“Don’t go down Peter! Thousands of hearts will break with you!” – Mick Kern, XM Home Ice 204
That quote really sums up the tension that fans were feeling yesterday as they watched Peter Forsberg skate in his first game back in the NHL after a year long absence. The house was full, and the fans were loud as they welcomed back their lost hero. Standing ovations were freely given to Peter throughout the night. Touching tributes were prepared by the Avalanche organization in the way of video montages and massive “Welcome Back Adam & Peter!” banners for fans to sign. It all created a tremendously emotional and electric atmosphere at the Pepsi Center… then the game started.
The evening started off showing the bad blood between the Canucks and the Avalanche with Scott Hannan and Alex Burrows dropping the gloves just thirty seconds in to the game. Couple that with the second period fighting majors (coming at just 2 seconds in for Cody McLeod and Rick Rypien) and you get an idea of how dicey things got on the ice. Forsberg got into the mix later in the game when both Alex Burrows and Willie Mitchell decided he looked like a worth advesary. No fights, but plenty of pushing and shoving ensued, drawing cheers and jeers from the fans.
While it was a low scoring game, the highlight reel was filled thanks to the increased confidence from a team who’s suddenly ready to make a push into the playoffs. A month ago, the Avalanche struggled to even take shots on net, much less score goals. They squandered leads, had shaky goaltending, and a slew of injuries. Colorado looked as though they were going to miss the playoffs for the second year in a row. Seeing this new revitalized team make Francois Giguere look like a genius with his nostalgic signings at deadline time.
It was an easy win over Vancouver and it extended the Avs’ win streak to 4. Even John-Michael Liles, a struggling defenseman who hasn’t scored in 4 months, won the game with a rare power play goal. This is a must win time of the year, but all of a sudden, the Avalanche seem up to it.
Forsberg played smart, hard, and aggresively in his return to the league. Coach Joel Quenneville, though he didn’t plan it, played Peter for 20 minutes after seeing that he could handle the pressure. After hearing him say that he played just “okay” last night, I think it’s pretty easy to see that great things are coming from the riskiest signing of the year.
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Notable notes from last night’s game:
- Avalanche win 2-1 against the Canucks, their 5th against the team this season.
- Colorado has won their last four games, while Vancouver is winless in their last four.
- Cody McLeod picks up his 100th penalty minute, a first for a rookie in Colorado NHL history.
- Liles scores his 4 goal of the season, and the first goal since November
- After chastising his team for their performance against the Avalanche in their last game and getting pulled against Chicago the night after, Roberto Luongo was pulled again late in the 3rd period.
- Jose Theodore gets his longest win streak of the season with his 4th straight.
- 1400 tickets were sold the day of the game after the Avalanche announced Forsberg would be making his return that night.
- Last night’s game puts Colorado at 7th and Vancouver at 9th in the Western Conference standings.