Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Eric Lindros for Failing

May 26, 2000, 20 years ago: Game 7 of the NHL Eastern Conference Finals, at what was then named the First Union Center in Philadelphia. (It's now named the Wells Fargo Center.) The New Jersey Devils have come from 3 games to 1 down to force this game.

The Devils win, 2-1. Both of their goals are scored by Patrik Elias. But the biggest story is the confrontation between Scott Stevens, the Devils' Captain; and Eric Lindros, the Flyers' biggest star and former Captain. In the 1st period, Stevens hit Lindros with his shoulder, leveling him, and giving him the 7th concussion of his career, which is only in its 8th season.

Earlier in his career, with the Washington Capitals, Stevens had been known as one of the dirtiest defensemen in the game. He had grown into a man worthy of his team's Captaincy, and had already led the Devils to the 1995 Stanley Cup. Now, he was 34, and the League's top "traffic cop."

Flyer fans, who loved their "Broad Street Bullies" of the 1970s and '80s, have hated Stevens, but freely admit that this was, however devastating, a clean hit. No penalty was called on the play.

Lindros never played for the Flyers again. He had already been feuding with Flyer management, including team owner Ed Snider, his son and operating owner Jay Snider, and general manager and former Captain Bob Clarke. (In the Delaware Valley, it's understood that "Bobby Clarke" is the team's greatest legend, while "Bob Clarke" was a lousy GM.)

Lindros missed the next season due to his lingering concussion issues, and was traded to the New York Rangers, and scored 37 goals in the 2001-02 season, but only scored another 45 goals. He played all but 1 game in 2002-03, but, between more injuries and the 2004-05 NHL lockout, he only played another 121 games.

In the 1990s, each of Philadelphia's "big four sports" teams had at least 1 player who was supposed to lead them to championships: The Phillies, Lenny Dykstra, then Scott Rolen; the Eagles, Randall Cunningham; the 76ers, first Charles Barkley, then Allen Iverson; and the Flyers, Eric Lindros.

Between them, these 6 men won just 2 World Championships: Dykstra, and his had already happened, with the 1986 New York Mets; and Rolen, with the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals. Between the 6 of them, they only got 3 trips to their sports' finals, all defeats: The '93 Phillies, the '97 Flyers and the '01 Sixers. It was a complete letdown.

A native of London, Ontario, Lindros was the biggest prospect in the game in the early 1990s. In comparison with Wayne Gretzky, known as The Great One, Lindros was called The Next One -- as in, Gretzky's successor as the sport's best player. (Mario Lemieux could not be reached for comment.)

He retired early in the 2007-08 season. He had reached the Eastern Conference Finals with the Flyers in 1995, 1997 and 2000. But he only reached the Stanley Cup Finals once, in 1997, and the Flyers were swept by the Detroid Red Wings. The game where Stevens knock him out was his 50th Playoff appearance. He only had 3 more, all in 2007, his last season, with the Dallas Stars.

He played 486 regular-season games, only enough to add up to 6 full seasons. He scored 290 regular-season goals with 369 assists. He was named to the NHL All-Rookie Team in 1993. In 1995, he was awarded both of the NHL's annual Most Valuable Player awards: The Hart Memorial Trophy, voted on by the sportswriters; and the Lester B. Pearson Award (since renamed the Ted Lindsay Award), voted on by his fellow players. He was named to 7 All-Star Games, but only 1 of those came after Stevens leveled him.

Like Bobby Orr, injuries limited him to, essentially, only half a career. As Hall of Fame sportswriter Eric Duhatschek said, "This wasn't the next Gretzky. This wasn't even the first Lindros."

But is it fair to say that Eric Lindros was a failure as a hockey player? And, if so, is that all, or even mostly, his fault?

Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Eric Lindros for Failing

5. The Quebec Nordiques. They selected Lindros with the 1st pick in the 1991 NHL Draft, in spite of his having said that he would never play for them. Team owner Marcel Aubut ordered the selection anyway, saying he would make Lindros the centerpiece of the team's revival, and that the only way that Lindros would play in the NHL would be in Quebec City.

Lindros did play hockey in the 1991-92 season, but remained in junior hockey with the Oshawa Generals. He also played for Canada in the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, which, under the rules of the time, he wouldn't have been able to do had he already played in the NHL. Canada won the Silver Medal, losing the Gold Medal Game to the Soviet-to-Russian-transitioning "Unified Team."

Knowing that they would lose his rights if they still didn't sign him before the 1992 Draft, the Nords finally caved in, working out trades with the Flyers and the Rangers. An arbitrator was appointed to decide which trade had legal merit. The arbitrator was Larry Bertuzzi, and he ruled that the deal with the Flyers had been agreed to first, and it went through.

Ironically, goaltender Ron Hextall was part of the deal, going to Quebec, but would return to Philly. Through this trade, Aubut got the generational talent he wanted, but, instead of Lindros, it was Peter Forsberg. Alas, he would have to sell the team before the dream came true: In 1995, they were bought by a Denver group, moved, and became the Colorado Avalanche, winning the Cup in 1996 and 2001.

In a 2016 interview, Lindros debunked the myth that he refused to play for the Nordiques because he couldn't speak French (unlike Montreal, Quebec City is not merely majority-French but actively pro-French and anti-English), and that Aubut himself was the reason: "I was not going to play for that individual, period."

Certainly, Lindros didn't hate French people. In 2012, he married a Quebec native, Kina Lamarch. They remain together, and have 3 children. He even agreed to wear a Nordiques jersey in a 2017 interview on Francophone TV network TVA.

4. The New Jersey Devils. Twice, in 1995 and 2000, they beat the Flyers in the Eastern Conference Finals, thus standing in their way more than any other team did during Lindros' time with them.

The 1995 series ended what had been Lindros' best season. The 2000 series ended his Flyers tenure. Had the Flyers won either one of those, they (and he) might well have won the Cup: The Devils swept the Detroit Red Wings in the former (although the Wings would sweep the Flyers 2 years later), and dethroned the Dallas Stars in the latter.

Scott Stevens, June 24, 1995

3. His Parents. His father Carl, an accountant (and a football star at the University of Western Ontario, who had been good enough to be drafted by the Edmonton Eskimos in 1970), and his mother Bonnie, a nurse, promoted him, and babied him, and gave him an entitlement complex. And did they ever feud with the Flyers, especially with Clarke. They made nuisances of themselves.

Had they eased up a bit, things with the Flyers could have been smoothed out, and even the meeting between Eric and the Stevens Shoulder might not have been the end of the Lindros Era in Philadelphia.

2. The Philadelphia Flyers. Bob Clarke mishandled things six ways to Sunday. He may have been jealous that Lindros was more talented than he ever was. He didn't handle things well with Eric, or Carl, or Bonnie. The feud lasted about 10 years.

December 31, 2011: NHL Winter Classic Alumni Game in Philadelphia:

Lindros, Ed Olczyk, Clarke. Peace at last.

What's more, the one thing the Flyers have never had since Bernie Parent had to retire due to an eye injury in 1979 was a goaltender good enough to win the Stanley Cup. They went into the 1980 Finals with Pete Peeters as their starting goalie. That was as close as he got to winning a Cup with anyone.

They went into the 1985 Finals with Pelle Lindbergh. He stood up to Gretzky's Edmonton Oilers as best he could, but allowed 22 goals in the 5 games, and then, early the next season, got drunk and crashed his car, killing himself. Who knows what Lindbergh could have done if he'd lived? He was 26, so when they lost to the Devils in 2000, theoretically, he could still have been playing at 41. (A few goalie have still been playing well in the NHL at that age.)

They went into the 1987 Finals with Hextall, and he was given the Conn Smythe Trophy as Playoff MVP, but he didn't deserve it. They went into the 1989 Conference Finals with Hextall, and he didn't do so hot that time. They went into the 1995 Conference Finals, their 1st serious postseason run with Lindros, with Hextall in the net, and he couldn't even stop that 65-foot wobbler fired by Claude Lemieux in the last minute of Game 5.

Through the 1997 Playoffs, they alternated with Hextall and Garth Snow, and a Detroit fan held up a sign saying, "Hey Hextall! You and Snow get pulled more than a U-Haul!" They got swept. They went into the 2000 Conference Finals with Brian Boucher, and he allowed 18 goals, including 8 in the last 3 that the Flyers lost.

It didn't stop with Lindros' departure, or with Clarke's firing as GM. They went into the 2004 Conference Finals with Robert Esche, and while he wasn't bad, he did lose by 1 goal 3 times in that series, suggesting a lack of ability to deal with pressure. They went into the 2008 Conference Finals with Martin Biron, and he allowed 20 goals in 5 games, including 6 in the clincher.

They reached the Stanley Cup Finals against the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010, with Boucher having returned, but with Michael Leighton as the main Playoff goalie. Leighton was pulled for Boucher in Games 1 and 5, but it was Leighton who allowed the winning goal in overtime in Game 6 (though it famously required a review).

So, if we consider that Lindros let the Flyers down, we should also consider that it was much more the other way around. If Lindros let Flyer fans down, the team did so, and much more so.

Because, really, who let who down? Did Lindros let anyone down?

1. Eric Lindros. He didn't fail. Maybe he didn't reach the heights he was expected to reach. And maybe he didn't win the Stanley Cup. But he did eventually win an Olympic Gold Medal for Canada, after the ban on NHL players in the Olympics was lifted, in 2002 in Salt Lake City.

After his career ended, he received multiple honors to commemorate it. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. He was named to the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players. Hardly anybody has publicly said that either of these honors was undeserved. He and the Flyers patched things up, and they retired his Number 88.

In other words, while he didn't win a Stanley Cup, he didn't exactly "fail" as a player.

VERDICT: Not Guilty.

Aftermath: In 2007, shortly after his retirement, the NHL Players' Association appointed him their ombudsman, negotiating with the representatives of the NHL Commissioner, Gary Bettman, and the teams' owners. He held the job until early 2009. He became an advocate for concussion research, using his own history as an example. He and his family now live in Toronto.

He played in the 2012 NHL Winter Classic Alumni Game at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, for the Flyer team, against alumni of another of his former teams, the Rangers. In 2017, he played for a Flyer alumni team against one from the Pittsburgh Penguins, in celebration of both teams' 50th Anniversaries.

Such games generally don't have much hitting, and the players usually don't wear helmets in them. Eric Lindros always wears one. He knows how dangerous it can be, even when you do wear one. Why take chances now?