Peter Forsberg in Belize

by J. Scott Moore

I have an odd little Forsberg memory I thought I would share with you.

It was spring, 2001 and I was going to Belize, not a hotbed of hockey coverage.  The trip took me on a four-seat, single engine plane to a strip of asphalt with three shacks, two of them abandoned.  Next it was an hour drive to a resort with zip for communications.

I was having a great time in Belize but that I sure wish I knew what my Avalanche were up to.  I heard there was a Canadian owned resort down the beach and that they had a satellite feed for watching hockey in the bar!

It was the April 30^th game against the Kings and I spent the first period enjoying the game.  It was into the second with the score tied up when the feed blinked out.  The owner promptly headed to the back and eventually the feed blink on again.  Now the score was 2-1 Avs, goal by Forsberg and I missed it!  This occurred several more times in the third with the score changing, very frustratingly, every time the feed was out.  Before the game was over the feed went out for good.

I had a relaxing vacation punctuated by trips down the beach trying to catch Avs games.  I was well informed by the owners as to the status of the series, they couldn’t get another Avs game on the feed.  He told me that they were stealing the feed so it was very unreliable. 

The timing of the final game didn’t allow me to get any info before leaving for home.  I was in the airport in Houston when finally I saw some hockey news start scrolling by on the crawler.  It said that the Avs had advanced to the next round, YAY!!! 

And then it said that Peter Forsberg had season ending surgery…WHAT?????

That was it, no more information and next thing I knew it was time to get on the plane to Denver.  That was a long trip home wondering what the hell was going on!  It’s safe to say that Forsberg losing his spleen in that game was memorable but so was the suspense I was in while traveling.