Forsberg For MVP

It should be said that personal stat lines aren't the only things that win you most valuable player awards. It's contribution to your team and how valuable you are to it. When Peter Forsberg came back to the Philadelphia Flyer's line up last night an interesting statistic was brought up: The Flyers are 0-13-3 when Forsberg is absent from the line up. While the Flyers aren't exactly the toast of the NHL this year, it should be noted that they can't win without Forsberg playing. Does that not make Forsberg extremely valuable to his team? Is there any other superstar that can claim something similar to what Peter can? I didn't think so.

In fact, it quite oftenly happens that a superstar goes down with an injury and his teammate rally to perform better than when he was in the line up. Bill Simmons calls it the Ewing Theory, stemming from a Knicks playoff run after Patrick Ewing was sidelined. This is apparently not the case with Peter; but then again, the Flyers of 2006-2007 aren't as talented as previous incarnations.

All the glory and trophy talk goes to the players who rack up points (it's not like Forsberg is a slouch in the scoring department) but that's what the Art Ross and Maurice Richard trophies are for. I'm not saying Sid the kid isn't valuable or not worthy, I'm just saying that Peter the great should garner some consideration as long he keeps playing at a high level, of course.