Retiring Lindros’ number good for Flyers’ soul
PHILADELPHIA » Nolan Patrick met Eric Lindros, and looked him up and down. The legend, he knew. The man, he realized, would match. “Even when you see him now, his hands are massive,” he said. “He is a big guy. He was a talented player and I wish I could have watched him play more.
“He’s obviously getting his number retired for a reason.”
Lindros had his No. 88 retired by the Flyers Thursday, and there were reasons. He is in the Hockey Hall of Fame. He was one of the great Flyers captains. He was a gold medalist in the Olympics. He was an NHL MVP. He led the Flyers into the Stanley Cup Finals. But there was one reason more than the rest. It was because the Flyers are at their best when they are integrating their past, their present and, in some cases, their future.
Patrick is 19, the second overall pick in the last draft. Some night, and that night would be decades away, he could have such a ceremony in his honor. Maybe not. But he has franchise-defining talent, or so the scouts hint. Either way, he would be reminded Thursday that there is something that makes the Flyers different. It’s not championships. It’s a deep, deep pride in an organization, even if it rarely does win championships.
That’s not easy. But the Flyers make it look that way.
“You kind of learn that right when you get here,” Patrick said. “The culture has been the same for a long time, everyone says. And obviously, there has been some great history in this organization. So it is pretty cool to be a part of it.”
Patrick was a part of it Thursday. So was Bernie Parent, who is 53 years older. Shayne Gostisbehere was a part of it, as was Bobby Clarke. Wayne Simmonds was part of it, and, for him, it all felt right.
“We were playing in Toronto, maybe seven years ago, my first year in Philly,” Simmonds said. “And Eric came out on the ice with us for the morning skate. That was the first time I had a chance to meet him. So that was kind of special. We had no clue he was going to do it. He just kind of showed up in the dressing room and all of a sudden he was on the ice with us. So that was pretty cool.”
There was a time when Lindros reconnecting with the Flyers would have seemed unlikely. Injuries and how they may or may not have been diagnosed, contracts and how they may or may not have been interpreted, playoff results and how they may or may not have reflected Lindros’ contributions were in dispute. The Lindros family felt one way, the Flyers another. It was business. It was personal. It was unnecessary.
Then, Lindros had no idea he would ever have his uniform number pulled to the rafters beside those of Parent, Clarke, Bill Barber, Barry Ashbee and Mark Howe.
“No,” he said. “Did you?”
Ahhhh … yeah, actually. It may have taken time. But the Flyers were destined to fill that unsightly gap in the row of flags. Lindros, who rebooted the Flyers’ legendary physical style, earned and deserved that honor. But more, the Flyers needed that honor. For if they had allowed some clumsy internal dispute to deny it, they would not have been punishing Lindros. They would have been scarring their own souls.
“We’ve always taken a lot of pride,” Clarke said, “that players play here are a part of us.”
The players are a part of the Flyers, and the Flyers are a part of the players. And even if that yielded only yielded two Stanley Cups in their first 50 seasons, it did yield eight trips to the finals, the Super Bowl of hockey.
The players made the history. But on some level, this history helped make the players. No one better reflected that than Lindros.
“He did it every which way,” Simmonds said. “He powered through you. He stickhandled around you. And if you wanted to drop the gloves, he’d drop the gloves and beat the crap out of you. So he was a special player and obviously that’s why he is having his number retired.”
Lindros admits he left the Flyers under “less than ideal circumstances,” but, “my wife, Kina, and Paul Holmgren, both in their own ways, taught me to move on, to put in past any differences of opinion or hurt feelings.
“It’s time to put it behind.”
So, it’s behind. Eric Lindros has his rightful spot in Flyers lore, not just in the franchise Hall of Fame, but on the luxury level, with Clarke, Parent, Howe, Ashbee, Barber and Ed Snider.
“It’s truly an honor,” he said. More, he will make sure his three children, Carl Pierre and twins Sophie and Ryan, understand the meaning. “We will do our best,” he said, “to share the history and the heritage of the Flyers organization.”
Lindros will spread the legacy of the Flyers.
The Flyers will celebrate the legend of Lindros.
“Know you are back where you belong,” Holmgren, the team president, a Flyers legend himself, told Lindros. “And this time, it is forever.”
The gap in the Flyers history has been closed. They could not have afforded to leave it open.
Contact Jack McCaffery @jmccaffery@21stcenturymedia.com; follow him on Twitter @JackMcCaffery