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PELLE LINDBERGH, JIM CRAIG AND THE ICONIC 'MIRACLE ON ICE' FLAG
It is one of the most indelible images in sports history and of 20th century history in general: Team USA goaltender Jim Craig, draped in an American flag and then holding it as he looked for his father in the stands at the conclusion of Team USA's "Miracle on Ice" gold medal at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid.
Whatever became of the flag and who has it now? That is unclear.
In February, Craig told the New York Daily News that he is ready to sell the flag via auction, in addition his famed shamrock-decorated mask, a stick he says was used against the Soviets, in the gold medal game against Finland and his NHL debut for the Atlanta Flames, among other items.
Craig told the newspaper the flag is "a very prized possession." The article also says that Craig has loaned it out in the past for display at the Hockey Hall of Fame and other museums. As of yet, the Craig flag has not gone up for auction.
There are several different versions of the story about how -- and if -- Craig came to recover the iconic flag back in his possession.
In February 1992, Craig told Los Angeles Times reporter Helene Elliott that he had initially gifted the flag to friend Pelle Lindbergh, who tended goal for Sweden at the 1980 Olympics and went to win the Vezina Trophy with the Philadelphia Flyers before dying in a Nov. 1985 car accident. According to the LA Times article, Craig said that after Lindbergh's death, "a package containing the flag was mailed to Craig's house, with a note from a woman saying Lindbergh had told her that the flag belonged to Craig."
Kerstin Pietzsch-Somnell (nee Kerstin Pietzsch) was Pelle Lindbergh's fiancee until his death. She claims she is still in possession of the flag that Craig gifted -- and autographed -- to his friend. The flag, she says, still resides in Sweden and remains in pristine condition (see photos below) because it was carefully folded and left untouched for many years. She adds that she is willing to have her flag's authenticity validated by experts in the United States. According to Pietzsch-Somnell, she had the Craig flag stored a bank safety deposit box for its own protection after its monetary value became apparent.
Pietzsch-Somnell claims that she is willing to return the flag to Craig. In return, she wants him to acknowledge the authenticity of the flag he gave Lindbergh and negotiate a portion of the cut if and when Craig places it up for auction.
According to the Pietzch-Somnell claim, Craig's story changed when she stepped forward. She has been told by Craig, who could not be reached for comment for this blog, that while he admits gifting an American flag to Lindbergh, he is in possession of "the real flag." This is a substantively different version of the story that appeared in the 1992 LA Times article.
Full disclosure note: The Elliott article was the corroborative basis used for a story contained in Pelle Lindbergh: Behind the White Mask, co-authored by Thomas Tynander and myself and written with the cooperation of Lindbergh's surviving family members. At the time I wrote the English version of Tynander's original Swedish manuscript, I was unaware there were significantly differing versions of the story of what Craig did with the flag following the Olympics.
Craig claims he has been in possession of the genuine 1980 gold-medal celebration flag for many years, although the details differ in various published accounts. Apart from the Lindbergh story, there are at least two other versions of the story of how the item came to his own possession.
During the 1998 American Hockey League All-Star Game in Syracuse, NY, there was a special ceremony in which a man named Peter Cappuccilli Jr. gave a flag to Craig that Cappuccilli claimed was the famous one from Lake Placid.
Cappuccilli, who is a former director of the New York State Fair, claimed he was the man in Lake Placid who hung the flag over the glass and signaled Craig to take it while the American players celebrated on the ice. According to Cappuccilli, Craig lost the flag in the raucous celebration that followed and Cappucilli himself recovered it. Cappucilli claimed he had the flag framed and kept it in his game room for many years until returning it to Craig at the All-Star game in Syracuse.
Craig told reporters at the 1998 game that he was surprised Cappucilli had the flag. The former Olympian told the Hartford Courant he thought the flag he had with him in the postgame locker room was the one he'd had on the ice. That flag, Craig said, had been kept all along.
"I still have it in the attic,'' Craig told the newspaper, adding, "I think what Peter is doing is very nice. It means a lot to me."
Thirteen years later, in 2011, Cappuccilli entered a guilty plea on fraud and larceny charges involving the use of the New York State Fairgrounds. Cappuccilli's criminal conviction was unrelated to the flag he presented to Craig.
With so much recently revived interest in the story of the iconic flag, its potential sale and the dispute as to whether the Lindbergh estate or Craig himself possess the flag in question, the story has started to play out on a larger stage. The Smithsonian Channel is currently producing a television show about the 1980 US Olympic hockey team with a segment about Craig and solving the disputed whereabouts of his famous flag.
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GUSTAFASSON DECIDES NOT TO RETURN TO KHL, SEEKS NHL TRADE
After unsuccessfully contacting Flyers general manager Ron Hextall to see if the team was interested in his return, free agent defenseman Erik Gustafsson has told Swedish newspaper Expressen that he does not plan to return to the KHL next season no matter what.
The Flyers still hold Gustafsson's NHL rights after tendering him a restricted free agent qualifying offer last summer. However, Hextall recently told the player that the team currently has too many defensemen on the roster and the GM is not interested in bringing him back. According to Gustafsson, however, Hextall also told the Swedish defenseman that the Flyers are willing to trade his right to another NHL team if an interested club is willing to do so.
Gustafsson claims his agent has received some interest from other NHL clubs but teams are waiting first to see what happens with their roster planning and/or coaching situations. The player, who also said he does not plan to play in Sweden's SHL next year, told the newspaper that he will consider playing in Switzerland if he cannot find a new NHL organization.
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ZAITSEV TO REMAIN IN KHL ONE MORE SEASON
CSKA Moscow defensemen Nikita Zaitsev will not be coming to North America next season. He told Allhockey.Ru that he will play the remaining season on his CSKA contract before potentially taking a shot at playing in the NHL.
Along other teams, Russian media previously reported the Flyers were interested in signing the 23-year-old defenseman.
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MAY 24: A DATE OF TEARS AND TRIUMPH IN FLYERS HISTORY
May 24th is one of the most bittersweet calendar dates in Flyers history. Some of the most famous victories and crushing defeats in franchise history took place on this date. So did one of the most important trades the organization ever made. The date also marks the birthdays of a pair of deceased former Flyers goaltenders.
1974: Five days after winning the Stanley Cup, the Flyers made a trade that went a long way in assisting their drive to a repeat championship the next season and a third straight trip to the Final in 1976-76. On this day, the Flyers traded young forward Al MacAdam, a 1974 first-round draft pick (Ron Chipperfield) and Larry Wright to the California Seals for Reggie Leach.
1980: In perhaps the single most heartbreaking game in franchise history, the Flyers lost a highly controversial 5-4 overtime decision to the New York Islanders in Game Six of the 1980 Stanley Cup Final. A missed offside call by linesman Leon Stickle that led directly to a New York goal and a high-sticked goal by Denis Potvin were both allowed to stand in the opening period as the Islanders came back from an early 2-0 deficit. The Islanders went on to win the hard-fought game and the Stanley Cup on Bob Nystrom's overtime goal.
1995: The Flyers put a three games to zero stranglehold on the Eastern Conference semifinals against the defending Stanley Cup champion New York Rangers. After winning a pair of overtime games at the Spectrum, the Flyers dominated the Blueshirts in a 5-2 win at Madison Square Garden. Mikael Renberg scored for the second straight game, as did defenseman Kevin Haller. Meanwhile, Kevin Dineen tallied a pair of goals and Rod Brind'Amour scored a mid-game power play goal.
2010: The Flyers earned their eighth trip to the Stanley Final in franchise history as they close out the Eastern Conference Final with a 4-2 home ice win over the Montreal Canadiens in Game Five. Mike Richards scored a dramatic shorthanded goal to tie the game at 1-1 in the first period. Later, Jeff Carter notched even strength and empty net goals after Arron Asham put the Flyers ahead to stay early in the second period. Victorious goaltender Michael Leighton stopped 25 of 27 shots.
May 24th is also the birthday of both the late Pelle Lindbergh and the late Bruce Gamble.
Lindbergh was born in Stockholm, Sweden on May 24, 1959. A fan of the Flyers from a young age -- to the point of wearing the Flyers logo on his mask even as a teenage player in Sweden long before the Flyers drafted him in the second round of the 1979 NHL Draft -- Lindbergh idolized Hall of Fame goaltender Bernie Parent. Years later, Parent would become Lindbergh's goaltending coach, mentor and confidant.
Lindbergh's career rose in meteoric fashion. In 1980, he backstopped Sweden to a bronze medal in the Olympics and was the best player on the only team the "Miracle on Ice" Team USA squad did not beat -- the game ended in a tie -- in the tournament.
In 1980-81, as a rookie for the AHL's Maine Mariners, Lindbergh swept all of the league's awards for which he was eligible (League MVP, Best Goaltender, and Rookie of the Year). That year, he led the Mariners to the Calder Cup Finals before being slowed by a knee injury. As a Flyers rookie in 1982-83, Lindbergh played in the NHL All-Star Game and earned NHL All-Rookie Team honors.
In 1984-85, Lindbergh broke through into superstar status as his 26th birthday approached. He won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's best goaltender and was a finalist for the Hart Trophy as league MVP. In the playoffs, Lindbergh was instrumental in the Flyers reaching the Stanley Cup Final.
The 1985-86 season started with Lindbergh performing at a pace that exceeded even his Vezina Trophy winning performance of the previous year. The Flyers surged quickly to the best record in the NHL, and Lindbergh was on the brink of signing a long-term contract extension to keep him in Philadelphia for many years to come.
Tragically, everything came to an end in the wee hours of Nov. 10, 1985. Lindbergh crashed his custom-designed red Porsche into a wall of a school in Somerdale, NJ. He was rendered brain dead and his respirator was turned off the following day. The two passengers in Lindbergh's car survived the accident.
Another star-crossed Flyers goaltender, Gamble was born May 24, 1938 in Port Arthur, Ontario. After being acquired by the Flyers in the three-team trade that sent Parent to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Gamble appeared in 35 games for the Flyers over parts of two seasons.
On February 8, 1972, Gamble suffered a heart attack during a 3-1 Flyers win over the Vancouver Canucks. He did not complain of chest pains until after the game, and was taken to the hospital.
Gamble survived the heart attack but was forced to retire as an active player. Ten years later, he passed away at age 44 after another cardiac arrest.
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MEMORIAL CUP UPDATE: RIMOUSKI NIPPED BY OSHAWA
The Quebec Major Hockey League champion Rimouski Oceanic dropped a 4-3 regulation decision to the Ontario Hockey League titlist Oshawa Generals in the second day of 2015 Memorial Cup round-robin competition in Quebec City, Quebec.
Flyers 2013 first-round pick Samuel Morin had one shot on goal, one credited hit (a check along the boards in the third period), an even plus-minus (plus zero, minus zero) and a fight in the game. Midway through the game, Morin had a short-lived fight with Oshawa's Michael McCarron. Morin did not record a point in the game.
Oshawa takes on the Western Hockey champion Kelowna Rockets on Sunday. Kelowna overage winger and Flyers 2013 third-round draft pick Tyrell Goulbourne is sidelined with a torn calf muscle that required emergency surgical repair during the WHL playoffs.
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FLYERS ALUMNI FANTASY HOCKEY CAMP
The Flyers Alumni will host a fantasy hockey camp from August 21-24 in Atlantic City, open to anyone age 21 and older. Instructors and Alumni participants will include Bernie Parent, Brian Propp, Ian Laperriere, Todd Fedoruk, Andre "Moose" Dupont, Dave "the Hammer" Schultz, Joe Watson and Bob "the Hound" Kelly.
The registration deadline is June 1. Participation costs $3,000 apiece but it is free to register a spot online. Over on the Flyers' Alumni website, there is more information on camp-related activities and on-ice schedules.
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