Eric Lindros Mending Bridges With Flyers

PHILADELPHIA (WFAN/AP) — Eric Lindros is finally ready to return to Philadelphia.

For 11 years, the final image of Lindros in a Flyers jersey was him curled in a fetal position, knocked cold after a brutal shoulder-to-jaw check on the open ice from the New Jersey Devils' Scott Stevens.

Lindros had a bitter falling out with former general manager Bobby Clarke and was traded to the New York Rangers 15 months after his final game with the Flyers.

In the previous season, Lindros suffered internal bleeding after a April 1st, 1999 game against the Nashville Predators that resulted in a collapsed lung.  The Flyers urged Lindros to board a plane back to Philadelphia but teammate Keith Jones brought him to a Nashville hospital after discovering Eric looking pale in a bathtub.

His father, Carl Lindros wrote a letter to the Flyers stating that Eric would have died had he followed the instructions of Flyers' team doctors.  This statement was supported by the Nashville doctors who treated him.

These two incidents paved the way for an ugly relationship between the two sides.  In another high-profile exchange, Lindros complained about Flyers' trainers failing to diagnose a concussion he received in Boston, resulting in him being stripped of his captaincy.

Lindros proceeded to sit out the entire 2000-01 season after the Flyers refused to trade him to the Toronto Maple Leafs.  Eventually, Lindros was sent to the Rangers on August 20th, 2001 where he spent three seasons.

Now, Lindros and the Flyers seemingly have repaired their dysfunctional relationship and hope to put the past to rest when he takes the ice in front of a sold-out crowd of 44,000 fans in Saturday's Winter Classic alumni game.

Lindros will play for the Flyers organization for the first time since Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals in May 2000.