History of Jersey 83-93 Banner sm photo History of Jersey 83-93 Banner sm.jpg

Saturday, September 19, 2009

2004-05 MODO Hockey Peter Forsberg Jersey

The fourth jersey of "The Lockout Collection" sees us travel up to Sweden for our next stop.

As we have seen, while many NHL players followed the money and found employment in Russia during the NHL lockout, many players chose other countries, with Sweden being the second most popular, especially among native Swedes, naturally.

One such player was Peter Forsberg, who returned to his hometown of Örksköldsvik to play for MODO Hockey, the club for whom he made his professional debut in 1989-90. Forsberg skated for MODO for six seasons, which included winning both the Golden Puck as Swedish Player of the Year and the Golden Helmet for Swedish Elitserien Most Valuable Player in 1993 and repeated the feat of winning both again 1994 before becoming a member of the NHL's Quebec Nordiques for one season prior to their relocation to Denver, Colorado where they became the Avalanche.

Injuries began to take their toll on Forsberg, who had his spleen removed during the 2001 NHL playoffs, causing him to miss not only the remainder of the playoffs, but factored into his decision to take the following regular season off before returning for the 2002 playoffs. He was also limited to 39 games in 2003-04 following his MVP season the year prior, so it should not have been a surprise when injuries affected his return to MODO as well.

Coached by his father Kent Forsberg and teamed with twins Daniel and Henrik Sedin as well as Markus Näslund, who all hail from Örksköldsvik, Forsberg scored 39 points, on 13 goals and 26 assists, but he was limited to 33 games of the 50 game Swedish schedule due to a broken bone in his and and surgery following a dislocated wrist.

MODO was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by Färjestads BK in six games as Forsberg was only able to appear in one game in the series.

After a return to the NHL with the Philadelphia Flyers and a stint with the Nashville Predators, Forsberg had surgery on his foot, which would would keep him out of all but 16 Colorado Avalanche games in 2007-08, which included seven playoff games. The 2008-09 season would see him attempt to play once more, but only make it into three games with MODO, where he would score a goal and record two assists. He managed 23 games with MODO in 2009-10, scoring 30 points, and four games for Sweden in the 2010 Olympics, all of which gave him enough encouragement to return to the NHL with Colorado, but it was an ill-fated attempt which ended after only two games in 2010-11 bringing and end to his career once and for all.

Today's featured jersey is a 2004-05 MODO Hockey Peter Forsberg jersey as worn during his time in Sweden during the NHL lockout. This jersey is typical of many European jerseys in that it features no less than 19 sponsor logos, which sometimes make it hard to recognize which word is actually the player's name, especially lesser known ones, thanks in part to the inconsistency in Europe regarding the players names sometimes being positioned below the back numbers and sometimes in the more traditional location above the numbers.

The jersey is all dye-sublimated except for the name and numbers, which are sewn on twill material, including the drop-shadow for the numbers.

Sweden Modo 2004-05 jersey photo Sweden Modo 2004-05 F.jpg
Sweden Modo 2004-05 jersey photo Sweden Modo 2004-05 B.jpg

Here is a Swedish TV report on Forsberg playing for Modo in the 2004-05 season, where he can be seen wearing the home version of today's featured jersey.


Based on the change in jersey style, we believe this to be the one goal he scored in his attempted return to the ice in 2008-09 for MODO against Skellefteå.


This final highlight is from the 1993-94 playoffs, where Forsberg scores in overtime to give MODO the victory.


1 comment:

  1. I actually bought this jersey as well, just in the full replica that was totally dye-sublimated. I thought there was a possibility the Rangers would go after Forsberg once the lockout ended so I went back and forth between this and a Frolunda Henrik Lundqvist, but Hank was just a prospect in the Ranger system at the time ... who knew??

    ReplyDelete

We welcome and encourage genuine comments and corrections from our readers. Please no spam. It will not be approved and never seen.

 

hit counter for blogger