Lindros Gave It His All, Everyone Forgot

With not nearly the coverage of a Jeremy Roenick text message, Eric Lindros announced his retirement from the NHL on Saturday. Eric finished his NHL career with 372 goals and 493 assists for a total of 865 points in 760 games. He had 1,398 PIM, 265 of those coming from the 53 fights he was in during the bits and pieces of his 13 years in the NHL. I think I made my views on his career in Philadelphia, where he is 6th All-time in scoring and 1st All-time in Points-per-game (1/3 a ppg higher than anyone with over 100 games in a Flyers jersey) clear in my first post.

His career seemed a bit troubled from the start, with his OHL draft melee and then his refusal to go to Quebec (please see John Elway and Eli Manning). He never played a full season, the most games he played being 73 in the 95-96 campaign - which was also not surprisingly his best season with 115 points.

I know it's almost 10 years too late to change any minds, but if we were able to focus on his on-ice career, rather than have this 610-driven obsession with what players in Philadelphia are doing to us, I think he'd be the most revered Flyer of the 90's without question.

Not to get into a long, drawn out defensive article, I would just like to point out some things that Lindros did as a Flyer....good and bad.

Good:
- Captained the Flyers to a Stanley Cup Final the season he turned 24
- In 50 play-off games with the Flyers scored 57 points
- Was on the 1993 All-Rookie team
- Won the Hart and Pearson Trophies in 1995
- Won the Bobby Clarke Trophy, as voted on by the Philadelphia Media 4 times, including his second-to-last season in 1999
- Six -Time All Star

Bad:
- Unfortunately was nicknamed "The Next One" by the media
- Allowed his dad to be his agent
- Was mis-diagnosed by the Flyers medical staff and almost drowned in his own blood in a hotel shower after suffering a punctured lung - and got pissed about it.
- Came back to join the team too soon from 6 concussions, one of them being in the same play-off series - only Flyer to score in game 7.
- Stuck up for his teammates and himself in such a manner that caused him to miss a lot of games on the IR, and eventually led to his shortened career

Maybe I should just let his last game speak for him....2 goals and a fight against Jack McIlhargey

Listened to: Boys 2 Men - I'll Make Love to You