Wes Goldstein

No one knew the risk to reward ratio better than the Colorado Avalanche when it came to Peter Forsberg, so they can't complain about not having the free agent superstar they re-signed in February in the lineup these days.

Forsberg took more than a half season before deciding his chronic foot problems shouldn't keep him from returning to the NHL, and he's been a boon to the Avalanche when he has been able to play. Forsberg had 14 points in the nine regular season games he played -- eight of which the Avs won -- and he had a goal and four assists in the six-game series win over Minnesota in the first round.

But as good as Forsberg has been throughout his career, he's been injury prone and it shouldn't surprise anyone that he's out again or that the Avs are missing him more than anyone realizes. What Colorado is calling a groin problem has kept Forsberg out of both games against Detroit, and made the offensive problems the Avs had all season with the Red Wings even more pronounced. That was pretty clear in Colorado's embarrassing 5-1 loss to the Wings today.

Colorado scored only two goals and was shut out three times in losing all four games played against Detroit this regular season, but that was before Forsberg came back  and Joe Sakic and Paul Stastny got healthy. The expectation was the full lineup would produce much more offense at playoff time, and even though it didn't materialize in the first round against Minnesota, Colorado did get timely goals.

However it's been tougher for the Avs to generate pressure in the offensive zone against Detroit, although not only because Forsberg isn't playing. He'd help of course, but the Red Wings, who allowed the fewest shots per game this season and lead that category again in the playoffs -- only by a wider margin -- play keepaway better than any team in the league. Detroit limits chances for the most dangerous of offenses as a general rule, and the Wings have simply owned the puck in this series. Detroit has been much better than it was in round one against Nashville, and the play differential between the Wings and Avs so far makes a sweep a plausible scenario.

Except for a few spurts in Game 1, Colorado really hasn't shown anything in this series and deserves to be going home down 2-0. They've tepid efforts have made life particularly easy for Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood, who's had to make a few good stops in the two games, but hasn't been challenged very much. Certainly with nowhere near the frequency of Avs goalie Jose Theodore, who has been pulled in both games.

Theodore came down with flu symptoms before Game 1 and looked weak before he was yanked in the second period, but Colorado said he was feeling better adn started him again in Game 2.

There was a risk in that obviously, the kind that isn't paying off these days for the Avs.