Pelle Lindbergh: Gone but Not Forgotten

No. 31, stitched in black, has a special spot on the left sleeve of every Philadelphia Flyers’ jersey.

And No. 31’s locker, empty save for a tiny flag of his native Sweden, is still a special spot at the end of a row of wooden shelves.

Though he’s been dead nearly two months, the spirit of a spirited goalie named Pelle Lindbergh still lives inside the Spectrum--and within the hearts of many National Hockey League fans.

He is the runaway leader at his position in fan voting for the Feb. 4 All-Star Game. Lindbergh’s closest competition in the Wales Conference currently is Tom Barrasso of the Buffalo Sabres, who trails by nearly 30,000 votes.

“There was some talk about taking Lindbergh off the ballot at the start,” said John Halligan, an NHL spokesman, “but we thought it would be disrespectful. We thought if he won a starting spot, then it would be a tribute to him.”

The runner-up to Lindbergh will be the Wales Conference starter in the game, to be played at Hartford, Conn. There is no sentiment to supplant Lindbergh with Bob Froese, the Flyers’ current No.1 goalie. “There will be other Flyers on the team,” Halligan said.

As for that remarkable team, it’s been business as usual on the ice since Nov. 10, the morning Lindbergh slammed his turbocharged Porsche into a retaining wall in Somderdale, N.J. Police said he had been drinking.

The accident left him brain dead; two days later he was disconnected from life-support equipment and his organs donated to the living.

The accident left the Flyers minus a cherished teammate and without their strongest weapon--goaltending.

But the emotional letdown that was expected to follow, never materialized. The Flyers quickly regrouped, promoted Froese from back-up to frontline goalie, and maintained their place atop the Patrick Division with the best record in the NHL.

“Pelle’s name comes up a lot,” said Tim Kerr, the Flyers’ high-scoring forward. “There’ll be funny things that we still laugh about. But you know, I think we’ve gotten over the sadness. Those kinds of things happen in life, and you have to accept that and bounce back.

“He was the best goalie in hockey and there’s no doubt he won a lot of games for us,” Kerr said. “But his death is something that brought us together. We were always a very close-knit team, anyway, and this made us closer.”

Lindbergh was the key in getting last year’s Flyers to the Stanley Cup finals where they lost in five games to the Edmonton Oilers. He won the Vezina Trophy with a 3.02 goals-against average and was voted the Flyers’ most valuable player.

Coach Mike Keenan recalled the week following Lindbergh’s death “as emotionally draining as any experience that I’ve ever gone through. Nothing has even compared to it.”

And he suggested the mental part of the tragedy might still be affecting some members of his team, even if they aren’t talking about it.

“Dave Poulin was carrying a big emotional responsibility,” Keenan said of the Flyers’ captain. “He had to keep the team together and prepared after that and Pelle’s tragedy put a lot of weight on his shoulders.

“He’d be the last to say it, but I think there is a price to pay in terms of emotional response.”

Otherwise, things haven’t changed much for the Flyers, though they did have a mild slump in mid-December, losing four of five games.

“We’re still a hard-working team,” Keenan said. “We’re still doing the same things we did with Pelle.”

What bothers most of the Flyers is that they have to do it without him.

“The saddest part,” defenseman Brad Marsh was quoted as saying, “is we’re going to go on and win a couple of Cups, and Pelle’s going to miss it.”