Holmgren says Forsberg facing key test in Finland
MONTREAL - Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren met Sunday with Peter Forsberg in Philadelphia.
The center, an unrestricted free agent, was sponsoring a youth team from Sweden that competed in a tournament at the Wachovia Spectrum. Forsberg's godson was among the players.
Forsberg, 34, has said he plans to compete for the Swedish national team next week in an international tournament, the Karjala Cup, in Helsinki, Finland.
"It sounded like this tournament is going to be a big test for him," Holmgren said of Forsberg, who has had well-documented injury problems with his right foot.
In practice, "he's only been able to skate at half speed, and he needs to take that next step," Holmgren said. "He seems very noncommittal about what he might do this season about coming back to the NHL. He told me, 'I want to see if I'm OK first.' "
Last season, the Flyers traded the 12-year veteran to Nashville for winger Scottie Upshall (who played last night for the first time this season), young defenseman Ryan Parent, and two draft picks.
"The way we see it," the tournament "is a first step for him coming back and playing," said Flyers president Peter Luukko, who did not meet with Forsberg.
"Forsberg keeps everything close to the vest," he said. "He's really coy about what his future is. He'll just see how he feels and go from there."
Upshall's return. Scottie Upshall says his fractured left wrist is completely healed, but there are things he still cannot do. He is wearing a soft cast.
"The range of motion with the soft cast does limit me," the winger said.
Upshall celebrated his return by scoring a power-play goal at 19 minutes, 32 seconds of the third period.
"It's really precautionary, to keep [the cast] on and move forward in the healing process," he said, adding that he was looking at two weeks with a soft cast and then just taping the wrist.
Goon squad? Flyers coach John Stevens addressed newspaper headlines in Montreal that characterized his players as "goons."
"It aggravates me because it totally fogs the good things we've done as a team this year," Stevens said. "Last year, we weren't a very good team. We were a lot of times too easy to play against, and now we're trying to right that ship by being a much more competitive team. . . .
"Some people want to run out on a tangent about the Broad Street Bullies and goon hockey. We're not denying that those two incidents that happened earlier in the year" - resulting in the suspensions of Jesse Boulerice and Steve Downie - "shouldn't have happened. There's no excuse for them in the game, but we're not hiding from that.
"We're taking full ownership for those plays and saying they shouldn't have happened. And now we're paying the price by having to juggle players in and out of our lineup to get enough players who can help us.
"I think people assume it's acceptable here, and it's not. but at the same time, the philosophy here is we want to compete. We want to have great tempo and get after the puck.
"We do want to be an aggressive, physical team because there's no question you're a better defensive team when you play like that. But we're not trying to play past the borders of the rules."
Loose pucks. Derian Hatcher underwent knee surgery yesterday at Hahnemann University Hospital. "Derian had a piece of cartilage removed from his right knee today in Philadelphia by Dr. Peter DeLuca," Paul Holmgren said. "We are looking to have Derian back in about four weeks." . . . The Flyers signed forward Patrick Maroon, a sixth-round pick in the 2007 draft. Maroon, 19, has 12 goals and 13 assists this season for the Ontario Hockey League's London Knights.
