"As of Sunday, Peter Forsberg was still a member of the Avalanche, having just flown home to Denver with the rest of his teammates after a tough Saturday night loss to Nashville.

After the loss, Forsberg spoke of the need to "keep on working" at his game and his comeback, which had just reached two games.

The comeback is over. At 2:30 p.m. today at the Pepsi Center, Forsberg will announce his career is over.

With one last shocking surprise in a career filled with them, Forsberg this morning notified the Avalanche he would retire effective immediately.

In one last heartbreak for Avs fans, they won't be able to see him play one more time on home ice. Forsberg will not play in tonight's game against the Calgary Flames.

"We sat beside each other in the room and I kept asking him how he was feeling and every time he seemed to feel good," Avs center Matt Duchene said. "I don't know whether it was the back to back that did him in or what. It's too bad"

The only two games he played for the Avs were in Columbus, Ohio, and Nashville, Tenn. Save the ticket stubs to those, because they mark the final games of one of the NHL's greatest players.

Forsberg's final statistics weren't pretty in the two games. He did not record a point and was a minus-4. But he played better than the stats showed. He made several pretty passes that could have resulted in goals, and he still showed the smarts that made him one of the league's toughest players to defend. He finishes with 885 points, with two Stanley Cup rings and two Olympic gold medals.

Players had a clue something was wrong when they entered the locker room today and didn't see Forsberg's name on the lineup that is written on a board.

Avs coach Joe Sacco told the players about Forsberg's decision before the team took the ice for the morning skate.

After the 45-minute skate, Sacco said he had not talked to Forsberg, but had played "phone tag" with him."