DET vs COL

The Colorado Avalanche hadn't even taken the ice yet when they were punched in the stomach.

The fickle fates of Peter Forsberg's health once again sabotaged Colorado's best-laid plans for Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Detroit Red Wings. Detroit captured Game 1 Thursday night with a 4-3 win over the Forsberg-less Avalanche.

On a day that started with a full lineup and seeming good health after four days off, the Avs had no Forsberg, lost
first-line left winger Wojtek Wolski in the first period and saw goalie Jose Theodore leave for the team hotel by the second period from a combination of illness and four Red Wings goals by the second minute.

"We got some tough breaks today, but that's the playoffs," said Colorado defenceman John Liles, who scored a goal and had a prime chance to tie with 8.4 seconds left in the game.

Johan Franzen scored two goals for Detroit, which saw a 4-1 second-period lead cut to 4-3 entering the third. The Avs had the puck for much of the third and put some heavy pressure on goalie Chris Osgood at the end, but having their two top left wings out of the game certainly did no favours for Colorado.

As with many things regarding Forsberg, his latest setback came out of nowhere. After a good practice Wednesday, he took to the ice at Joe Louis Arena for the morning skate and whipped around in seeming good spirits. But about 15 minutes in – about as long as he usually skates on a game day – Forsberg came off the ice. Nobody around the team let on that anything was wrong, but at around 5 p.m., coach Joel Quenneville got the bad news: Forsberg had suffered another of what the team said was a groin injury and couldn't go.

Deal with the devil

Despite scoring the first goal of the game, the Avs seemed discombobulated from their game plan by his absence, and Detroit blitzed Theodore for three straight first-period scores – including one by Daniel Cleary that bounced high in the air and in behind an oblivious Theodore.

This was the deal with the devil the Avs made when they re-signed Forsberg: when he's in the lineup, everything seems great. But the minute you think it will stay that way for a while, up pops another injury and his teams all too often are held hostage to his health.

"Obviously, you'd like to have him in the lineup," said Avs captain Joe Sakic, who didn't get a point and was a minus-2. "But we should have been better than that."

Franzen probably wasn't at the top of the Avalanche's list of shutdown priority targets, but that is what separates this Wings team from the last few – even though Franzen played last season. The Detroit depth is just better up front than Colorado's, which trotted out a bottom two lines that did practically nothing offensively.

"I thought we came out strong, skating well and creating chances," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "Then we stopped thinking we had to go to the net. But it's a good win."

The Avalanche is calling Forsberg "day-to-day", which is shorthand for "We have no idea when he'll be back."

Forsberg did miss nine of the 18 games he could have played in the regular season, most from the alleged nagging groin problem. He usually was able to play after a couple days of rest, but who knows this time?

Wolski, who was listed out with an upper body injury after Franzen collided into him, after Franzen was hit by Ruslan Salei, might be able to play in Game 2. He appeared to be favouring his right leg getting off the ice.