IN GREAT COMPANY

He always played for someone else, to please others.

From his childhood, Eric Lindros’ future was mapped out: He would be the new breed of NHL player, the brawny center who would follow the subtly magical Wayne Gretzky as the league’s standard-bearer.

The Flyers gutted their team to acquire him from Quebec in 1992, and before he had set foot in an NHL rink, he was dubbed “the Next One,” a play on Gretzky’s nickname “the Great One.”

Lindros never asked for that billing and never felt comfortable with it. Perhaps it was unfair to burden him with such expectations, but his wide shoulders, long reach and 6-foot-4, 236-pound physique made him appear strong enough to bear any burden, physical or emotional.

“He’s had so much pressure on him since he was 16,” said King defenseman Rob Blake, Lindros’ teammate at the Nagano Olympics. “Now, he’s playing on a pretty good team and he’s healthy too, which is important because the way he plays is very physical. He’s starting to come into his own.”

Lindros, who will be 26 on Feb. 28, isn’t playing for his parents, who steered him through junior hockey and to Philadelphia after he refused to play in Quebec.

He’s not playing to satisfy the hunger of hockey-mad Canada, which blamed him after Team Canada failed to win a medal in Japan.

And he’s not playing for Flyer General Manager Bob Clarke, who last summer challenged him to perform like the league’s top player if he wanted to be paid at that level.

He’s playing for himself--and playing the best hockey of his career.

Lindros ranks second in the NHL in goals with 29 and in points with 70, and will take a 13-game scoring streak into tonight’s game against the Mighty Ducks at the Arrowhead Pond. With 26 points during his streak--and a newly deep team supporting him--Lindros has helped the Flyers climb atop the tough Eastern Conference and evolve into a legitimate Stanley Cup threat.

“I just said, ‘Screw it. I’m not going to worry about things I can’t control,’ ” Lindros said of the expectations he has borne. “Some disappointing things happened in the organization that I didn’t agree with, but I just decided to go out and play my game.”

Chief among those “disappointing things” was Clarke’s finger pointing.

Clarke had always championed Lindros, trying to buoy his confidence by appointing him captain of the Canadian Olympic team. When Clarke took a strident approach last spring and blamed Lindros for the Flyers’ first-round playoff flop--conveniently ignoring his own bad trades and failure to acquire a top-notch goaltender--Lindros was stung more deeply than he will acknowledge.

“Bob Clarke said whatever he wanted to say,” said Lindros, who declined a five-year contract to take a one-year deal worth $8.5 million and give the Flyers an option on a second year at about $10 million. “‘That’s his opinion. It’s interesting how things are handled and how ownership has changed its philosophy. They made some changes in the lineup. They signed John Vanbiesbrouck and got Mikael Renberg back, and everybody’s [job] is on the line right here.”

Even his?

“No. I know I can play,” he said. “And things are starting to come together for our team.”

The Flyers are meshing because after many forward, backward and lateral moves by Clarke, they are four lines deep and have a defense brimming with muscle and mobility. John LeClair, Lindros’ left wing, leads the NHL with 33 goals and is on pace for his fourth consecutive 50-goal season. His right wing, Keith Jones, has 11 goals and 30 points in 34 games since being acquired from Colorado.

Their success allows Coach Roger Neilson to distribute his offensive weapons on two lines, and he has aligned Renberg with versatile Rod Brind’Amour and Dainius Zubrus on the second line, instead of reuniting Renberg with Lindros and LeClair as “the Legion of Doom.”

“With LeClair going the way he has, that has opened lots of room for Eric,” Neilson said. “And Jonesy opens up more room because he’s kind of an annoying guy. They’re a good line for us every night.

“Eric certainly reported in top shape, and in all the fitness testing we did in camp, he was No. 1. He’s been the on-ice leader ever since the start of the year. In Philadelphia, they say this is the first year he’s really maintained this kind of dominance all year long. Every game, he’s been a force for us. He’s made coaching easy.”

Not that it has been easy for Lindros.

“When he first came in, he had a lot of pressure for a young guy,” Neilson said. “Understandably, it’s taken time for him to sort it all out.”

He has sorted it out on the ice, as well as in the locker room. He leads more by example than by exhortation, although he can take either route.

“I played under [team captains] Dave Taylor and Wayne Gretzky, who were great leaders, and I saw them lead more by actions than by words,” Blake said. “Eric does that too.

“You’re sitting on the bench and you see Eric Lindros banging and scoring, and you see him leading. Almost every game we played [at the Olympics], in the first two or three shifts he would bang someone. That’s how he set the tone, more so than by speaking in the [dressing] room.”

Vanbiesbrouck, who signed with the Flyers as a free agent last summer, had previously known Lindros only as a menacing presence around his net. His new perspective has given him new respect for Lindros.

“He’s the best player in the league,” he said. “It sure is good to have him on your side. I think there’s a lot of drive in him. He’s excited about this year. He’s totally committed to every practice and every game, and it’s been fun.”

And not merely because the Flyers are contending for hockey’s biggest prize.

“I think his sense is [to value] every day. I don’t think he’s looking past each day’s prize,” Vanbiesbrouck said. “He has related to us that every day is very important to build unity and to build a team. . . .

“He’s very sensitive to the team’s needs, more sensitive than people can really relate to. I also feel he’s been a model not only to us, but to the rest of the league and kids coming up in hockey, that to be the best you have to be very competitive.”

Because the fire that drives Lindros now is self-generated, it may burn fiercely enough for him to silence his doubters and propel him to the championship that has long eluded him.

“We’ve got a good team here and the guys are all having fun,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of balanced scoring. Look at our lines. We have a lot of 30-goal scorers and good checkers. . . . We’re getting contributions from everyone.”

None bigger, though, than his.

Tonight

Philadelphia at Mighty Ducks

7:30

Fox Sports

West 2

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Eric Lindros Year-by-Year

A look at Lindros’ seven seasons with the Flyers:

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Season Games Goals Assists Points 1992-93 61 41 34 75 1993-94 65 44 53 97 1994-95* 58 33 52 85 1995-96* 85 53 74 127 1996-97* 71 44 61 105 1997-98* 68 31 43 74 1998-99 48 29 41 70 Totals 456 275 358 633

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*Includes 48 playoff games