Forsberg to stay in Nashville?

This is sheer speculation, but I sure hope ESPN analyst Terry Frei is right:

Q: Might Peter Forsberg return to Philadelphia?

A: Maybe, because he's been there long enough to hear the argument that many locals prefer Jim's to Geno's (order in English only, please) and Pat's. But I'm in the minority: I think he's going to come around to choosing between re-signing with the Predators, if he's healthy enough and they want him, or going home to Sweden … and staying there.

For the record, Frei, who has written for both Denver newspapers as well, has been pretty fair to the Preds over the years, pointing out attendance issues when necessary but noting successes on and off the ice, too.

Preds attendance soaring since All-Star Break

The Preds currently have the best record in the NHL, but Nashville has taken a beating this season among hockey writers and fans for not filling seats to support the team.

Since the All-Star Break in late January, the Preds are averaging 16,122 fans per game and have sold out four of their past eight games. This doesn't put the team on par with the nightly capacity crowds in hockey hotbeds such as Toronto, Detroit and Montreal, but it is a major improvement. Fans are supporting this team, and crowds this season (as usual) have been engaged and vocal when it comes to what is taking place on the ice. This is not front-page news in the hockey world, but I'd like to see some of the Preds' harsher critics from traditional hockey circles at least note that the community is filling seats to cheer on the team instead of continuing to pile on based on attendance numbers from earlier in the season. Here are the Preds' figures since the All-Star break (sellouts designated with an asterisk):

Feb. 3 Ducks: 17,113*
Feb. 8 Leafs: 15,018
Feb. 10 Kings: 17,113*
Feb. 14 Sharks: 13,836
Feb. 17 Wild: 17,113*
Feb. 19 Coyotes: 15,862
Feb. 22 Canadiens: 15,808
Feb. 24: Red Wings 17,113*

I'm curious why there has not been much mention of New Jersey's attendance woes. A perennial playoff team during the past decade that is currently right behind the Preds in the overall standings, the Devils rank below Nashville in attendance in a much larger market (Newark, Exit 16W, Northern New Jersey, whatever you choose to call it). Why is Nashville drawing the ire of reporters and fans who consider themselves insiders while New Jersey, a team that would have relocated to Nashville in 1995 if they had not pulled off a Cinderella run to win the Stanley Cup, is not?

Sports Illustrated's Farber checks out Preds

Want to peek inside the Preds' locker room? Sports Illustrated writer Michael Farber has written a great story that includes plenty of details about the team's behind-the-scenes atmosphere:

[Barry] Trotz, the only coach in Predators history, mixes realism with an inveterate optimism. In the days leading to Saturday's game, Predators' coaches were forbidden to bring up their Thursday-night loss to the Montreal Canadiens, in which Nashville squandered three two-goal leads and lost in a shootout. Anyone caught talking about how Nashville had kicked away a precious point would have been expected to contribute to the Negativity Fund -- a so-labeled plastic container in the coaches' office that staff members pay into for spreading bad vibes. On Friday associate coach Brent Peterson wrote energy and patience on a whiteboard as coaching guidelines for practice. Then he began to write NO S-A-R.. before stopping. "How," he asked, "do you spell sarcasm?"

The stakes will be high over the next few weeks as the Preds continue their playoff run, but Farber reveals that the team engages in other matchups with nearly the same intensity:

The most riveting pre-Red Wings activity came on Friday at the clubhouse Ping-Pong table at which Forsberg, who says he was unbeaten during his season and a half with the Flyers, dropped games to winger Martin Erat and to goaltender Tomas Vokoun, before avenging the loss to Vokoun as teammates yelped. When the table tennis ended, hockey practice began: a sprightly, energetic session. No negativity anywhere.

Forsberg may have his hands full on the ping-pong table, but it looks like he's starting to fit in just fine in the locker room and on the ice. I've loved watching this team on the ice since year one in 1998, and it's great to hear a little bit about how things play out away from the rink, too.

Road trip will boost Preds

I agree with Coach Trotz that the current Preds road trip is likely to only help make Nashville an even better team as it enters the stretch run before the playoffs:

One of the plusses of the Predators' longest road trip of the season — five games over 10 days — is that the team will get some bonding time with recent acquisitions Peter Forsberg and Vitaly Vishnevski. "You can say all you want while you're at home, but you don't bond as well," Predators Coach Barry Trotz said. "Over the next 10 days, we're going to be on the road and it's a bunch of guys together on the road, sort of against the world. We just have to bear down and hopefully pull together."

One benefit of having all eyes on Forsberg since the trade is that Vishnevski has likely been able to integrate with his new team that much more easily. He isn't the one who's every move is being watched, and so far he appears to be fitting in well.

Good timing, Pete

I was encouraged over the weekend not only by Peter Forsberg's excellent play and game-winning goal against Detroit, but also by reading the following further explanation in The Tennessean about his decision to decline Coach Trotz's request that he participate in the shootout at the end of Thursday night's game with Montreal:

Forsberg explained Friday why he told Trotz he'd prefer not to be one of the top three shootout participants in Thursday's game against Montreal. Forsberg wound up shooting fourth and slipped to the ice before getting off a quality attempt. "To be honest, I don't think I'm the best goal-scorer in the league," Forsberg said. "If you look at the statistics, I've got more (assists) than goals. I think this team has a lot of breakaway guys."

I was admittedly being a little hard on Forsberg, but I suppose that's because of the level of expectations that superstars tend to generate. As I mentioned on Friday, we're all human, even athletes and other people who excel at a high level of performance, but one thing that distinguishes superstars is that they tend to outperform the rest of the field sooner or later and on a regular basis. Two things that distinguish great athletes from great leaders is the ability to acknowledge one's strengths and weaknesses and the ability to see how one's skills can best align with the rest of the team's talents.

Forsberg broke out of what might be considered a mini-slump and recorded his first two points as a Predator as Nashville downed the Red Wings 4-3 in overtime in front of a sellout crowd. Keep in mind that this is the second consecutive week that Forsberg has downed the Red Wings by scoring the clinching goal:

In his final appearance with the Philadelphia Flyers last week, Peter Forsberg scored the game-winning goal in a victory over the Detroit Red Wings. It might not have been a showdown game — the Flyers long had fallen out of playoff contention — but it did provide yet another example of Forsberg sticking it to the best team of the last decade.

Keep in mind that this appeared in an article that ran in Saturday's paper, prior to that night's heroics by Forsberg. I'm not expecting that Forsberg--or any other Pred--will score every game, but I'm glad to see him begin to contribute. I imagine that we'll see a lot more assists, goals and, hopefully, wins in the near future, thanks to Forsberg and the rest of the Preds.

Does Forsberg want to be here?

It's not really fair to be questioning this so soon after such a huge trade, but last night's game has me wondering a bit. Consider this item from John Glennon's recap of the Preds' 6-5 loss to Montreal last night:

Predators Coach Barry Trotz asked center Peter Forsberg whether he wanted to be one of the top three shootout participants against the Canadiens, but Forsberg declined."He said he didn't want to go as one of the first three,'' Trotz said. "He just said it wasn't something he didn't feel real strong about, so I listened to him.''Forsberg was the fourth Predators shooter, but slipped as he neared the Montreal crease and failed to get off a quality attempt.

Peter Forsberg is reportedly a humble locker-room leader, so maybe he's just deferring to the team's established leaders. I attended the game last night, and it was a little disconcerting to learn after the fact that Forsberg turned down Coach Trotz's first request to participate in the shootout. Putting him on the ice in the sudden-death round with the game on the line added even more pressure, and even NHL superstars are human and can't make a spectacular play every time.

The trade is already paying dividends in the stands and around the city, and the team can afford the steep price it paid because it didn't require a big departure from the current roster. There are rumblings around the league that Forsberg may already have it in mind to return to Philadelphia in the offseason, but some of those rumors are from Flyers fans who are disappointed about an unexpectedly awful season for their favorite team.

Forsberg has made no promises to the Preds, but he did waive a no-trade clause in his contract to allow the deal to happen. He was serving as Philadelphia's captain, though, and perhaps he sees this move as a way to help the Flyers' future because he has been limited so far this season for them on the ice.

I hope he will at least give Nashville the honor of keeping an open mind about our team and our community. This could very well be a great place for him to earn another championship, whether this year or thereafter, and it could be a great and welcoming place for him to complete his career, too.

Playing in two quick home games after arriving as the savior via a blockbuster trade will put pressure on anyone, even a premier athlete. The long road trip that starts next week will be a big challenge for the team, but I have a feeling it will be a very good thing for Forsberg's Predators tenure.