In this article, Dater offers a brief reminiscence all the way back to the time where Peter Forsberg returned to the Avs in the midst of a four-game road trip in which the team lost all four games. Those were the days...
Basically just a couple half-done ideas thrown together into one article, this is a recap of the Avs' most recent road trip, almost entirely devoid of substance (the article, that is, not the road trip... although that's probably debatable). Dater begins by stating that never in his time covering the team has the Avalanche locker room been as quiet a place as it was following the Nashville loss. I like the way he lets the players and the room tell us how to feel here, rather than saying something like, "This team is really lost right now." Right or wrong, that would have been Dater's opinion... but by telling us what the locker room was like and how the players were acting, he actually reports what he saw, and lets the reader draw his or her own conclusion. It's good writing, and obviously, I'd like to see more of that from Dater.
No recap of this road trip would be complete without just getting lost in Peter Forsberg's baby blues for a bit, and naturally Dater obliges.
Savor every single moment of this comeback, folks. I totally am. I admit it — I'm a Foppa fan boy. The man has put me through the wringer as a reporter trying to decipher his clues, but consider me a willing glutton for punishment in this case.
It'll be a long time before we ever see the likes of his kind again. I don't care what his stats are through the first two games, he's still the most compelling player to watch out there. And he easily could have had three or four points in those two games if not for good goaltending and the clumsy sticks of teammates.
Wow. I mean, how often to you hear a reporter actually write something like, "I'm a Foppa fan boy?" Honestly, he sounds like he's past just being a fanboy... he sounds a bit like he's actually enjoying a little Foppa S&M. On more than more than one occasion, Dater has chided reporters from other teams with the motto, "There's no cheering in the press box." It certainly seems like Dater could stand to take his own advice here, although it might be difficult for him to hear it with Forsberg whispering sweet nothings into his ear. While it's certainly no secret that Dater has always harbored a massive mancrush on Forsberg, there are still some lines you don't cross as a professional journalist, and flat-out admitting in print that you're currently slobbering all over the people you are assigned to cover is one of those lines.
Furthermore, what NHL player wouldn't have a few more points if not for good goaltending or botched plays by teammates? I realize Dater is trying to get us to look past Forsberg's numbers a bit here, but this just struck me as a really dumb thing to say. Love makes you say stupid things, apparently, and on Valentine's day, I suppose we should forgive Dater this one time.
He closes by thanking an unnamed Nashville cab driver for not stealing his stuff, despite his having been somewhat rude to the guy. It is nice to see that Dater's "faith in humanity" has been restored. I wonder how long it will last?
Grade: C+. Although it did include a very nice, objective description of the Avs' state of mind following the Predators game, there is really no reason at all to have written this article. Because it is so completely useless, the Forsberg serenade doesn't seem quite as jarringly inappropriate as it probably should.
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