‘IT’S TRULY A SPECIAL HONOUR’
Emotional Lindros grateful to see his old No. 88 retired to the rafters in Philadelphia
The Big E was big-time grateful.
“It’s unbelievable,” said an emotional Eric Lindros, moments before his No. 88 was raised to the rafters at Wells Fargo Center and officially retired by the Philadelphia Flyers.
“These are one of those days that you can take for the rest of your life. Just extremely special moments where you feel lucky. You really feel lucky.”
Lucky is a curious word for a player who was largely without luck during the latter part of a career that was slowed down and eventually cut short by concussions. And yet, despite playing only 13 seasons — eight of those in Philadelphia — few players made as big an impact as the six-foot-four and 230-pound Lindros. For that, there was no need for luck.
“To say Eric was a game-changer doesn’t do him justice,” said Flyers president Paul Holmgren. “Never was there a player with his unique blend of size, skill, toughness, grit and determination.”
During eight years in Philadelphia, he scored 290 goals and had 659 points in just 486 games. He reached the 40-goal mark four times, won a Hart Trophy as league MVP and led the Flyers to the Stanley Cup final in 1997. More than that, he redefined the power forward position — a one-man wrecking ball who hit, fought and scored with the best of them.
Simply put, he was a monster who put up monster numbers. On Thursday, he received a similarly fitting honour, joining five other Flyers greats — Barry Ashbee, Bill Barber, Bobby Clarke, Mark Howe and Bernie Parent — to have their numbers retired.
“Are you kidding?” Lindros said of having his number retired. “Look at the names that are up there already ... It’s a real thrill. It’s a truly special honour.”
Lindros, who had his wife, three children and parents on the ice with him Thursday, also invited Legion of Doom linemates John LeClair and Mikael Renberg to be part of the ceremony.
“I think Johnny belongs in the Hall of Fame,” said Lindros.
“It was tremendous what he did for my game,” said LeClair, who had three straight 50-goal seasons followed by back-to-back 40-goal seasons in his first five full seasons alongside Lindros. “When you have someone that powerful and with that presence on the ice, he’s going to have a lot of attention obviously. You just get open and he’s such a great passer that he would find you. He had all the tools. I’m living proof that he’s a great passer.”
“What people don’t talk so much about was Eric had really good hockey sense,” said Renberg, who enjoyed his best years with Lindros. “He was big and he could skate, shoot and handle the puck, but he was so wise with it, too. Every time I played with him, you had to keep your stick on the ice. It was not like playing with any normal centreman.”
Nine players currently wear No. 88 in the NHL, including Chicago’s Patrick Kane, San Jose’s Brent Burns and Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. But from now on, the number is off limits in Philadelphia.
“When we raise your number in a few moments, know that you are back where you belong,” said Holmgren. “But now it’s forever.”
Indeed, few — including Lindros and the city of Philadelphia — could have imagined this moment occurring 16 years ago when Lindros and the Flyers parted ways in a very public and nasty divorce.
“No, you?” he asked back, adding that he and Clarke, the team’s GM at the time, have mended their relationship. “What happened was no doubt difficult and frustrating.”
For 15 months, Lindros sat out of the lineup with he and the Flyers trading barbs over the severity of his concussions and the treatment he was receiving. Finally, he was traded to the New York Rangers, where he spent another three years before moving on to Toronto and then Dallas before retiring in 2007.
It wasn’t until the 2012 Winter Classic, when Holmgren extended an invitation for him to play in an alumni game, that Lindros returned to Philadelphia.
“We started talking and things started to build up and the blocks started to fall into place,” said Lindros. “Paul’s a special guy. And here we are.”
As Holmgren had said, now it’s forever, a message Lindros took to heart.
This week was about reconnecting with the city where he began his career and where he enjoyed the best years of his hockey life. On Thursday, he woke up to a text message from Howe — “The day couldn’t have started any better,” he said — and then took his wife Kina and three-year-old son Carl-Pierre for a skate at Wells Fargo Center.
“You just never know when you’re ever going to have a chance to do that again with your kid. And Carl’s at an age now where he’s starting to grasp hockey and what’s going on. A great time. He came home and he normally doesn’t nap and he slept the entire afternoon with his Flyers jersey on. That’s the coolest part. He’s fired up.
“I’m very blessed to have played in Philadelphia.”