The Eric Lindros saga in Philadelphia remains one of the strangest chapters in Philadelphia Flyers history. While the team officially stripped Lindros of the captaincy in March 2000, the relationship between the star forward and the organization had been falling apart for over a year.
Lindros lost all trust in Flyers' medical staff
The problems really started after a game against the Nashville Predators in April 1999. Lindros suffered a collapsed lung, but the injury was initially misdiagnosed by the Flyers' medical staff. Things became even more serious when he was nearly put on the team's flight back to Philadelphia. This would have been life-threatening due to the air pressure and his collapsed lung.
That incident badly damaged the relationship between the Lindros family and the Flyers, and things only got worse from there. Fast forward to March 2000, Lindros suffered his fourth career concussion, which was also misdiagnosed. Originally, the training staff said it was a Grade I concussion, but after Lindros was checked out by an outside doctor, it was deemed to be a Grade II concussion.
After that, Lindros publicly criticized the team's training staff, and Flyers GM Bob Clarke did not take kindly to the comments. He responded by taking the captaincy away from Lindros and giving it to defenceman Eric Desjardins. The official explanation was that the Flyers needed a healthy leader while Lindros was out, but the decision made it pretty clear that the relationship had reached a breaking point.
Lindros eventually returned during the 2000 Eastern Conference Final, only to suffer another serious concussion after a hit from Scott Stevens. This went on to be one of the most remembered hits of all time.
He rejected the Flyers' qualifying offer that summer and sat out the entire 2000-01 season with the hope of being traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs. It was circulating around the media that he wanted to play for his favorite team; however, it didn’t happen, and he was eventually traded to the New York Rangers.
Which seemingly put an end to any relationship between the two parties. A relationship that should have never been severed, but it was due to the Flyers’ GM being too proud when he should have simply admitted that his training staff was in the wrong.
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