GDT - Avalanche @ Wild 2/9/11

Will Forsberg get his work visa in time?! Who cares?!
Avalanche coming off 3-0 loss to Phoenix on Monday.





Wild lead Avs in standings by 3 points. They also are coming off a shutout loss to Phoenix last Saturday. Hopefully they aren't completely rusty. Bruno will be out there playing in "game 1000" of his career so that should be a special treat for those in attendance.

Wild vs. Avalanche post-game and more

Brunette celebrate's 1,000th game as Wild earn 3-2 home win over Colorado

Written by Derek Felska | 08 February 2011

When I woke up this morning, I was determined to write my intro to tonight's post-game report as I always do. I often write this in the morning or around noon in part to save time, but to provide some sort of segue to the game. Tonight could mark the return of Peter Forsberg the Colorado Avalanche lineup since he last suited up for the team in 2008. So as I thought this morning I figured I'd go with the very cliche "He's baaack" kind of round about explanation to jump into a talk about the returning former Avs stud. The origin of this commonly used cliche is the creepy little girl in the Poltergeist movies from the early to mid-1980's, Heather O'Rourke whose cinematic catch phrase is about as signature as cycling the puck is to the Sedin twins popularly known as creepy kids of their own by fans across the State of Hockey as Children of the Corn. While not nearly as creepy as his aforementioned Swedish brethren, Peter Forsberg does share a few a few commonalities as the creepy duo as both hail from the town of Ornskoldsvik which has been a pretty impressive little bastion of hockey talent considering Forsberg, the Sedins, as well as Canucks' great Markus Naslund and budding Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman call this community their hometown which numbers just a little over 40,000 people. Forsberg is one of the most popular players to have ever played the game in Sweden, known affectionately as Foppa, but talk to Wild fans (and other Avs haters) and you'll hear a less affectionate version that describes his style of play "Floppa." Even though Forsberg, a player known to be dirty who loved to dish out cheap shots when he wasn't amazing fans with his excellent stickhandling and great hands near the net could at times show great strength when dishing out hits but could fall remarkably easy when nearly any opposing player skated by him. Like Heather O'Rourke, Forsberg spent lots and lots of time acting, acting as though someone had tripped or cross checked him, diving to the ice with great regularity and being so skilled at it that he managed to convince more than a few NHL referees to give him the call the Swedish forward desired. The propensity of Forsberg and his Avalanche teammates to fall with little to no contact caused some fans to start whole websites dedicated to ridiculing "Floppa" and his their antics. Forsberg may be in the lineup tonight, then again he may not be.

One person who should be in the lineup this evening is Andrew Brunette. Oddly enough the team is choosing tonight to celebrate Brunette's 1,000th game in the NHL rather than the ACTUAL night of his 1,000th game which was last week against the Los Angeles Kings. Doesn't that sound like a spouse who may have forgotten about their significant other's birthday or Valentine's Day? Sure sounds like it to me, and if so its pretty sad. Especially when you consider how this team fell over itself to honor Mike Modano in his "last" game with a whole series of tributes only to have the former North Star, who repeatedly dissed the State of Hockey, sign on for another season with the Detroit Red Wings. The Wild make a big deal of honoring a player who never played for the organization and then forget to really celebrate their own player's career milestone for a guy who had some of his most memorable hockey accomplishments take place. (shrugs) So will the Wild honor their teammate with another victory or will they play so poorly as they did last Saturday in Phoenix you'd think they were honoring Peter Forsberg instead? (UPDATE: Forsberg will make his debut perhaps this Saturday as he still has to finalize his immigration visa according to NHL Home Ice Radio on XM.) (click on the link for the rest of the article)

Not bad win, not perfect but I liked how we pressed the attack down the stretch instead of just sitting back and playing rope-a-dope. There is a complete post-game as well as a Houston Aeros update, and a Wild prospect report that features Mikael Granlund (including video of him playing well at the Finnish Winter classic) and Jason Zucker. Enjoy!