Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Peter Forsberg’s Foot Hurts. Again. Still.

It looks like Peter Forsberg might be done. In what was to be his third game with his home team, MODO, Peter Forsberg did not play.

After a spectacular goal in his first game back, after showing glimpses of brilliance in his second game against Djurgården with two assists, after raising the hopes of Swedish hockey fans throughout the world, really hockey fans everywhere, Forsberg’s foot gave out. Again. Forsberg was out on the ice warming up last night. He was not out on the ice playing after warm ups though. This is incredible. Playing in one of Europe’s elite hockey leagues, one of the world’s elite hockey leagues, Peter Forsberg managed to put together three points in two games after not having played for months on end. After fighting what looks to be a career ending injury. Clearly, Forsberg is one of the best hockey players in the world. Still. If his foot holds up. Unfortunately, that “if” looms ever larger as the years go by.

Forsberg said that to play he needs to hold his balance out there. “Jag kan inte spela om jag inte kan hålla balansen där ute.” That he doesn’t know if he can do anything about it. “Jag vet inte om jag kan göra något åt det.” That he is going to try to fix it because he can’t just be limping around out there. “Jag får försöka fixa till det på något slags vis. Det går liksom inte att halta omkring där ute på isen”

Ever the optimist, kind of, Forsberg is not willing to rule out yet again another comeback this season. “Jag ska inte säga att det är helt kört. Får vi till det så kanske det blir bättre, men vad vet jag absolut inte.” That being said, it doesn’t look promising. There is only so much wear and tear a body can take. And his looks to have reached that quota and then some.

From MODO’s point of view, this could be disastrous. Obviously, a healthy Forsberg would have been useful in their push for the playoffs. From my stand point, it is disastrous. I had hoped to watch Forsberg live one last time.

Welcome to Sweden. Where Peter Forsberg’s foot put a damper on my day.

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18 comments:

  1. A truly great player

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  2. too bad really, the world could use more players with his skills

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  3. He really should quit playing altogether now. I've said this for years though.

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  4. @anonymous - agreed.

    @carl - also agreed. his vision on the ice is something I have never seen in any other player.

    @linus - I think there is something to be said for the fact that he keeps working his ass off to get back. its clearly not about the money at this point.

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  5. I was lucky enough to see Forsberg make his comeback for his adoring hometown club here in Örnsköldsvik and sat right behind him virtually the whole game:

    http://thisisweden.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/the-return-of-the-prodigal-son/

    Even though I know virtually nothing about hockey, from the little I've seen and learned about Forsberg I can see that he is a true legend. And refreshingly, he doesn't seem to be the high and mighty character that you might expect from one of the world's greatest ever players.

    It will be sad if his career ends this way but at least he came home to do it.

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  6. "Hold his balance": Is "hold" a common verb together with "balance"? In Swedish, it definitely is, but I thought "keep balance" is the more common way to put it in English.

    Oh, I checked it with a Google Fight.

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  7. @thisissweden - you are very lucky. I would ahve liked to see him play one more time. I saw him play plenty in the US but never here.

    @ekalndisk - I think so... but now I might have just become horribly confused and mixed my languages.

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  8. @Hairy - I guess your butt hurts quite a bit now, eh? :)

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  9. why does your butt hurt?

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  10. @jacob - no no, not at all.

    @anonymous - it doesnt

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  11. It's very much like our Finnish soccer hero, Jari Litmanen. He's faced a lot of injuries and maybe should have retired from the field a long time ago. But occasionally he does a good job out there. It's always sad when a hero retires. Has something to do with your own aging perhaps? Anyway, you should get over it, Hairy :) Foppa is done.

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  12. It's pretty sad though. Foppa has won pretty much everything that you can win as an icehockey player. Stanley Cup, The Olympics, World Championship etc. but he has never won the Elitserien, the Swedish icehockey league. So that is probably the main reason til why he just wont give up. So hopefull we'll see MODO as the champion this year, with Forsberg on the ice ofcourse.

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  13. @Hairy - Oh, that's good. I thought maybe it would hurt considering that your post from February 12th came back to bite you in the arse.

    Maybe you will learn me to hold my balance in the future :)

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  14. Well, I never meant to kick anyone's butt. I sometimes struggle with similar cross-contamination issues myself.

    Latest one was using von oben in an English text (OK, I was trying to be mock-pretentious). Nobody understood it, though they would have readily understood zeitgeist or weltschmerz. It seems to be a German expression that is loaned by Swedish only.

    Hmm, maybe not the best example, but whatever.

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  15. Grrr... BORROWED by Swedish. I claim that's an editing error. Stuff that happens when I suddenly decide to change my words around and forget to fix it everywhere.

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  16. @smek - Im just not ready to let it go yet. not yet.

    @jacob - not at all. luckily holding your balance is perfectly acceptable.

    plus, I never claimed to be a translator.

    @eklandisk - cross contamination does happen and I might have even had some issues with it.. but I stand by my statement that hold your balance is ok. maybe not the most common but still quite ok.

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  17. Alright then. I've started to see a pattern here recently where, perhaps, you've been forced to defend yourself a bit much. Did you ever see that commercial for Heinz catchup where the audi-track goes "Heinz tomato catchup doesn't mean to be rude...but lets face it - Heinz tomato catchup IS rude"? It's for that glass bottle kind. I'm a bit like that sometimes. And I think perhaps that's been the case in a few comments here. My apologies. I'll try harder to play nice for a while. Unfortunately (or fortunately) that probably means that I'll not post much.

    I also have a confession. The main reason I started typing this post is that I noted that the word to put into the Word Verification box was; Succo

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  18. no worries at all. it keeps me on my toes. its good for me.

    and sometimes the verification box is hilarious. other times its just nonsensical though.

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