In town, but not in uniform for the Flyers

By Damien Cox
Toronto Star Sports Columnist

    Eric Lindros is still coming to town, recently re-inflated lung and all.
    The Philadelphia Flyers captain won't be able to play, of course, when the Flyers and Maple Leafs lock horns for their first playoff get-together in 22 years. But Lindros will be with the team on the road, taking light workouts and participating in team meetings.
    He won't, however, be beside head coach Roger Neilson behind the players' bench.
    ``I don't think Roger would appreciate the ties I wear,'' he chuckled yesterday, a reference to Neilson's bulging closet of neckwear. ``Knowing my luck, I'd get hit by a puck or something. Oops, there goes the other lung.''
    Such humour, of course, is the way one deals with the type of frightening injury the 26-year-old Lindros suffered in Nashville on, of course, April Fool's Day. The collapsed lung was a new one even for Lindros, who has had a difficult series of injuries to deal with over the course of his seven-year NHL career.
    ``I swear, one year I'm gonna play a full season,'' he told The Star in an interview. ``I don't care whether I'm 39 years old and a defensive specialist taking only faceoffs, I'm going to do it.''
    The best he has been able to do so far is to miss only two games in the lockout-shortened 1994-95 season. This season, The Big E played in 71 of 82 games and the collapsed lung is expected to keep him out of the entire playoffs this spring, barring a run by the Flyers to the Stanley Cup final or a remarkable recovery by the 6-foot-4 pivot.
    Born in London, Ont., and raised in Toronto, Lindros has always played well against the Leafs and is sad to miss a chance to collide with the blue-and-white in the post-season.
    ``I've always loved playing in Toronto and playing against Toronto,'' he said. ``Now, it's the first time we get them in the playoffs and I'm sucking on one lung.''
    Lindros had a new series of blood tests on Monday, but his hemoglobin levels are still low and he feels sluggish most of the time. Over the past week, he has started to ride the stationary bicycle for 15 minutes and alternates a light weight-lifting session with a 10-minute skate alongside assistant coach Mike Stothers.
    ``The doctors didn't like the idea of the skating for a while, but we're winning them over,'' said Lindros, who is down to two painkillers a day. ``I don't know if I'll be able to play. I don't want to predict something and then be disappointed.''
    The Flyers will have to defeat the Leafs without Lindros, but former Leafs captain Darryl Sittler said that isn't as unlikely as it sounds. ``It would be wrong to say they'll be better without him. But it will change their focus.
    ``Their focus now will be that they don't have their best player.  The ice time will be shared more and they'll be concentrating totally on trying to shut the other team down.''
    Flyers GM Bob Clarke also expects his club to play effectively without Lindros. ``Since Lindros got hurt, the team has bought into the ideas Roger (Neilson) has been telling them all year, mainly to tighten up,'' he said. ``We have to go into this with the feeling he's not going to be back.''
    That will mean more ice time for all the Flyers centres, specifically youngster Daymond Langkow. Lindros views the addition of Langkow and Mikael Renberg from Tampa as the most productive moves the club made this season.
    ``We're a goofy group,'' said Lindros, whose team had a 15-game unbeaten streak, a 15-game winless streak and 19 ties this season. ``We were rocking and then we hit a wall. I don't exactly know what to expect, but we'll get a strong effort out of our club. We'll play well in our own end and we're going to be crashing their net.
    ``The last five or six games we've played terrific defensive hockey and that's what it's going to take to shut down an explosive team like Toronto. They're stocked.''