It is a date that lives in Flyers infamy.
In the early morning hours of November 10, 1985, Flyers star goaltender Pelle Lindbergh crashed his red Porsche in Somerdale, NJ, not far from the Flyers practice facility in Voorhees. The crash left him brain dead, and he died at age 26 the next day on November 11.
Lindbergh was born in Stockholm, Sweden on May 24, 1959. Standing at just 5'9", especially small for a goaltender, and weighing in at 158 pounds, Lindbergh was already defying the odds when he played in Sweden's highest league at just 18, he was the goaltender for the Swedish national team at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid. That team came away with the Bronze medal.
Lindbergh was the rising star for the Flyers, the goalie who swooped in and in the 1984-85 season, emerged as a true No. 1, mentored by Hall-0f-Fame goalie Bernie Parent, won 40 games with a 3.02 GAA and .899 save percentage. He won the Vezina Trophy that season, he was the first winner of the Bobby Clarke Trophy as team MVP and the Flyers went to the Stanley Cup Final only to fall to Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers.
That was in May. He was presented with the Vezina in June. And less than five months later, it was all over.
The tragedy is that at the start of the 1985-86 season, Lindbergh was repeating his success from the previous season. The Flyers had finished 1984-85 with a 53-20-7 record. Through 14 games of the 1985-86 season, they were 12-2-0. Lindbergh had started eight of those games, going 6-2-0 with a 2.88 GAA and .884 save percentage. His last game was November 7, a 6-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. It was his 99th career NHL win — regular season and playoffs combined.
On the night of November 9, 1985, Lindbergh had 87 wins in 157 regular-season games, posting a 3.30 GAA and .887 save percentage, an overall record of 99-59-15 — regular season and playoffs combined — and 10 career shutouts.
The memory of Lindbergh lived on through the 1985-86 season and beyond. The Flyers wore black shoulder patches with the No. 31. Since Lindbergh's untimely death, no Flyer has worn the number. Annually, the Flyers present the Pelle Lindbergh Memorial Award to the most improved player on the team.
Still 30 years later, Lindbergh's legacy lives on. Though he didn't truly emerge as a star goalie until his third season in 1984-85, his brief four-year career still garners as much attention in Flyers lore as Parent before him and Ron Hextall after him. Since then, the Flyers have been riding a goalie carousel, looking for a steady No. 1.
It seems fitting that on a night when the Flyers will mark the 30th anniversary of Lindbergh's passing that the 2015-16 team has two very capable goalies performing well this season in Steve Mason and Michal Neuvirth.
In honor of the memory of Pelle Lindbergh, we'd like to share a couple of links from friends and colleagues of the site.
Our friend Bruce "Scoop" Cooper penned this personal and touching piece about Lindbergh last year on the 29th anniversary of his death and shared it again this year.
Flyerdelphia columnist Bill Meltzer did extensive research for a book entitled Pelle Lindbergh: Behind the White Mask. You can read an excerpt from the book here and get it on Barnes and Noble or Amazon.
You can also relive some of Lindbergh's finest moments in the retrospect below.
30 years later, we remember the life of Lindbergh and his what might have been story while remembering the greatness that made his loss so tragic and saddening.
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
