took a dive.”

Forsberg’s first game home didn’t have a Hollywood ending, not like, say, the way the 1994 Olympics concluded with him scoring an eye-popping shootout goal against Canada’s Corey Hirsch to give Sweden the gold medal. But the 31-year-old center is living out a dream he has had for a long, long time.

Considered by many to be the most complete player in the game, Forsberg has long expressed the desire to play at least one more season with MoDo, an organization based in his hometown of Ornskoldsvik, a small seaport city of 31,000.

Because Forsberg is shy and reserved-and because he has never really let his long-term intentions be known-there are those who assumed if he left the Colorado Avalanche and the NHL, he wouldn’t return. That’s not necessarily the case. The NHL lockout provided him with the perfect opportunity to return home for the year.

“I grew up here,” Forsberg told The Hockey News the day after his first game. “I loved playing here…1 wanted to play one more year before I retired and kind of give something back. And I wanted to come back when I wasn’t brutal. I wanted to show I was still a decent player.” No problem there.

Forsberg had a goal and an assist in his second game, a 6-2 win over Lulea in MoDo’s home opener.

Colorado, for its part, supports Forsberg. “Peter always told us he’d love the chance to play one more year in Sweden,” said Avs spokesman Jean Martineau. “He said if there was a work stoppage it would be the perfect time to do so. We respect his decision.”

Added teammate Adam Foote: “It doesn’t surprise me at all. We’re in a situation where we don’t know if we’ll be back playing by Christmas or even at all this year. We knew he’d probably play in Sweden this year.”

Forsberg’s NHL career, though just 10 seasons old, has been nothing short of remarkable. Picked sixth overall in the 1991 NHL draft by Philadelphia, he was a part of one of the biggest trades in league history, the Eric Lindros deal, that sent him to Quebec (which transferred to Colorado a year later). Since then he has become a player no sane GM would trade straight-up for Lindros, never mind as part of a package that included Steve Duchesne, Kerry Huffman, Mike Ricci, Ron Hextall, among others, as well as $15 million.

Forsberg won the Calder Trophy as top rookie in 1995. He led the league in scoring and won the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP in 2003, a year after he sat out the regular season with a foot injury. In 2002, he returned for the playoffs and led all scorers with nine goals and 27 points in 20 games despite the fact the Avalanche didn’t even make it to the final. He did the same thing in 1998-99 when he scored eight goals and 24 points in three rounds.

Forsberg won Stanley Cups in 996 and 2001; World Championship gold in 1992; the 1994 Olympic gold medal; and, is a three-time NHL first-team all-star.

At 6-feet and 205 pounds, Forsberg is not counted among the biggest forwards in the NHL. But he plays bigger than his size and has a mean streak.

“There are times when you just want to say to him, ’Take it easy Pete, you don’t always have to go after the big guys,’” Foote said.

Giving back is his nature. It’s one reason why he is playing for MoDo this year. It’s also why he takes no guff from opponents. Get a whack, give a whack; get shoved, shove back harder.

“He’s as competitive as it gets,” said Detroit Red Wings center Kris Draper. “If you just go out and check him and leave him alone, he’s OK. But as soon as you lay a hit on him or get confrontational, that’s when he seems to elevate his game. He’s one of the superstars that wants to make a statement that, ’You’re not going to take a run at me, you’re not going to intimidate me.’ “

Some NHLers went to Europe to earn a living, but not Forsberg. Colorado has paid him more than $45 million over the past seven years, so money is no issue. (He is reportedly playing for $22,000 a month.) Forsberg has returned home for the love of the game and the love of an organization that treated him like gold for 15 years before he left for North America. He feels he owes MoDo a debt.

Forsberg is not the only NHLer headed back to Europe to play pro hockey while Gary Bettman and Bob Goodenow take their sweet time in getting a new collective bargaining agreement done. On MoDo alone are the Sedin twins, Henrik and Daniel, who play for Vancouver, as well as Mattias Weinhandl of the Islanders.

Vancouver’s Markus Naslund and Montreal’s Niklas Sundstrom are expected to join them. What separates Forsberg from most others, however, is the fact he has committed to his team for the year, regardless of whether or not the NHL plays this season.

His return home is considered crucial to an organization that has plans for a new 6,500-seat arena (complete with an ocean view) that’s scheduled to be ready for next season. Forsberg is helping to finance the new facility.

Forsberg hopes to lead MoDo to its first championship since 1979 and, in doing so, generate interest in the team. The year before a new building opens is considered critical in terms of selling tickets, board advertising and luxury boxes. It helps to have the best player in the world along for the ride in that year.

“Here in our town everybody is talking about it and have been since the springtime when they read in the papers that maybe Peter is coming home,” said MoDo GM Bengt Hedin. “We sold out the first game and everybody is talking hockey.”

Hedin is downright giddy about Forsberg playing on the team.

“I am the only (hockey) sports director in the world who has the opportunity to have the best player on the globe sign with me, so that is lucky for me, of course,” Hedin said. “(Forsberg) is standing on the ground with both feet and that is great. He is the same guy who left us and that’s nice to see.” Forsberg is looking forward to a season of fun. Not that playing in the Swedish league is a walk in the park, but it certainly isn’t as demanding as playing in the NHL.

“The ice is bigger and there’s no red line offside,” Forsberg said. “The NHL is pretty rough. It’s a long 82-game season. Here it’s 50 games and you really don’t need to play as hard as you do in the NHL.”

Forsberg has never been outspoken about the way NHL games are played, but with the league on a hiatus and the promise of changes to come, he put in his two cents’ worth.

“I don’t make a big deal of it, but if a plumber and a good player get together and start a scrum, if I was the referee, I think I would know who started it,” Forsberg said. “I think they (the plumbers) almost get away with more than the good players.

“I’m not complaining, but if you look at some players, let’s say a guy like Sean Avery (of the Los Angeles Kings), he’s a good skater and he plays hard and he’s a physical player. But he doesn’t want to handle the puck much.

“He can outskate me any day and if he gets the chance to ruin the game (for me) then he’s going to do it,” Forsberg continued. “He’s a guy who just goes out there to throw good players off their game. It’s easy to play that way, to just go out and try to stop the best players from scoring. But is it entertaining?”

Forsberg said he has more respect for checkers who also handle the puck and cited Draper as a perfect example. “He plays the game honest and he plays the game hard,” Forsberg said.

Forsberg would like nothing better this year than to lead his new/old team to a championship.

“That is definitely our goal,” he said. “We’ll see if the lockout is going to last the whole year. If it does, we’re going to have a good team. It might change if the lockout ends, though we’ll still have a good team if we lose some players to the NHL.

“It has always been my dream to come back and play for my home team and win a championship.”

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