Remembering Pelle

Every year around this time thoughts of Pelle Lindbergh come to mind.  It was 24 years ago this week that Lindbergh was in a fatal car accident just hours after his Philadelphia Flyers had beaten the Boston Bruins on November 9th.  Pelle was the Flyer’s starting goaltender but didn’t play that night, given the night off as backup Bob Froese manned the net in a 5-3 Flyer victory.  The team was off to a white hot start in the 1985-86 season, the win over Boston being their 10th in a row.  There was a long stretch before the next game, November 14th at the Spectrum against the Stanley Cup Champion Edmonton Oilers, who had beaten Philadelphia in the Finals the year before.  The Flyer’s record to that point was 12-2 and there was an incredible feeling of invincibility that permeated every aspect of their game.

Everything changed in the early hours of November 10th, 1985.  Being a die-hard hockey fan in the days before cable TV / internet news information saturation, I would turn on the radio the morning after a game to hear what the Flyer players had to say in taped interviews.  I remember waking up that morning, but instead hearing the news that Lindbergh had been in a car accident.  He had lost control of his red Porsche and crashed into a cement wall in front of an elementary school in Vorhees, New Jersey.  The extent of the injuries were not known right away, but as the morning went along reports started coming in that Pelle was in critical, and even grave condition.  And then, the unthinkable…”Pelle Lindbergh has been declared brain dead”.  I will never forget that moment and hearing those words for as long as I live.

Pelle was a diminutive goalie with lightning-quick reflexes.  He was affectionately nicknamed “Gumper” by his teammates because of the couple of extra pounds he carried on his midsection early in his career, and how the baby fat gave him a physique loosely resembling that of Hall Of Fame goalie Lorne “Gump” Worsley.  The Flyers had a very young, close-knit team and the reaction from all of the players was understandable.  Pelle was not only a teammate and friend, but also a family member to them.  And we as fans lost someone that was very close to us.  Lindbergh was arguably the most popular Flyer at the time and was quickly becoming the face of the franchise.

It was only Mike Keenan’s second year as head coach of this young team, which included stars in the making in Rick Tocchet, captain Dave Poulin, Tim Kerr, Brian Propp, Mark Howe, Brad McCrimmon, Murray Craven, Peter Zezel, and fellow-Swede Pelle Eklund.  The Oilers graciously offered to postpone the Thursday game given the circumstances.  The team and fans were still in total and utter shock but the Flyers decided to go ahead and play the game, and paid homage to their fallen hero in a pre-game ceremony.  There was a wreath of flowers in the shape of Pelle’s “31″ at center ice as the voice of the Flyers, Gene Hart, spoke to the grief-stricken players and fans alike.

The actual game is a blur in my memory.  I do remember that the Flyers called up netminder Darren Jensen to take Lindbergh’s roster spot, Jensen played the game, and that Philadelphia won, 5-3.  Somehow the Flyers went on to again win 53 games that season, tying the franchise record set the previous year.  But the emotionally-spent squad would fall in five games to the hated New York Rangers in the first round of the playoffs (the first round was a best-of-five series at that time).  It seemed only fitting after what they had endured in losing a teammate, friend and maybe the most important player on one of the NHL’s elite teams.

It is unbelieveable that it’s the 25th anniversary of Pelle’s Vezina Trophy 1984-85 season, a year in which he won 40 games and carried the Flyers to the Stanley Cup Finals.  Even though they lost to perhaps the greatest team of all-time, the Edmonton Oilers, there was a great expectation that this team was about to accomplish fantastic things…and very soon.  That 1985-86 Flyer team seemed destined for greatness, and the speculation of “what could have been” is endless…especially since the Oilers were also knocked out of the playoffs in the first round by the Calgary Flames that same year.  Philadelphia would go on to reach the finals the next season, only to have the Oilers again waiting for them.  And once again Edmonton won the Cup, this time in a classic  7-game series with rookie goaltender Ron Hextall in goal for the Flyers.

One of the greatest memories I have of Lindbergh was during the NHL’s Awards ceremonies when Pelle accepted the Vezina Trophy as the league’s Most Outstanding Goaltender.  In his speech, he thanked his boyhood idol, Flyer legend Bernie Parent, and Bernie came up to the stage and the two hugged.  It’s hard to believe that he would be dead some six months later.

I often wonder what would have happened had Lindbergh not passed away.  Would the Flyers have finally been able to bring Lord Stanley back to Philadelphia’s Broad and Pattison Streets during that 1985-86 season?  And what would have become of Ron Hextall had Pelle still been in the Flyer’s crease?  Would he have been given a chance to play or would he have been dealt to another franchise?  Or would Bob Froese have been dealt and the Flyer goaltending tandem would have consisted of Lindbergh AND Hextall?

And one side note about Pelle…he was responsible for the water bottles on top of the goals.  During the 1985 Finals, Lindbergh was getting dehydrated during the games and asked if he could keep a water bottle on top of the net for stoppages, so he could re-hydrate prior to the next faceoff.  This prompted then-Oiler’s coach, Glen Sather to angrily quip: “What are they going to want up there next, a bucket of chicken?”

So much to think about, the great memories that “Gumper” brought not only to Flyer fans, but to hockey fans in general.  We miss you, Pelle…you were, are, and always will be in our hearts forever.