November 11, 1985: Pelle Lindbergh Is Killed

November 11, 1985, 40 years ago: Pelle Lindbergh is killed in a drunken driving crash, ending his life and his hockey career at the age of 26.

Göran Per-Eric Lindbergh was born on May 24, 1959 in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. He starred as the goaltender for hometown hockey teams Hammarby and AIK, and helped his country win the Bronze Medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. (It gets forgotten in the wake of the wins over the Soviet Union in the Semifinal and Finland in the Final, but Sweden actually came closer to beating the U.S. team than any other, with a tie in the opening game.)

In 1979, Pelle became the 1st European-born goalie to be selected in the NHL Entry Draft, by the Philadelphia Flyers. He made his NHL debut toward the end of the 1981-82 season, and was selected to the NHL All-Rookie Team and the NHL All-Star Game the following season.

The Flyers won the Stanley Cup in 1974 and 1975, and reached the Finals in 1976, with Hall-of-Famer Bernie Parent in goal. They remained strong through 1978-79, but late in that season, Parent took a stick through the eyehole in his mask, permanently damaging his vision, and he never played again.

And, ever since, the Flyers have had some talent, but they haven't found that lockdown goalie. With Pete Peeters, they reached the Finals in 1980, but lost. Lindbergh looked like the answer, especially in 1985, when he made his 2nd All-Star Game, became the 1st European to receive the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's top goalie, and helped get the Flyers into the Finals again, losing to the Edmonton Oilers' dynasty.

While the Oilers seemed to have a hammerlock on the Clarence Campbell Conference (now the Western Conference), the Prince of Wales Conference (now the Eastern Conference) looked wide-open. The Montreal Canadiens' dynasty of 1976-79 had gotten old, and the New York Islanders' dynasty of 1980-84 was already starting to break up due to injury.

There was room for a new dominant team in the East, and with Lindbergh in goal; Mark Howe, Brad Marsh, Brad McCrimmon and Ed Hospodar as defensemen; and forwards like Dave Poulin, Peter Zezel, Brian Propp, Tim Kerr, Dave Brown, Rick Tocchet, and the twins Ron and Rich Sutter, the Flyers looked like they could become that team.

On November 9, 1985, the Flyers hosted a team party at the Coliseum, their practice facility in Voorhees, Camden County, New Jersey. Part of the stereotype of hockey players is that they like to drink, and Lindbergh drank a lot that night. Unfortunately, he got into his car, a customized Porsche 930 Turbo, and headed back toward his apartment across the Delaware River in Philadelphia.

He didn't even make it 2 miles: He crashed into a wall in front of Somerdale Park School, damaging his brain stem and his spinal cord. His blood-alcohol content was .24, and the legal limit in New Jersey was then .10. He had 2 passengers, not easy in a 2-seater, not players but friends of players: Edward Parvin had a fractured skull, and Kathy McNeal had a broken pelvis, a ruptured liver and a ruptured spleen.

They both survived. Lindbergh was brain-dead. His family was brought in from Sweden, and he was kept on life support long enough for them to arrive and say their goodbyes. The machines were turned off on November 11, and his parents gave their permission to have his organs harvested for donation.

Lindbergh received the most votes in the fan balloting for the 1986 NHL All-Star Game. It was the 1st time an athlete was posthumously voted to an All-Star Game. It's only happened once since, with Sean Taylor of the Washington Redskins being selected to the 2008 Pro Bowl.

Given his early death, the Flyers have never again given out his uniform Number 31. But, given the cause of his death, they can't officially retire it. They have instituted the Pelle Lindbergh Memorial Trophy, given to their most improved player. He hasn't been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame, but he has been elected to the Swedish Hockey Hall of Fame.

The Flyers played the rest of the season in a daze. But they made Ron Hextall their new starting goalie, and he got them into the Stanley Cup Finals in 1987. They reached the Finals again in 1997 and 2010. But they've never won another Cup. Given Hextall's performance in the 1987 Finals, it's hard to say Lindbergh would have made the difference that time. But in 1997, when they got swept by the Detroit Red Wings, Lindbergh would have been 38 years old, which is hardly too old to be a Cup-winning goalie.