Head coach Alain Vigneault would rave about Oskar Lindblom's smile.
Whenever the Flyers had a chance to see Lindblom during his cancer fight last season, No. 23 was smiling.
His teammates were left in awe by a young man fighting for his life, having it abruptly halted and turned upside down, dealing with something that seemed so unfair, still finding a way to be happy.
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The power of positivity.
Lindblom, a humble, soft-spoken Swedish native, was stunningly diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma in December 2019. While he was shocked, Lindblom quickly found his mission: stay positive.
“I’ve been like that my whole life, I try to be positive," Lindblom said in an interview with Taryn Hatcher as part of NBC Sports' HeadStrong initiative. "I told my parents right away that you guys have to be positive, otherwise it’s going to be tough for me to be positive. I always had that attitude and try to see everything in a good way. I just felt when I started, I’ve got to get through these six months and then hopefully I can be happy for the rest of my life. I had that attitude through the whole thing and it worked for me. I’m trying to spread that happiness, too, to other people that are going through the same type of stuff as me.”
Lindblom doesn't have to talk about his story but he does for others. It's a story that provides perspective and inspiration. The 24-year-old winger completed his radiation treatments in July and remarkably returned to the Flyers' lineup in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs for Games 6 and 7 of the second round.
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"At first it was weird, I was trying to be in my own little bubble, I didn't want to talk to anyone really," Lindblom said about the beginning of his fight. "Then after a while, I felt like I had to do something. If I could help someone else or if they could help me, why not? I talked to a couple of people and tried to help as many as I could."
He was "Oskar Strong."
And now he's healthy and back with the Flyers in full force this season.
"I’m getting 100 percent, 100 percent in everything he does," Vigneault said earlier this week. "The kid is all in."
Watch all three parts of NBC Sports Philadelphia's feature on Lindblom on Saturday during Flyers Pregame Live and at first and second intermission.
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