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About Mike Cook
Mike Cook spends much of his time writing about politicians and pucks. In addition to his full-time job covering the Minnesota House of Representatives, he does freelance sports writing – including pro and college hockey – for the Associated Press and other entities. A lifelong resident of the State of Hockey, he grew up a fan of the Minnesota North Stars and still misses Met Center. He looks forward to when his three young children are on skates at 6 a.m. practices.
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| Peter Forsberg is giving it another try |
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| Northwest | |
| Written by Mike Cook | |
| Tuesday, January 25, 2011 20:51 | |
The star forward's indecision is turning him into the Brett Favre of the NHL. Forsberg's enabler could be an Avalanche squad that just lost Tomas Fleischmann for the season.
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| AROUND THE NORTHWEST |
"I want to be sure this time if I am going to be good enough. I don't know how long it's going to take," Forsberg said. "I'm going to try to do it as soon as possible, but I think it's going to take some time at least."
Forsberg, who has 249 goals in 12 seasons, had his most productive seasons in Colorado, winning two Stanley Cup titles and being named the league’s MVP in 2003.
“I’ve been skating at home in Sweden for mostly the whole year, but never really felt as good as I wanted until lately,” Forsberg said. “I thought it was better to try out and skate with the best players, and got the opportunity to come over here and skate with this team. I’m looking forward to seeing if I can play in this league anymore, if I’m good enough and if everything holds up.”
Forsberg said he felt better after Tuesday’s hour-long practice.
“I think I would need a couple more practices at least. I'm not trying to think anything yet. I'm just going to keep on skating and keep on working and see where I'm at. I'm not going to say positive or not. I'm not thinking about it yet. It's too early to say."
General manager Greg Sherman gave no guarantees that the No. 21 maroon and blue sweater will be coming out of mothballs anytime soon.
“You look at the history we’ve hard with this particular player," Sherman said. "Anytime you have an elite player in this game wants to come practice and see where he's at physically, given the history he’s had with this franchise, I think it makes all the sense in the world bringing him in.”
Forsberg would be a timely addition to a team that recently lost left wing Tomas Fleischmann for the season because of a pulmonary embolism. Sherman emphasized the interest and the injury is purely coincidental."If I can look that good at that age after all those surgeries and everything, I'd be counting my blessings," Duchene said after Tuesday’s practice.
Favre, the future Hall of Fame quarterback, has said three times he’s retiring and in the last couple of seasons has irritated many with his me-first attitude.
Forsberg has not reached that level of annoyance yet, but he’s moving that way. Nor would he commit to this being a final go-round.
"I think I've said that like four or five times before already," he confessed. "But I'm not getting younger. I don't think there's going to be too many more chances. I don't think I could do this again. This could be the last one. It's been a very hard (last) seven years, I have to say. But hopefully it feels good, and I don't have to (do this kind of thing) anymore."
The thought of Forsberg, four years younger than Favre at age 37, putting on the skates again doesn’t surprise longtime friend Milan Hejduk.
"It's something. It's just great to see him back. I've had great fun with him, on the ice, off the ice," Hejduk told the Denver Post. "He still can help this team. If he's healthy, he's still an amazing player. He always was."
Notes
Calgary beat Nashville 3-1 Monday for its third straight win. … Calgary has gone 9-3-3 in its past 15 games to move within four points of Chicago and Colorado, tied for seventh in the Western Conference. "We've still got to jump a bunch of teams here so there's a long way to go, but the positive thing is we are playing better hockey, we're playing more complete games, and it's adding up to some wins," said Brendan Morrison, who has three goals in three games. … Miikka Kiprusoff, pulled twice in his previous four starts, stopped 41 shots Saturday in a shootout win in Vancouver and stopped 23 shots Monday in his 500th career game. … Calgary RW Ales Kotalik was a healthy scratch Monday for the second game in row. … The Oilers have just two wins in their past 16 games. … The Oilers are 1-7 in shootouts, including a loss to Nashville Sunday. … Edmonton’s Taylor Chorney won the fastest skater competition at the team’s annual skills competition with a lap of 13.942 seconds, followed by Liam Reddox (14.077), Taylor Hall (14.112), Linus Omark (14.270) and Magnus Paajarvi (14.742). “(Chorney) was a dark horse,” said D Kurtis Foster, who took the hardest shot event with a 103.4 mph blast. “I actually took Hallsie and he kind of let me down.” After his win Chorney was sent to AHL Oklahoma City to make room for Jim Vandeermer, who is ready to return from an ankle injury. Cogliano won the shootout contest, and Tom Gilbert was the most accurate shooter. … Still recovering from a concussion, Ales Hemsky has pulled out of the All-Star Game. It would have been his first appearance. Rookie Jordan Eberle (ankle injury) has removed himself from the skills competition. … After some players pulled out of the All-Star Game, Wild winger Martin Havlat has been named to play in the game. … Minnesota tied a franchise high by allowing 25 second-period shots in Saturday’s 4-3 loss in San Jose. … At 13-8-3 on the road entering Tuesday’s game in Chicago, the Wild has tied last season’s road win total when they went 13-24-4. However, their home record is an unimpressive 11-11-2. The Wild was 25-12-4 at the Xcel Energy Center last season. … Wild backup G Jose Theodore said he's 100 percent recovered from a hip ailment that kept him out for four games. … At the team’s dinner Sunday in Chicago, Wild players were joined by former NBA player Charles Barkley and former NFL player Michael Strahan, who happened to be at the same restaurant. The former players – now broadcasters – spent about an hour with the team. … Prior to Monday’s 7-1 thrashing of Dallas, Vancouver had lost four straight; however, one was in overtime and two were via shootout. “We're getting points,” Ryan Kesler said after Saturday’s shootout loss to Calgary. “You're going to have cycles like this and the main thing is we got the point.” … Kesler has set a career high with 27 goals. … G Roberto Luongo made 25 saves to win his seventh straight game over Dallas and extend his streak without a regulation loss to 16 starts (11-0-5). … Mikael Samuelsson ended a 14-game goalless drought with a tally Monday. … D Kevin Bieksa's eye swelled shut during Saturday’s game after he was tagged during a first-period fight with Tom Kostoploulos. He missed the final two periods, but returned Monday. … Former C Thomas Gradin was inducted Monday into Vancouver’s Ring of Honour.Photos by Getty Images
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