Peter Forsberg made an incredible statement in his first week as the Flyers' captain when he twice turned down the opportunity to shoot in the marathon Philadelphia-Rangers shootout. His reasoning for not shooting was a bad batch of sticks. He eventually did shoot in the sixth spot, and failed to score on Lunqvist, but so did his 12 team-mates who shot and were turned away by the Ranger's netminder, who outlasted Antero Nittymaki who stoned 12 Rangers shooters until Marcel Hossa ended it on the 26th shot.

I know the stick is one of the tools of the trade for an NHL player, but seriously Peter, using that as an excuse to not shoot with the game on the line, smack of selfishness. That is not what you want to see in a captain, especially for a team who has seen such warriors as Bobby Clarke, Rick Tocchet, and Kieth Primeau wear the "C". Forsberg also reportedly used the excuse that Lundqvist knew him and all of his moves better than any goaltender in the league and he didn't feel that he could score. Those who have supported Forsberg said that he did show leadership by stating that he didn't feel confident and letting someone else who he felt had a better shot at scoring go ahead, but I think that is BS. If you are one of the most skilled players in the game, you are the captain of your team, you go out and shoot when asked, stick or no stick.

Forsberg has always been considered a warrior whose style of play was the reason he was hurt so often, but now this reputation must come into question. He has never been one of my favorite players, partially because he broke my heart in the 1992 Olympics with his SHOOTOUT GOAL that wont Sweden the Gold Medal against Canada.

In this intance he just appears selfish and whiny, and combine this with his constant threats that whatever season is currently underway will be his last and he is returning to Sweden, and he smacks of someone whose heart really isn't in the game. I think that he might have been miffed that he wasn't included in the top 3 players and therefore was pouting and refused to shoot

Which is too bad because he is one of the most skilled players in the league, has won Stanley Cups, Olympic Gold Medals, and is perhaps the best European player in NHL history. In my opinion this incident tarnishes all of that, and especially because he is the captain of a proud franchise, and young players such as Kyle Calder, Jeff Carter, RJ Umberger and Mike Richards are supposed to look up to this guy who begs out of a chance to win the game because his sticks are bad???

Give me a break. Take the C and give it to Mike Richards, who is a future Flyer Captain anyways. He would never pull such a stunt, he would shoot with one broken arm if he was asked.