Tonight the Washington Capitals will play the Nashville Predators for the first time this season. The big storyline heading into this game is Barry Trotz returning to his old stomping grounds.
Trotz spent 15 years as head coach of the Predators. He was the team’s first coach and might have even named them. Three of Trotz’s children still live in the city, and he left on the goodest of good terms over the summer. Like Brooks Orpik in Pittsburgh, Trotz will probably get a video tribute tonight. There will be lots of feels.
But let’s not forget the other storyline tonight: this will be the first time Filip Forsberg plays against the team that drafted him, and it’s going to be awful.
To ratchet up the pain level to 11, I went ahead and collected my favorite RMNB posts dealing with Forsberg. Surf through the tag yourself.
Nashville Predators Top SI’s Power Rankings Season After Dumping Barry Trotz
When the Caps were struggling in early December, SI named Trotz’s former team as the NHL’s best. “The Predators remain the league’s best team at even strength and the team’s confidence is growing,” SI’s Brian Cazeneuve wrote. “Forward Filip Forsberg recently garnered NHL Rookie-of-the-Month honors, while goalie Pekka Rinne was named the league’s Third Star for the month.”
Since then, Nashville has continued to be awesome — they are literally the best team in the league — but the Caps are no slouches either. Forsberg, the former Capital, is nearly a point-per-game player. He has two more points than Alex Ovechkin. Hahahahahaha… [tears].
Filip Forsberg is Hanging Out With Andre Burakovsky During Weird Swedish Holiday, Midsummer
Just because the Caps weren’t his team anymore didn’t mean that Forsberg would cut all ties. In June, Forsberg helped us understand the weird Swedish holiday Midsummer while celebrating with fellow Swede Andre Burakovsky. I still don’t get the maypole thing.
20 Photos of Team Sweden Heartbroken After WJC Gold Medal Game Loss
We’re gluttons for punishment. Last year we covered the World Junior Championship. Andre Burakovsky and Christian Djoos played Team Sweden. So did Forsberg. The Swedes lost in heart-breaking fashion to Finland. Forsberg was named the MVP of the whole dang tournament.
Filip Forsberg Scores First NHL Goal, Celebrates With Ovechkin Leap Into Boards (GIFs)
Yeah… Awesome goal, but did he have to celebrate that exact way?
Filip Forsberg on Trade to Nashville: “All I Can Do Is Accept It”
We had been translating Forsberg’s interviews in Sweden while he was still in the Caps organization. Then came that fateful day when Forsberg was dealt to Nashville in a surprising deadline day deal.
“It happened suddenly, I didn’t know anything about it until I read it,” Forsberg said to Expressen and translated by Jake Ware. “I spoke to my agent just now and he said it really went quickly, but that’s what happens in this world. All I can do is accept it.”
He was looking forward to a career in Washington.
Caps Fans Work Through Their Feelings Using Filip Forsberg’s Wikipedia Page
Caps fans let their frustration out with the trade by messing with Forsberg’s Wikipedia page. Isn’t it funny how true this joke is? Hahahaha… [more tears].
Filip Forsberg Scores Beautiful Breakaway Goal, Game-Winner (Video)
We covered almost every goal Forsberg scored for Leksand of the HockeyAllsvenskan. Towards the end of his tenure, you could tell he was turning into one hell of a player. Especially on these two goals. In February 2013, Forsberg was even named HockeyAllsvenskan’s Best Under-20 Player.
Filip Forsberg Shows Off Fancy Stickhandling During Warm-Ups
Lots of guys warm up by skating and shooting. For Forsberg during the 2013 World Junior Championship, he just put on a stick handling clinic at center ice.
Filip Forsberg Does Gangnam Style Dance
Also showing off his personality: these two Gangham Style dances (1, 2) during PSY’s rise to global fame. Look at these moves. He has moves on moves. Don’t slice your MCL, Filip. You might need that later.
Filip Forsberg Stars in Swedish Chocolate Milk Commercial
Sweden is so weird.
Filip Forsberg Doesn’t Know Why Pens Fans Booed Him at the Draft
Forsberg got slung into the Caps/Pens rivalry before he could even understand it. On Draft Day 2012, George McPhee got unceremoniously booed by the Pittsburgh crowd. “That was a bit surprising,” a smiling Forsberg said to me at Development camp. “I heard a lot about the Crosby/Ovechkin rivalry and stuff like that [at home in Sweden], but [the booing] caught me off guard.” This guy.
Filip Forsberg Plays Good Defense for Seventeen, Yells at Teammates in Swedish
One reason why I became enamored with Forsberg was because of how tenacious his defense was for such a young player. Most highly drafted players have an offensive flair that’s otherworldly, but they struggle with some of the simplest things in system hockey.
If you saw the Fanfest scrimmage, you saw Forsberg put his body on the line. It was easy to see he was a special player, at least among kids his own age. I’m just going to go ahead and blockquote my favorite part of this post.
“Jobba,” Forsberg aggressively yells at the 13 second mark. “Hårt där! Hårt där!… Bra!” Friend-of-the-blog Jacob Ware tells us that translates to the following in English: “Work! Hard! Hard!… Good!”
When I asked Forsberg after the scrimmage how he developed such advanced defensive skills for his age, he credited his Allsvenskan league team, Leksands Idrottsförening.
“I play with men over there,” the 17-year-old Forsberg explained. “Their standards are a bit higher than playing with the juniors. If I want to fit in, I have to learn these things.”
Filip continued,”We work a lot on [defense] back home in Sweden, and also on the national team we work a lot on it. If you can’t defend, you can’t win games. You have to be good in both.”
Which is why with a minute left in the scrimmage, Adam Oates, the coach of Team White, sent Forsberg out to close out the game.
In a sequence of about 30 seconds, Forsberg deflects a shot from the point, dives and nearly blocks another, and then blocks a third with his skates.
Why did we trade this guy again?
Photo: Homer McFanboy
