Barring injuries during the next couple of days, Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne will be in Anaheim uniforms when the defending Stanley Cup champion Ducks face the Avalanche at the Pepsi Center on Tuesday night.
And barring sudden moves on the Peter Forsberg front in the next 48 hours, the Foppa Soap Opera still will be ongoing.
Will “Foppa” sign or won’t he?
If so, where?
First, the Anaheim saga: After sitting out the first part of the season and considering retirement, Niedermayer announced he was returning on Dec. 5 and was in the lineup for the first time against San Jose 11 days later.
Selanne took longer, finally announcing he would be coming back on Jan. 28, the day after the All-Star Game, and playing against the New York Islanders on Tuesday night. The game in Denver will be only his fifth of the season, and he won’t even be on home ice for the first time until Friday night against Dallas.
The Sabbatical Principle — soon to be a major-motion picture starring Matt Damon — makes considerable sense. The Avalanche experienced it in 2001-02, when Forsberg announced his intentions during training camp to take an indefinite leave of absence because of ankle problems; remained in Sweden; decided to try to return at midseason, but needed further surgery; and, finally, returned for the playoffs … and only the playoffs, without having played a single regular-season game.
If your heart isn’t in it, and your body is delivering contrarian signals, stepping away to wait for a possible recharging and recovery is justified — if the league lets you get away with it.
There already is a minor deadline in place: If Niedermayer or Selanne hadn’t been signed by Feb. 26, they wouldn’t have been eligible for the postseason.
The same is true for Forsberg. His case is exceptional, but it will get silly if this becomes an annual rite of veterans — especially from Stanley Cup champions or teams that went deep into the playoffs — hemming and hawing, either out of genuine ambivalence or out of a desire to skip training camp, the exhibition season and the Tuesday night games in November against Columbus.
The NHL should ponder setting a deadline for players to at least declare their intentions one way or another.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman addressed the issue in Atlanta at the All-Star Game, and I again brought it up during his visit to Denver last week after Selanne’s return.
“Selanne and Niedermayer went back to their team,” Bettman said. “Selanne was a free agent, if I’m not mistaken, as is Forsberg. One year does not a movie make. We’re still in the snapshot range. If it happens again next year with a number of players, then we’re going to have to take a look at it.”
Foppa, Chapter CXL.
Forsberg’s still saying that he won’t give it another shot until — or if — he’s convinced he has sufficiently recovered from his ankle problems.
But I wonder.
He’s so determined, he has put so much effort into trying to pull off a final fling at the NHL, but can he still be completely trusted to be the most significant arbiter on his physical condition?
Previously, we all understood that the prideful Swedish center wouldn’t come back unless he was convinced he was healthy enough to live up to his high standards.
I’m not sure that’s true anymore.
Certainly, he might — or perhaps even probably will — decide he just isn’t up to it. But this also seems to have become a significant possibility: His passionate desire to give the NHL one last shot could cause him to ignore or downplay his doubts about his physical condition.
Regardless, with so many question marks in this saga, the Avalanche or any other teams turning their backs on or failing to pursue other deals in order to hold cap space open for Forsberg is potentially counterproductive.
Plus, he wants a contract through next season, if he comes back to the NHL, and given his recent history and the cap realities, that’s a huge, huge risk — despite the temporary spike at the box office.
He undoubtedly would have to pass a physical, regardless, but how would it look if the Avalanche courts him — and then has to flunk him? Or say, well, given all the pressures and his insistence that he feels good enough to give it a final try, there’s not much to do here except pass him. By then, alternative moves no longer might be possible.
SPOTLIGHT ON . . .
Hockey Weekend Across America
A week from today is the 10th anniversary of the United States winning the first women’s hockey Olympic gold medal at the Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. Three months ago, Dallas’ Mike Modano became the highest-scoring American- born player in NHL history, passing Phil Housley. And against the Avalanche last month, California-born Chris Chelios became the second-oldest NHL player in NHL history — at 45 years, 348 days old.
Those will be some of the accomplishments noted and celebrated Friday through Sunday, when the Colorado Springs-based USA Hockey oversees the inaugural Hockey Weekend Across America.
USA Hockey has a theme for each of the three days, suggesting wearing a hockey jersey — any team’s — to school Friday; introducing friends to the sport Saturday, taking them to a rink for a game, a practice, or a skate; and honoring and celebrating local hockey heroes, whether volunteers, officials, coaches, or players, Sunday.
USA Hockey will provide Hockey Weekend Across America picks for ceremonial faceoffs before games across the country, but the Avalanche isn’t home and instead presumably will be part of a pregame acknowledgment at Chicago next Sunday afternoon.
The Avalanche currently has seven U.S.-born players on its roster: Tyler Arnason, John-Michael Liles, Jeff Finger, T.J. Hensick, Jordan Leopold, Kurt Sauer and Scott Parker. Plus, Paul Stastny was born in Quebec City but raised in the United States.
Hockey Day In Canada, a more elaborate celebration staged by the CBC network, was Saturday. The network showed an NHL tripleheader — Detroit at Toronto in the first game, Montreal at Ottawa or Edmonton at Calgary in the second game, and the Avalanche at Vancouver in the third. The CBC festivities began in the morning with Ron MacLean and Don Cherry from the Winkler, Manitoba, Arena, using Dustin Penner’s journey from Winkler to raising the Stanley Cup with the Anaheim Ducks as a quintessential Canadian story.
