May 26, 2000, 25 years ago: The New Jersey Devils complete a 3-games-to-1 comeback in the NHL Eastern Conference Finals, beating the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-1 at the First Union Center (now named the Wells Fargo Center), and advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals for the 2nd time in team history. The 1st time they did so, in 1995, they also beat the Flyers, and went on to win the Cup both times.
The game is remembered less for the Devils coming back, and for their Captain, Scott Stevens, making the Flyers' former Captain, Eric Lindros, look like he would never come back.
Eric Bryan Lindros was born on February 28, 1973 in London, Ontario. The joke is that, instead of the doctor slapping him, he let Scott Stevens do it. In 1991, he was projected to be the top pick in the NHL Draft. The Quebec Nordiques had the top pick, and they chose him. But they were one of the smallest markets in the League, and, along with Montreal, the only one where the majority language wasn't English. It was French, which he didn't speak. He chose to remain in junior hockey for the 1991-92 season, rather than sign with the Nords.
At the 1992 NHL Entry Draft, the Nordiques worked out trades involving Lindros with both the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Rangers. They sent the rights to Lindros to the Flyers for the following: Ron Hextall, Mike Ricci, Steve Duchesne, Kerry Huffman, 2 players to be named later that turned out to be Chris Simon and Nolan Baumgartner, $15 million, the Flyers' 1st-round picks in the 1992 and 1993 NHL Drafts, and (most importantly, other than goaltender Hextall) the rights to Swedish star-in-the-making Peter Forsberg. That's 7 players, including All-Stars Hextall, Ricci and eventual Hall-of-Famer Forsberg, plus 2 draft picks, and $15 million, a considerable sum at the time.
The trade with the Rangers had the Nordiques also receiving a starting goaltender, John Vanbiesbrouck, plus All-Stars Tony Amonte, Alexei Kovalev and Doug Weight; plus the Rangers' 1st-round picks in 1993, 1994 and 1996; and $12 million. That's 4 players, arguably a better package than what they would have gotten from the Flyers (if Forsberg hadn't panned out), plus 3 draft picks, and $12 million. Clearly, Nordiques owner Marcel Aubut was interested in the cash.
The Flyers, believing they had made their deal first, filed a complaint. On June 30, 1992, 11 days after the draft, arbitrator Larry Bertuzzi ruled in favor of the Flyers. The Rangers kept their core together, although Vanbiesbrouck was replaced as starting goalie by Mike Richter, and they won the 1994 Stanley Cup.
Years later, Lindros would say that it wasn't the language barrier or the small size of Quebec City's market that made him refuse to play with the Nordiques. It was his unwillingness to play for Aubut, whom he didn't trust. He may have been right: Despite the skill of Forsberg, and the $15 million, Aubut was a poor and untrustworthy businessman, and sold the team late in the 1994-95 season. The new owners moved them to Denver, and the players the team received in the Lindros trade allowed them, under the name of the Colorado Avalanche, to win the Stanley Cup in 1996 and 2001.
The Flyers? Lindros, forming the Legion of Doom Line with John LeClair and Mikael Renberg, helped them reach the Eastern Conference Finals in 1995, losing to the New Jersey Devils. He was awarded the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL's Most Valuable Player. He was 22 years old. In 1996, he scored 47 goals, which turned out to be a career high. In 1997, having regained Hextall, the Flyers won the Eastern Conference title, but were swept by the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Lindros was 24, one of the best players in the sport, and the Captain of one of the top teams in the sport. It was still possible for him to live up to his nickname: As Wayne Gretzky was "The Great One," Lindros was called "The Next One." As with some other athletes -- as had been predicted in Philadelphia for football star Randall Cunningham and basketball star Charles Barkley, and was about to be predicted there for basketball star Allen Iverson -- the question for Lindros wasn't if he would lead his team to a World Championship, but how many.
But it didn't happen. Injuries to Lindros were a reason why. These included concussions that caused him to miss time. Out of a possible 82 games, he played in 52 in 1996-97, 63 in 1997-98, 71 in 1998-99, and 55 in 1999-2000.
He was also held back by disputes with Flyer management. As a player, Bobby Clarke remains the greatest player and the most beloved figure by the fans in Flyer history. As general manager, Bob Clarke, as he had come to be called, was terribly unpopular, for some bad moves. He publicly undermined Lindros, and claimed that his parents, Carl and Bonnie, acting as his agents, were making unfair demands. Their main demand was that the team take his concussions seriously. In the middle of the 1999-2000 season, Clarke stripped Lindros of the captaincy, giving it to defenseman Eric Desjardins.
The Flyers reached the Eastern Conference Finals, and took a 3-games-to-1 lead over the Devils. Game 5 and, if necessary, Game 7 would be at their new arena, then known as the First Union Center. (Or, as Flyer fans gleefully called it, "The F.U. Center.") They achieved this with Lindros being unavailable due to a concussion.
When the Devils won Game 5, Lindros was activated for Game 6. He scored a goal, but it was the team's only goal, and the Devils won, 2-1. He played in Game 7, but, at one point, came over the blue line with his head down, when Devils defenseman and Captain Scott Stevens him him with a shoulder check, knocking him unconscious and suffering yet another concussion -- the 7th of his career, and his 2nd of the season.
He was able to get off the ice with help from teammates. The Flyers lost, 2–1, and the Devils went on to win the Stanley Cup. Say what you want about Flyer fans, and they certainly don't like the Devils, their closest opponent geographically, but they know their hockey: They have always conceded that, as vicious as it was, it was a clean hit.
Lindros became a restricted free agent. He refused to accept a two-way qualifying offer with a minor league provision from the Flyers, who still owned his rights. After he was cleared to play in December, he asked to be traded to the team he grew up rooting for, the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Flyers refused to deal his rights to the Leafs, and so he sat out the entire 2000-01 season.
On August 20, 2001, he was finally graded to the Rangers, for considerably less than the Nordiques would have gotten had the arbitrator ruled in the Rangers' favor. He was still only 28, and should have had at least half his career in front of him. He scored 37 goals and had 36 assists, and was selected for the 2002 All-Star Game -- but had to miss it due to an injury. In the middle of that season, he was selected for Team Canada at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He played in 6 of their 7 games, scored a goal, and helped them win the Gold Medal.
He had his only injury-free season in 2002-03 (missing only 1 game as a "healthy scratch"), but declined in production. The following year, he suffered his 8th concussion, and played in only 39 games. The next season, 2004-05, was the lockout season, so nobody played any games.
The lockout settled, and his contract up, he finally signed with the Leafs, but played only 33 games, scoring only 11 goals. In 2006, he signed with the Dallas Stars, playing 49 games, but scoring only 5 goals. On November 8, 2007, not having been signed by any team, Eric Lindros retired.
He was 34 years old, and the most-hyped career of any incoming player ever was over. He was supposed to be an all-time legend, and it just didn’t happen, for reasons that were as much psychological as medical. As noted hockey writer Eric Duhatschek said, "This wasn't the next Gretzky. This wasn't even the first Lindros." His career looked like a failure.
Unfair? Well, he did score 372 goals in what amounted to 12 full seasons – suggesting he could have scored about 600 in a full career, unencumbered by the 8 concussions he sustained and tiffs with the Flyers' front office. He did get the Flyers to the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals, and was a 6-time All-Star by the time he was 27 years old. He sure seemed like a future Hall-of-Famer at that point, when Stevens introduced him to The Shoulder and literally knocked him, and metaphorically the Flyers, out of the 2000 Playoffs. And he did win an Olympic Gold Medal.
In 2007, in London, Ontario, he donated $5 million to the London Health Sciences Centre. A few days later, the NHL Players' Association appointed him to the newly created post of NHLPA ombudsman. He held that post for a year and a half.
He played in the 2012 NHL Winter Classic Alumni Game at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, and in the Flyers' and Penguins' 50th Anniversary Alumni Game at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia in 2017, both times for the Flyers' alumni, and was wildly cheered by Flyer fans both times.
In 2016, he was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. In 2017, the NHL selected him for its 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players. In 2018, the Flyers retired his Number 88.
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