I just saw the video of my favorite hockey player of all time announcing his retirement. And it's time for Eric Lindros to move on to other things, I think. His effectiveness as a dominating offensive force had finally diminished to a mere shadow of its former "self".
But I remember the early part of his career so well. First was the buildup leading to him playing for someone other than the Quebec Nordiques. Everyone wondered whether he was crazy for sitting out a year after he was drafted and whether or not he'd be picked again the next year by the Nords. When would his NHL career begin.
Thankfully for his fans it began the next fall after he'd been traded to the Philadelphia Flyers. My son and I travelled to the Spectrum, in Philly, from Baltimore, to sit in the worst nosebleed seats in the place to watch him play in what I think was his first home game. He scored a goal that night in a 7-6 donnybrook againt Le Habs but we didn't get much of a look at it, being seated where we were. But Matt and I had a great time in Philly and on the drive home. We had a Philly Cheese Steak on Broad Street before the game and mingled with the Philadelphia faithful before the Spectrum doors opened since we got to Philadelphia about 2and 1/2 hours before game time.
But that was just the beginning. For the first four or five years of his career I went to see Eric play at the Cap Center in Landover as many times as I could. I was lucky enough to see him score his first hat trick one night in his rookie year. The third goal came on a penalty shot and I can still see him skating in on goal somewhat to the right of the goalie and deftly snapping the puck past the Cap's goalie with that wonderful wrist shot of his. He scored a lot when I saw him play in the early years. I tried to see him play as much as I could back then, either when he came to play the Caps or when the Flyers were on TV.
There was just something about his style of play and his demeanor that made me say to myself, "This is the Man. He's not Gretzky or Lemieux but he's the future of hockey."
And for five or six years he was. Gretzky and Super Mario were winding down and the Big E was right there at the top of the NHL with Jagr, Bure and several others. At one point, after he'd been playing for four or five years he was third all time in points scored per game at just below 1.5 ppg. Only Gretzky and Lemieux were ahead of him. And Bossy was sitting there waitng for him to drop just a bit.
He was marvelous to watch, but it was not fun to see him injure his knee, as he did in his first two years, limiting him to playing 61 and 64 games out of 80 for those seasons. And you knew he was asking for trouble with his incredibly rough style of play. The issue of payback was looming in the background as he served as his own enforcer. I'm not sure Bob Clarke could have convinced him to back off on the rough stlyle of play. Eric was probably too macho to accept that, to prolong his career, he needed a Dave Scultz to protect him. But since the Big E was 6'5" tall and weighed 235 pounds he probably felt embarrassed to accept help when it came to the rough stuff. I can still see, in my mind's eye, Lindros' epic battles with Scott Stevens during Eric's first trip to the playoffs. In particular, it was one night when he'd been giving more than he'd gotten from Stevens, that after Stevens had gone in low on John LeClair along the boards and caused LeClair to somersault and land very painfully on the ice, that just a moment later, Eric spotted Stevens near the boards and drew a bead on him. Lindros went after Stevens with the intent to drive him right through the glass with a 235 pound body check. Stevens saw him coming andand and the last second grabbed the top of the glass and swung himself out of Lindros' way while Eric shook the arena with his crash into the boards. It seemed to be the start of a long rivalry between the two big men, one that Lindros would eventually pay for in his final game with the Flyers when Stevens caught him looking down as he brought the puck into Stevens' territory. Scott let Eric have it right in the side of the head with a shoulder check that gave Eric one of his worst concussions just after he'd returned from a lengthy recovery from another concussion. Eric was in this respect his worst enemy. He'd roughed up a lot of people and some of them got him back. If only he'd accepted an enforcer, as Gretzky did, when he ruled the ice. No one ever whacked Wayne because there was always a Dave Semenko to crush him if they even thought about it.
But while he was with the Flyers and in his first year with the Rangers he was wonderful to root for. I just had to know how how many points he had scored in every game he played. I'd check the Baltimore Sun every day after the Flyer schedule that I had on my dresser indicated that the Flyers had played the night before. Or if I was on vacation I'd pick up the local paper as soon as I could to see how the Big Kid had done.
On business trips I'd grab the Seattle paper or USA today to get the "Lindros update". I'll never forget, while on one business trip to Seattle walking in to my motel room, turning on the television, and seeing highlights of Lindros getting a a hat trick against the Habs and then the very next night seeing that he'd gotten a second second hat trick against Montreal, the second in two days. Six goals and several assists in two days. Wow.
This "fanatical" following of the exploits of number 88 were taken to real extremes when I had a business trip to Bavaria in 1995. I'd call the Philadelphia Inquirer sports desk from m hotel room in southern Germany at 5:00 AM and ask for the stats on Lindros. It was about midnight back in the states and I'd explain that I was calling because I was out of the country and didn't have easy access to hockey box scores. I always got the same writer who didn't share my enthusiasm for Lindros, but he always gave me what I asked for even if it was a snide, "And guess what. Lindros didn't get any points last night." I'll always wonder who he was and be thankful for the time this newspaper man took to give me the rundown on Eric's scoring when I called across five time zones to get them.
Eric, you are gone but not forgotten. I still have about 30 of your rookie cards that I have to figure out who to leave to when I pass on. :)
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