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The day the news broke in regards to Oskar Lindblom coming down with a a rare form of Cancer, the Flyers, their fans, and hockey Community began to rally behind Lindblom. Fortunately, Lindblom kicked Cancer’s butt, but his everlasting effect has made an imprint on the Flyers locker room, “I look at that and I look at how our players responded to the Oskar situation,” Vigneault said, “I’m so proud of this group and everybody associated with it. That was a very challenging time for our group and we responded by doing our jobs, staying focused, players being supportive to Oskar, organization and fans being supportive of Oskar. This nomination for me considering what could have happened is extra special. Oskar is healthy now, our team did well, so this is very special for me.”
Today is a special day as Oskar Lindblom is one of three finalists for the Bill Masterton Trophy (An award for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to the sport of hockey), Bobby Ryan and Stephen Johns were the other two players nominated for this award. Lindblom brightens everyone’s day, as Alain Vigneault loves the kid. The young man in Lindblom paid a visit to the Flyers in practice back in January. He gives them a sense of hope, and is a ray of sunshine. Lindblom is so strong, and mentally tough. Vigneault called him “Sunshine” earlier in the year.
“I’m very humbled to be considered for this award that so many courageous and great players have won,” Lindblom said in a Flyers press release, “Seeing the overwhelming support from fans, my teammates and the entire hockey community has been very emotional for me,”And without a doubt helped me get through this difficult time, and back to being with and doing the things I love.”
Lindblom’s lasting effect will push this young Flyers team for an extended playoff run, “Once we found out the severity of the cancer that Oskar had and the amount of fight that he would have to put himself through to be able to beat this, there’s no doubt,” Vigneault said, “Seeing him every other week come in in between treatments and being the positive individual that he could be, that had a huge effect on our group and our focus on supporting. When it came time for hockey, staying in the moment and doing what we were supposed to do. This was obviously a different year for all of us, but it’s not over. We still have a lot of work to do. We’re all very fortunate that Oskar came out on the winning side for us.”
Athletes are human too as Lindblom is always happy, upbeat, and in good spirits daily. It’s tough for a team to lose that type of upbeat personality in the locker room. However, whatever the case maybe, this young Flyers team will enjoy an extended playoff run for Oskar.
“To have one of your best players go down to cancer,” Kevin Hayes said yesterday, “Obviously he was a close friend to everyone. Cancer is a serious situation. It’s a sucky situation. It affects a lot of people. Just so happens this year, it affected our team. You never want to see anyone battling cancer. When it happened, I think Oskar was a true professional about it. He didn’t wonder why me, why me. He kind of just took it on, full head of steam and battled it. We obviously had his back the whole entire time. I think it made us realize there is more to hockey. Obviously we want to win every single night and everyone wants to score goals every single night, but there’s some real stuff going on outside of hockey. I think our team got a taste of that this year and I think it brought our team together for sure. If anyone on our team was having problems throughout the year, all you had to do was think of what Oskar was going through and your problems became very miniscule compared to his. He’s one of the toughest guys I know. Every time you saw him, he was upbeat, he was happy. If it wasn’t for him losing his hair, you probably wouldn’t have known he had cancer. He was a true warrior, true professional, and kind of made us realize that our problems aren’t that serious. I think he kind of brought our team together.” Everyone remain #OskarStrong.
