NHL: Oskar Lindblom is cancer-free a little more than one year after the Philadelphia Flyers forward was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer.
“What a year! 369 days ago we found out that Oskar had cancer, and today we got to know that the scans are clear after his second checkup,” Lindblom’s girlfriend, Alma Lindqvist, wrote on Instragram on Tuesday. “popping champagne*!!!”
The 24-year-old scored 18 points (11 goals, seven assists) in 30 games last season before learning he had Ewing’s sarcoma Dec. 10, 2019.
Motivated by Lindblom’s presence and his fight, the Flyers finished with the fourth-best winning percentage in the Eastern Conference (.645), earning them a berth in the Eastern Conference First Round. They got another boost when it was announced that Lindblom was on their 31-player roster for the Stanley Cup Qualifiers in Toronto.
If you’re going to take one positive away from 2020 it’s that Oscar Lindblom went to battle with cancer and ended up giving it two purple nurples and a half a dozen wet willys. I can’t even imagine what that experience was like — being a 24 year old man rocket in the NHL and finding out that everything might be taken away in just a blink of an eye. The amount of heart and perseverance Oskar demonstrated the last 369 days is something that I, and the hockey community, will certainly will never forget. Stick taps to Oscar the kid and a middle finger salute to cancer. Suck on that.
