‘This was the best day.’ Oskar Lindblom visits Flyers teammates after cancer diagnosis

Dave Isaac | NHL writer

PHILADELPHIA — It’s been the week from hell.

Two more Flyers lost to injury, another suspended, an 0-3 record on the road all seemed a bit inconsequential after what happened last Tuesday.

Oskar Lindblom flew to Denver with his Flyers teammates and when they landed he had gotten word from doctors at the University of Pennsylvania that he had been diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. The Swedish left wing was shellshocked and so were his teammates.

Tuesday, before playing the Anaheim Ducks, he was back in the locker room to wish them well before he gets tested at Penn this week to determine what treatment he will have.

“It’s been tough. It’s been a tough week. A 23-year-old kid,” president and general manager Chuck Fletcher said, getting choked up. “It’s been tough for all of us. Today I think was great because he left Denver and probably didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to everybody there before he left. Everyone’s concerned. This transcends hockey. He’s here, getting great care. I suspect our energy level will be pretty good here.”

“It was great to see him again,” captain Claude Giroux said. “I don’t…it was kind of emotional to see him again.

“It was a bad week, physically, mentally. Anything that could have went wrong, went wrong.”

All the Flyers have released is that Lindblom has the cancer and it’s now known that the tumor, which is usually found in or around the bones with this specific sarcoma, was found somewhere in the upper body.

Fletcher didn’t want to say whether doctors thought they caught it early or not.

“I can’t really comment on the process out of respect to Oskar and his privacy rights,” Fletcher said. “I can just tell you it was great to see him today. His teammates care deeply about him and as an organization we’ll do whatever we can to help him. There’s some pretty good energy in the room today and I think that’s in large part to seeing Oskar.”

Lindblom’s scary story has taken the hockey world by storm in the last week.

There’s been a fan movement to vote him into the All-Star Game next month, although he won’t be able to play in it. T-shirts are being made by Biscuit Tees, a company run by Kim Parent, the daughter of Hall of Fame goalie Bernie Parent, with proceeds being donated to Hockey Fights Cancer. Lindblom’s Swedish team, Brynäs, is wearing stickers on their helmet for the rest of the season reading, “OL96 (the number Lindblom wore with Brynäs)- Vi kämpar med dig.” Translation: We fight with you.

Från representationslagen till U16. Från och med i kväll - och resten av säsongen.



Vi kämpar med dig, Oskar!



📝 https://t.co/CI3aBB4kgj pic.twitter.com/MqnqggWFhz — Brynäs IF (@Brynas) December 17, 2019

Monday was a day off for the Flyers but coach Alain Vigneault was exchanging text messages with Lindblom and knew he’d show up for the morning skate.

“Felt that it was important for him and especially important for his teammates to see him. He’s got a tremendous amount of support obviously from his family but from his extended family, the Flyers players, their wives and the coaches and their wives, the great fans we have here in Philly and across the States that are gonna support him. Hockey’s a real strong and real good community and Oskar is a real good and real strong person. He is gonna be around. He’s gonna be back as soon as he possibly can.”

The Flyers are in a spot where they need to rally and Lindblom is a huge loss considering he and Travis Konecny are tied for the team lead in goals. Konecny rejoined the lineup Tuesday against the Anaheim Ducks after suffering a concussion on Dec. 7 against the Ottawa Senators.

Lindblom was among his biggest supporters, glad to see him return after missing three games.

“In the last week since Denver, since we found out that day we arrived in Denver, this was the best day internally with how we feel, to see (Lindblom) smiling,” Vigneault said. “Just to tell you a little bit — I don’t know if TK shared this with you — just to tell you the type of person Oskar is, when we got back here, with everything going on, he texted TK to find out how his head was going because of the concussion. That’s just the type of young man we have. Strong. He’s like hockey community. He’s gonna have a lot of support and he’s gonna get through this.”

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Dave Isaac joined the Courier-Post in April 2012 after covering the Flyers for three seasons elsewhere. Contact him on Twitter @davegisaac or by email at disaac@gannett.com.

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