On the home front: Most of the Philadelphia Flyers live in South New Jersey, near the team’s practice rink. When he goes “home,” Peter Forsberg goes his own way – to the Center City area of downtown Philadelphia. Sound familiar? When he was with the Avalanche, he spent much of his stay as a downtown Denver resident. In his final season with Colorado, he moved to the Golden Triangle, into the same building as the Nuggets’ Carmelo Anthony. “It’s just close to be able to go out after a game to get a bite to eat and stuff like that,” Forsberg said after the Flyers’ opening-game loss to the New York Rangers. “It’s good for me to live downtown.”
Buzz in Philly: Forsberg’s arrival has generated an amazing buzz in Philadelphia. It’s as if all of this had been pent up since the Flyers, after drafting him, traded his rights to Quebec in the infamous Eric Lindros deal. He already seems to be up there on the celebrity scale with Allen Iverson and Donovan McNabb. And if anything big had happened in Sweden at midweek, there wouldn’t have been many reporters in the nation to cover it. The heavy hitters all seemed to be in Philadelphia.
Better for everyone: There were hints in the opener, when Forsberg had two assists, but look for Forsberg’s young linemates, Simon Gagne and rookie Jeff Carter, to benefit from playing with the playmaking Swede. Gagne especially could have eye-popping numbers if the game truly opens up. The irony there is that as a 15-year-old Quebec City-area native in 1995, he watched Forsberg as a rookie with Quebec and was steamed when the franchise left for Colorado. “Playing with Peter is awesome,” Gagne said. “He might be the best player one-on-one in the league.” Said Forsberg: “Not only is Simon a great skater, but he’s a good goal-scorer with a good shot, so he’s going to score a lot of goals this year.”
With Forsberg’s help.
