For the 1985-86 Flyers, for the men left behind, those days are much more personal.
"I walked out of the bar with him," mentioned the captain of that team, Dave Poulin.
Lindbergh, 26 years old when he died, already had led Sweden to a bronze medal at the 1980 Olympics, tying that Miracle on Ice U.S. team that beat everyone else. And he led the Flyers to the 1985 Stanley Cup Finals. After that season, his last full one, Lindbergh won the Vezina Trophy, which is given to the outstanding goalie in the NHL.
"He took that organization in that time to a different level, literally," said Poulin, now the vice president of hockey operations for the Toronto Maple Leafs. "He taught us to win before we deserved to know how to win."
Flyers owner Ed Snider still remembers walking out of the Spectrum earlier the night of the accident and saying, "I think this is the best Flyers team we've ever had."
For Snider, that memory remains, of course, because it was immediately replaced by "the incredible sadness" of the next day, of getting an early-morning phone call from Bob Clarke, of visiting Lindbergh in the hospital, of seeing him being kept alive by machines until his father could get over from Sweden.
Another memory for Snider: "I felt guilty that I didn't sit Pelle down and have a long talk with him for his penchant for speed in his automobile. I never drove with him, but he talked about it. I knew about it. Somehow, somebody should have tried to slow him down, and I felt a little remiss that it wasn't me."
The first game after Lindbergh's death was against Edmonton.
