Having fought injuries throughout his 30s, he’s more like Peter the Great Unknown. But one thing hasn’t changed about Peter Forsberg: Whether he’s walking down the street or streaking down the ice, the man has a way of generating excitement.
How big is Forsberg in Sweden?
“He’s huge,” said Per Karlquist, chairman of Denver’s Swedish American Chamber of Commerce. “He’s second to the king.”
So who’s third? Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom maybe?
“No,” Karlquist says. “The queen.”
Forsberg, whose image adorns a stamp in his native country, is still a smash hit in Denver, as well. It remains to be seen whether he can rejuvenate the Avs’ power play, but Forsberg’s return to his NHL roots has reawakened the echoes of hockey glory in the Rocky Mountains.
“He’s the Michael Jordan of hockey,” said Chris Fuselier, owner of the Blake Street Tavern in LoDo and an original Avs season-ticket holder. “This is one of the three most exciting things to ever happen to the Avs — when they traded for Patrick Roy and Ray Bourque, and now bringing Forsberg back. They had become a nonstory, but things are going to be hopping now.”
For all anyone knows, the acquisitions of Ruslan Salei and another former Av, Adam Foote, will make a bigger impact on the Avs’ on-ice fortunes. But last week’s re-signing of Forsberg after his two-year absence was a signature move, the deal that got the city talking hockey again.
Call it Forsberg Fever.
“The buzz is back,” said John Brennan, owner of the SportsFan memorabilia stores. “The phones were ringing immediately. People are asking, ‘Why don’t you have any Forsberg stuff?’ ”
No surprise there, Brennan says.
“That’s the way it’s always been,” he said. “Forsberg was 70 percent of Avs sales at the top of his game. He was the team, from a marketing perspective.”
It isn’t just his otherworldly talent. Forsberg’s visceral connection with fans stems from a rare combination of true greatness with grit to match. Seldom has the NHL seen a superstar so willing to mix it up in the corners. Forsberg didn’t just dish out assists during his first tour of duty with the Avalanche. He was always there with an elbow, too.
“He was magical on the ice,” Brennan said. “And he had this kind of exotic personality. He lost his spleen and he still played. He had so much flashiness. (Joe) Sakic is a yeoman. He’s a great scorer and a great family man and all that, but he never sought the spotlight. Forsberg would bask in it every night. He cut a pretty wide swath in this town.”
Christmas in February
While the race is on for Brennan to get Forsberg merchandise on his shelves, the Avs in the past week have been selling about 2,000 single-game tickets a day, more than twice their usual amount. Not only that, according to Paul Andrews, the chief marketing officer for Kroenke Sports Enterprises, four-game packages for the team’s stretch run “have been going through the roof.”
As of late last week, Andrews and his staff were ordering jerseys and the like for the Avs’ merchandising store at the Pepsi Center.
We’re in kind of a panic,” Andrews said. “You make those kinds of moves, lots of things happen. It would be great if you could plan a month before, but you can’t. That’s OK. I told everyone in ticket sales, ‘You just got a Christmas present in February.’ ”
And now for today’s reality check, courtesy of Forsberg’s new teammate, Paul Stastny: “Everyone is excited, but if we don’t make the playoffs, these moves don’t mean too much.”
NHL no “beer league”
Forsberg is joining a team desperately clinging to the eighth playoff spot in the Western Conference, an offensively challenged club that, going into Saturday night, had allowed as many goals — 178 — as it had scored. Not only that, the Avs rank last in the league in power-play goals percentage at 13.4.
At the moment, the question isn’t so much whether Forsberg can make an impact, but when. He arrived in Denver on Friday night and skated at the Pepsi Center on Saturday morning, but wasn’t in uniform vs. the Los Angeles Kings. The plan is to give him a few practices before he joins the lineup, but the Avs aren’t going public with a target date.
“This isn’t the beer league,” Forsberg said. “It’s the toughest league you can play in. I don’t think you can just jump in and think you’re going to go out and dominate unless you’ve got a couple of good practices.”
Dominate? As recently as two weeks ago, Forsberg was saying he didn’t know if he could be ready to play this season, no thanks for his surgically repaired right ankle. While only time will tell if he can help carry the Avs to the playoffs, he has captured the buzz — outside and inside the Avs’ dressing room.
“A big buzz,” said Avs right winger Ian Laperriere. “I’m sure he wanted to be close to 100 percent before he came back. He wanted to be able to play like he always has because that’s the only way he knows. But even if the guy is 50 percent, he’s better than the rest of us. Skillwise, he’s better than all of us.”
Bill Vizas, owner of Bill’s Sports Collectibles on Broadway, is happy to see Forsberg back with the Avalanche. But he says the Avs will have to win for Forsberg Fever to withstand the test of time.
“We won too much in the ’90s in this town,” Vizas said. “The Buffs, the Broncos, the Avs. . . . Before that, we’d be euphoric just to have a baseball or hockey team. We’ve grown up from a cowtown in that way. We want winners. It’s great that Forsberg is back, but everyone is wondering how much he has left. But if he comes out and has a goal and two assists, things will heat up in a hurry.”
Jim Armstrong: 303-954-1269 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com
