Lindros' days in Philadelphia are likely numbered

Before long, it is likely that neither will be employed by this team.

It is the fault of bad medical luck that this paternal pair of Philadelphia Flyers won't be rinkside as the first-round playoff series with the Buffalo Sabres commences. Neilson, the head coach in limbo, continues his recovery from cancer; Lindros the ex-captain just beginning rehabilitation from a fourth career concussion.

Yet, as any irate Philadelphia hockey fan knows and any day-time television viewer would appreciate, there are other reasons why Neilson and Lindros can't feel a part of the thing they spent most of the season creating, namely the Flyers' best chance to win a Stanley Cup in years.

Behind the hurt feelings and mixed-up head stands the image of Bob Clarke, the president and general manager previously known by one and all here as one of Neilson's closest supporters and Lindros' most active antagonist, who says he is just trying to do "what's right for the team," even if it includes airing an endless array of dirty laundry in the process. That laundry list goes back a long way.

The litany of Lindros medical problems has long served as the basis of the crumbling relationship he and his family have with Clarke. Now it's affecting his bond with Neilson, and as usual, it's happening at the worst possible time.

"Roger is the one who asked me to come here (in 1998)," said Ramsay." And I support him entirely. I know they'll work out whatever they want to work out. When I'm told that Roger's taking over, then that's that. I have a job to do and I'm just entirely focused on that."

If that's true, Ramsay truly has a gift for concentration. For as the Flyers prepared for the playoffs, the already rotted relationship between Lindros and Clarke spilled over into a very public light. Clarke set about drawing a line in the sand by filling every line of reporters notebooks on the topic, while his own paternal owner, Flyers chairman Ed Snider, was trying to keep a lid on the matter. That, too, has caused a problem in the Flyers' inner circle of life, albeit an unspoken one.

But there are plenty of other family spats to freely write and talk about. Forgive us if you've already heard too much of this strange but true tale before ...

Lindros, never the most popular man in the locker room, alienated almost every friendly ally he had among the players by blaming his own bungling of his medical condition on the team's athletic therapist and the medical staff.

True, the Flyers doctors mishandled his situation after a Hal Gill hit in Boston on March 4 apparently sent him spinning into his second concussion of the year. Popular athletic trainer John Worley and team doctors didn't treat it as a concussion, but it didn't help that Lindros lied to them about his symptoms, explaining later for everyone to hear that he didn't want to admit his symptoms because he knew his father (and agent) Carl wouldn't allow him to play after that.

If that wasn't enough, his teammates asked, why did he then have to try to get a trainer supporting a young family fired in the process?

After two weeks of whispers that painted Lindros as a problem child finally gone loco, Lindros reappeared Tuesday with a fresh examination by his concussion specialist, Dr. James Kelly of Chicago. He supposedly cleared Lindros to begin workouts, yet hasn't bothered to make that report available to the Flyers' doctors. By the way, the Flyers' doctors were told they misdiagnosed Lindros only because Kelly determined he had a Grade II concussion -- which he based largely on things Lindros himself told him, the same things he hadn't previously told the team doctors.

But that was OK, Lindros said, because "John Worley knew."

Anyway, Kelly's first report also wasn't made available. But the diagnosis was enough for Lindros to return from Chicago on March 23 and sound off about how poorly treated he'd been by the club's medical officials.

Lindros' public criticisms -- spoken in an impromptu press conference at the club's training facility that day -- were so welcomed by Clarke that he stripped Lindros of his captaincy less than a week later. Lindros responded by isolating himself with family members in Toronto, until returning Tuesday to say he was ready to start working out like any good teammate would. He refused to apologize for his public criticisms of the trainer and medical staff, yet offered no hints of the bitterness he feels about having his captaincy stripped while he was recovering from a serious injury.

"I'm not going to get into anything like that," Lindros said. "What happened when I got back from Chicago (March 23) was that I expressed some things and set the record straight on what happened in Boston. That's the last I'm going to talk about it. I don't think there needs to be any more said. I'm going to focus on getting back and getting in shape."

The Lindros situation was by now a fiasco which turned into a media frenzy and earned the Flyers a favored new nicknams -- Team Dysfunctional. But the name stuck long before the series of public relations gaffes was over.

Neilson, who had already ticked off team officials by declaring in an interview that the Flyers couldn't win a Stanley Cup without Lindros in the lineup -- how's that for a playoff primer? -- had spent the prior 10 days at Clarke's behest in the club president's own condominium near Sarasota, Fla.

A little R&R, and a nice way to keep Neilson out of the fray.

But the 65-year-old head coach surprised Clarke by tapping on his office door Monday morning, then laid him out with the nonchalent declaration that he was ready to be the head coach again, specifically for Game 1 of the Buffalo series three days hence.

	Neilson said he's ready to coach again, but GM Clarke doesn't agree.

"I said to him that I didn't know why he came back from (Florida) so soon," said Clarke. "The plan all along was to see how he was after the first round."

But it was Clarke's addendum that Neilson's situation would be "re-assessed" at the conclusion of that first round that had Neilson a little concerned ... if not miffed.

"I feel like I can coach right now," Neilson said as he settled back into his office for the first time since a March 10 stem cell transplant aimed at warding off his bone marrow cancer. "But the doctor and Bobby Clarke seem to feel I should wait for the second round. I can see why they'd be worried about the stress if I were coaching in the first round, and that causing a bit of a relapse. We'd have to go back to Craig and admittedly that wouldn't be very good. I guess there's less of a chance of that happening two weeks from now. So barring some relapse, I'll be ready to go at the start of the second round."

But Clarke says he never made a promise to Neilson that he'd be handed his head coaching job back should the Flyers make it through the first round -- only that the matter would be discussed with himself, the doctors, the coaching staff and Ed Snider, then evaluated.

"Roger walks in here and says he's ready to take over the team," said Clarke. "I said, 'Rog, no you're not. You're not sure you're healthy yet.' If it's the end of the first round and we're still playing, we're going to decide what it is we're going to do about this -- provided the doctors reports are all good."

Making matters worse, Neilson told some beat writers that he was close to signing a two-year contract extension. It was a matter he publicly initiated during the winter, but one which Clarke squelched ... and still is. Publicly, of course.

"We were talking about a new contract, and we kind of agreed to a two-year deal then," Neilson said yesterday. "But after I got diagnosed, I guess it kind of got put on hold, and it was agreed that we'd talk after I got out of the hospital and was ready to go. I'm sure Rob (Neilson's agent Rob Campbell) will be calling Clarkie sometime this week."

Not so, says Clarke.

"We said we were going to leave it until the end of the season," said Clarke. "I think he's a terrific coach. And when the season is over we're going to sit down and see what we're going to be doing."

Asked if Neilson was pushing him, Clarke said, "Absolutely he is. He's putting us in a bad situation; almost like, 'You promised me I'd be able to come back and be the coach again, as long as I was healthy.' But I never, ever said that."

Clarke isn't ready to say Neilson's job status has been permanently altered by his medical condition and/or Ramsay's success. But if Neilson is cleared to return as head coach in the second round, then is asked by management not to, Clarke said, "I would assume he wouldn't be happy. But if the decision is one that we feel is the best one for our team, then we'll all accept it."

It might be just as difficult for Clarke to do that as it would be for Neilson.

"You know, I don't sit around here by myself saying, 'Let's screw Roger,'" said Clarke. "I'm going to talk to Mr. Snider about this and the coaches and (assistant GM Paul) Holmgren, and we'll make a decision that we feel is right for our players."

The players? Oh, yeah. They're the ones who have seen, read and heard it all this endless season.

They can probably see the end in sight for these old comrades: Lindros being dumped at the entry draft to an unsuspecting team in the West who can't see past his wonderful talents and even more attractive marketing potential. And Neilson being asked to permanently step upstairs, though he's unlikely to do so.

"I want to be the coach," Roger repeats.

It is the same thing he said to Bob Clarke more than once this week.

"Nothing's ever easy here, is it?" said Clarke. "Something every day ... I know it looks bad, but there's nothing we can do about it."

Doesn't he know a big reason is because he is the way he is?

You can fault Clarke for continually exacerbating the almost impossible situation the Lindros family presents to the team. There is an endless supply of past stories dealing with Eric's parents and team officials which haven't been cleared by the team for airing yet ... but probably will be after the playoffs.

You can't blame Clarke for the medical foul-ups -- both in Nashville last year when Lindros suffered a strange collapsed lung and this spring with the misdiagnosed concussions -- because Clarke doesn't tell medical officials their business ... and because it's always the patient that is supposed to know when something is wrong with him.

And you can't fault Clarke for his obvious intent -- which still isn't official -- of having Ramsay coach the Flyers all the way to glory or extinction in this year's playoffs. The surviving Flyers don't score much these days and have an awful power play without Lindros. But their defensive presence is markedly improved, and under Ramsay they ran down the stretch en route to an Eastern Conference title.

Ramsay deserves the job, especially since Neilson's own doctor, Isadore Brodsky, has advised that it's best for patients that have gone through what he has "to not return to work for three or four months. With Roger, it's barely been three to four weeks. He's pushing it."

Only because he's a loyal employee to his team, and a man dedicated to his profession. So why's he feel so wronged? Because Roger Neilson knows Bob Clarke. He knows there are plenty of reasons behind Eric Lindros' bitter behavior that have nothing to do with concussions and scapegoats in the trainers room. He's also a smart enough hockey man to know that without Lindros, the Flyers indeed can't win a Stanley Cup.

Neilson also knows that when Bob Clarke makes up his mind, no "reassessments" or doctorly discussions are going to change it. This playoff ride to nowhere will commence and finish without Roger Neilson as the head coach, and he knows it. He also knows that doesn't bode well for his future in Philadelphia.

Considering all the crazy vitriol of the last month ... why should he be the one to go down quietly?