Flyers Hardly Miss a Beat, Even Without Missing Link

Eric Lindros’ career has taken more twists than a soap opera:

A big, talented kid, labeled the next Wayne Gretzky before the first one was gone, he was drafted by the Quebec Nordiques. But his parents didn’t want him to play in that French-speaking city. At 18, he became a cultural lightning rod for French-English tension in his native Canada.

His mother, Bonnie, and father, Carl, helped him force a trade in 1993 that sent him to the Philadelphia Flyers. At times, he was brilliant--skillful, dominant and fearless.

He was appointed captain of the 1998 Canadian Olympic hockey team--ahead of Gretzky, Steve Yzerman and Ray Bourque. Clearly, he was one of the NHL’s future leaders.

But injuries--many of them concussions--have limited his availability, and his criticism of the Flyer medical staff strained his relationship with General Manager Bob Clarke, who took away his captaincy. Last Thursday, while working out in preparation for returning from his fourth concussion, Lindros suffered another concussion, jeopardizing his career.

“The kid has got a black cloud hanging over him,” said ESPN reporter Al Morganti, who is close to Lindros’ family and to Clarke. “It’s just been one thing after another. Whatever can go wrong for him, has gone wrong.”

With some free time before an appointment in Chicago with concussion specialist James Kelly, Lindros decided to skate with the Flyers’ American Hockey League farm team. He collided with Francis Lessard during a non-contact, four-on-four scrimmage, suffering a Grade 2 concussion and a 20-stitch cut.

Lindros’ father called the injury “a significant setback,” but the Flyers denied a report in the Toronto Star that Lindros’ season is over. Even so, his prospects look bleak, because treatment for such a severe concussion mandates no physical activity until symptoms are gone for two weeks.

“I severely doubt Eric will be back [with the Flyers] next year,” Morganti said of Lindros, who will become a restricted free agent July 1.

Through all this--and through the departure of Coach Roger Neilson to undergo cancer treatment and Clarke’s insistence that Neilson take a less stressful role upon his return--the Flyers are winning.

Thanks to the poise of rookie goalie Brian Boucher and solid team defense, the Flyers defeated the Buffalo Sabres in five games in the first round and can eliminate the Pittsburgh Penguins today. If they reach the East finals, Neilson probably will stay in the press box and advise interim Coach Craig Ramsay.

“This is the team that puts the ‘fun’ in dysfunctional,” Morganti said.

Clarke looks like a villain for holding Neilson back, but doctors say Neilson should ease back into work.

“Clarke knew he was going to take the hit for that,” Morganti said. “It was pretty bad. It was worse in Canada than here. In Philadelphia, it doesn’t matter, as long as you’re winning. You could dress five prisoners on the power play, and if they score, people will love it.”

The Flyers would be better with a sound Lindros, but they deserve credit for banding together and forging ahead without him.

END OF A DYNASTY?

In losing their second-round series to the Colorado Avalanche, the Detroit Red Wings looked old, worn out and like a team beginning a steep decline.

In many ways, they haven’t been the same since rugged defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov was seriously injured in a car accident after their 1997 Stanley Cup triumph. Emotion carried them to a repeat in 1998, but they have since been stopped twice by Colorado in the second round.

A year ago, they blamed their failure on injuries to Chris Osgood and Igor Larionov, but they had no excuses this time, besides age. Yzerman, 35, had no playoff goals. Brendan Shanahan, 31, had three, one into an empty net. Pat Verbeek, nearly 36, had one. Larry Murphy, 39, struggled defensively. Larionov, 39 and a walkaway free agent July 1, made few of his usual finely threaded passes. Chris Chelios, 38, was never a factor. Even Sergei Fedorov and Slava Kozlov were ineffective against Colorado.

The key is whether Coach Scotty Bowman will stay through the necessary overhaul. Bowman, 66, said he will await the results of a physical before deciding.

“You can’t rebuild a lot,” he said. “There’s some free agents every year and there are some younger players who can step up--Jiri Fischer, Darryl Laplante, Yuri Butsayev. There’s enough young players on the team for a nucleus.”

But not nearly enough to win the Cup again for a while.

WORKING OVERTIME

At some point, ESPN commentator Darren Pang lost count of how much time had elapsed in Thursday’s five-overtime epic between the Flyers and Penguins.

“We had all the information on the games it was passing and they put up a graphic [on the screen] when it became the sixth longest,” he said. “I got kind of confused with the minutes. As it went on, and you start passing all the other games on the list, it becomes more and more amazing.

“It was nice being part of it. It was like being a part of history.”

Pang and play-by-play announcer Steve Levy struck a balance between enthusiasm and honesty, letting the drama evolve. ESPN’s production crew enhanced the mood with good camera shots, including several of kids snoozing on their parents’ laps and one of Penguin right wing Jaromir Jagr smiling in disbelief as he sat on the bench.

“I kept thinking, ‘Don’t be aloof. Just be respectful of what’s going on down there on the ice,’ ” said Pang, a former Blackhawk goalie whose longest game was a double-overtime junior contest. “I said several times, you hate to see a crummy goal end a game like this, and to see Keith Primeau, of all people, end it--and end it with a really nice goal--it was remarkable. He just didn’t have a very sharp offensive game. Where that goal came from, I don’t know.”

Although exhausted by the record 6-hour 56-minute game--which ended at 2:35 a.m. EDT--Pang was too wired to rest.

“I couldn’t get to sleep until 5:30 or 5:45,” he said. “Steve and I went out and got a sandwich at some greasy joint.”

They deserved caviar, champagne and a long nap.

NOT DUCKING THE ISSUE

After seeing attendance decline 15% over two seasons to an average of 14,460, the Mighty Ducks might have gotten a clue.

For the first time, they will not raise season-ticket prices, and will cut the price of some club-level seats. According to Team Marketing Report, their tickets last season averaged $46.18, the middle of the pack. Single-game prices have not been set, but a cut would emphasize their good intentions.

“We had some surveys done, and one of the things that came back from many surveys was the pricing,” General Manager Pierre Gauthier said Monday. “We think we owed our fans who had been loyal to us. This is a very tough thing to do because the cost of doing business goes up, basically because paying players costs more.

“We got another piece of proof that what needs to be done is winning. Down the stretch, when we were in a playoff race, fans were there and the building was rocking. When we have a competitive club, the fans are there. We’ve got to listen to the fans.”

Gauthier said the move won’t affect next season’s player payroll.

“I don’t have a [payroll] limit,” he said. “If I find a player I think is going to give us value for the money, I’m going to take him. My mandate is to build a winning hockey club. That’s tough to do, short-term. In the big picture, with the development of our young defensemen and we still have our top guys, we have a competitive club that’s going to get better, but we have to deliver short-term.”

Gauthier also said no decision has been made about the future of Coach Craig Hartsburg, with whom he plans to talk this week.

“But I don’t want to fuel too much speculation,” Gauthier said. “We like Craig and what he’s done here but we want to make sure we look at everything. . . . We will have a lot more answers June 1 than May 1.”

SLAP SHOTS

It’s a testimony to Colorado’s depth that the Avalanche won the last two games against Detroit without Bourque, who has a sore knee. General Manager Pierre Lacroix has done an outstanding job, finding and developing a stream of young talent, notably Chris Drury, Milan Hejduk and Martin Skoula. If Joe Sakic gets going, the Avalanche may be unstoppable. . . . The Toronto Maple Leafs’ big line of Steve Thomas, Mats Sundin and Jonas Hoglund had one goal in the team’s six-game loss against New Jersey. Nice of the Leafs to show up Monday and take six shots in losing the series finale. The Devils’ checking and defense were good, but not that good.

Duck winger Marty McInnis underwent successful hernia surgery last week in Boston. He is expected to be fit to participate in training camp in September.

Despite having home-country advantage and winning its fight to add holdout Ottawa center Alexei Yashin, Russia failed to qualify for the medal round at the World Championships. Some players complained that the NHL stars ruined unity. “I would like to apologize for our giftless play,” said soon-to-be ex-coach Alexander Yakushev.

To mark the 30th anniversary of the marvelous goal by Bobby Orr that clinched the Stanley Cup for the Boston Bruins in 1970, ESPN Classic will replay the game Wednesday. The goal was captured in a wonderful Boston Herald-American photo, which shows Orr flying through the air after being tripped by St. Louis defender Noel Picard. For those old enough to remember Orr, it will be a nostalgia trip; for those too young to have seen him, it’s a glimpse at a brilliant player who changed the role of defensemen and transformed hockey.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

5 Overtimes

Philadelphia 2, Pittsburgh 1

May 4, 2000

Some oddities from the Philadelphia Flyers’ five-overtime, 2-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday, the third-longest in NHL history:

* The Penguins have been involved in two of the four longest overtime games. The fourth-longest was April 24, 1996, a 3-2 Penguin victory over the Washington Capitals ended by Petr Nedved at 79:15 of overtime.

* Referee Dan Marouelli has been involved in three games that went at least three overtimes. He was one of the referees Thursday, and was the lone referee in the Penguin-Capital 1996 overtime game and a 3-2 victory by the Detroit Red Wings over the Mighty Ducks on May 4, 1997 at 41:31 of overtime.

* There were 159 faceoffs, 84 won by Philadelphia and 75 by Pittsburgh.

Minutes played leaders

Philadelphia

Dan McGillis: 61:01

Luke Richardson: 59:51

Eric Desjardins: 56:08

Mark Recchi: 53:57

Chris Therien: 50:44

Pittsburgh

Jaromir Jagr: 59:08

Alexei Kovalev: 55:47

Hans Jonsson: 53:17

Martin Straka: 52:48

Peter Popovic: 52:02

*

Shifts played leaders

Philadelphia

Eric Desjardins: 73

Chris Therien: 71

Dan McGillis: 69

Luke Richardson: 69

Mark Recchi: 62

Pittsburgh

Hans Jonsson: 72

Peter Popovic: 71

Bob Boughner: 66

Darius Kasparaitis: 66

Michal Rozsival: 65

*

Shots on goal leaders

Philadelphia

Dan McGillis: 9

Kent Manderville: 8

Mark Recchi: 7

Daymond Langkow: 7

Team total:: 70

Pittsburgh

Alexei Kovalev: 10

Jaromir Jagr: 9

Martin Straka: 6

Michal Rozsival: 4

Team total:: 58

*

Blocked shot leaders

Philadelphia

Eric Desjardins: 6

Chris Therien: 5

Dan McGillis: 4

Luke Richardson: 4

Team total:: 30

Pittsburgh

Peter Popovic: 9

Darius Kasparaitis: 7

Three others with: 4

Team total:: 42