Originally Posted by GioforPM
Stevens may have been the icing on the cake, but he had 5 concussions before that, and was suffering badly (and Clarke was a real dick about his condition too). Philly almost killed him before the Stevens hit:
Lindros' relationship with Flyers general manager Bobby Clarke soon deteriorated. He and Clarke feuded in the media, with Clarke questioning his toughness; Lindros spent many games on the injured reserve and suffered a series of concussions, the first in 1998 from a hit delivered by Pittsburgh's Darius Kasparaitis that sidelined him for 18 games.[20][21] Lindros suffered a second concussion in December 1998 that sidelined him for two games. During a game against the Nashville Predators on April 1, 1999, Lindros suffered what was diagnosed as a rib injury. Later that night, the teammate he was sharing a hotel room with, Keith Jones, discovered Lindros lying in a tub, pale and cold. In a call to the Flyers, the trainer was told to put Lindros on a plane that was returning to Philadelphia with injured teammate Mark Recchi. But Jones insisted that Lindros be taken to a nearby hospital and it was discovered Lindros had a collapsed lung caused by internal bleeding of his chest wall. Lindros' father wrote the Flyers a letter in which he stated that if the trainer had followed team orders, Eric would be dead, a statement supported by the doctors who treated him in Nashville.[22]
The 1999–2000 season was Lindros' last as a Flyer. Having suffered his second concussion of the season (fourth overall) in March, Lindros criticized the team's trainers for failing to diagnose a concussion as he played with symptoms following a hit he suffered in a game against the Boston Bruins two weeks prior. Clarke then stripped Lindros of the captaincy for his actions. Lindros sat out the remainder of the regular season and suffered another concussion while rehabilitating for a return to the lineup. Lindros ultimately returned for game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals against the New Jersey Devils; he scored the lone goal in a 2–1 Flyers loss. In game 7 of the series, Lindros was coming over the blue line with his head down, when Devils defenseman Scott Stevens hit Lindros with a shoulder check, knocking him unconscious and suffering yet another concussion. He was able to get off the ice with help from teammates. The Flyers lost game 7, 2–1 and the series despite leading three games to one, and Lindros became a restricted free agent during the off-season. He refused to accept a two-way qualifying offer with a minor league provision from the Flyers, who still owned his rights. After Lindros was cleared to play in December, the Flyers refused to deal his rights to the Toronto Maple Leafs, as he preferred, and Lindros sat out the entire 2000–01 season.
Edit: All that said, I don't think Lindros would have won a cup in Philly - it was a flawed team. They didn't really have a good defence and their goaltending was average.
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