Carbonneau teaches Forsberg to respect his elders

5/25/99

By Keith Gave
The Dallas Morning News

The best hockey player in the world met up with the oldest player in the Stanley Cup tournament on Monday night at Reunion Arena. Predictably, it was no contest.

The old guy won. An because he did, we have ourselves a playoff series - maybe the best one the Stars have given us since they came to Dallas six years ago.

Colorado's Peter Forsberg, 25, had pretty much been having his way in these playoffs, leading all scorers with 19 points. Until Guy Carbonneau went to coach Ken Hitchcock and said in his most assertive French accent, "enough is enough."

"I wanted to play against him," the old man said after the Stars' dazzling 4-2 victory that evened the best-of-7 Western Conference finals series at one game each. "That's my game. I've made my career out of doing it."

And what a career. Three times, Carbonneau, 39, has won the Selke Trophy as the NHL's best defensive forward. Twice, he finished as runner-up. Give Forsberg a vote, and Carbonneau probably would win his fourth.

Forsberg finished the game with one lousy shot on goal. He drew the second assist on a power-play goal in the first period. But at even strength, he and linemates Valeri Kamensky and Claude Lemieux were handcuffed by Carbonneau and wingers Mike Keane and rookie Blake Sloan.

Long before this game was over, Forsberg and his Avalanche teammates had surrendered. Colorado managed one paltry shot with the game on the line in the third period.

"We had them frustrated, I think," Carbonneau said. "They didn't get too many scoring chances, and we had a couple of good ones ourselves."

Carbonneau's checking assignment was a departure in strategy by coach Ken Hitchcock, who had hinted before the game that some of his players were chewing his ear off about wanting a crack at Forsberg. Brian Skrudland, who muzzled Forsberg in the 1996 finals when Colorado swept Florida, wanted a piece of him, too.

Playing head-to-head against the Mike Modano line, Forsberg scored the tying goal and assisted on the game-winner in the 2-1 Colorado victory in Game 1.

"I didn't have a problem with the way the Modano line played against Forsberg," Hitchcock said, "but we just wanted to change the matchups. Carbo did a good job. Forsberg is such a good one-on-one player, he doesn't need much space. He can stickhandle in a phone booth and still create a scoring change."

Carbonneau, proving once again he has a great future in coaching, suggested to his coach before the game and to the media afterward that taking Modano away from Forsberg would free up the Stars' top line for more offensive opportunities.

And it worked. Modano, playing most of the night against Joe Sakic, finished with a goal and an assist on a Sergei Zubov goal that broke a 1-1 tie early in the second period.

Modano earned the game's first star, but Carbonneau might have been Dallas' most important player.

"Peter's playing very well for them. He's got a lot of skill," said Keane, Forsberg's former teammate on the '96 Stanley Cup team. "But Carbo has played in this league for 35 years or something like that. He's a very smart player."

Street smart, and that's exactly what Dallas needs plenty of to survive this series.

"We've got to turn this thing into a street fight," Hitchcock said. "We're best when it's a street fight."

So is Carbonneau, who more than once exchanged words and a few hacks with Forsberg.

"He likes to use his stick, but that's a game both teams can play," Carbonneau shrugged.

Asked what he thought of the Carbonneau-Forsberg matchup that stalled his offense, Colorado coach Bob Hartley shrugged.

"I have no problem with that," Hartley said.

He shouldn't. But he does.

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