Today is another day of mourning in the Philadelphia Flyers and Flyers Alumni family: Ilkka Sinisalo, the Flyers' all-time leading goal-scorer among European-born players and a longtime scout with the organization after his playing career passed away at age 58, ending a three-year battle with cancer.
Growing up a Flyers fan in the 1980s, I always thought that Sinisalo -- speedy, crafty with the puck, a fine penalty killer and solid two-way player -- was one of the most underrated wingers in the game; even among many Flyers fans. He frequently battled injuries but was a highly effective player who could be used in any situation.
Many years later, I wrote a profile article on Ilkka for the Flyers' official website, parts of which was later adapted into his profile page in the Flyers A-to-Z career biography series.
When I first interviewed Ilkka by phone for his biography, he was scouting a game overseas. There were few fans in the stands, but the familiar sounds of the boards rattling and pucks being struck in the distance were audible. Ilkka was at home. I asked him if I should call him back later but he said he could hear me fine and I wasn't disrupting him from doing his job.
For the next half hour or so, he patiently and candidly answered every question, whether it was his early pre-NHL years, his mixed feelings about Mike Keenan, the thrill of coming back to the Flyers as a scout (after being a GM in Finland and a European scout for other NHL organizations), and about his family.
Just as he played the game, Ilkka answered interview questions succinctly yet touched on all the bases. He was polite and he was intelligent.
In the next few years that followed, I periodically emailed him to ask for his views on certain players -- it was never for publication, just to get his viewpoint because I respected it. Sometimes it took him several weeks to get back but he always responded eventually. Even if he was not at liberty to say much, he at least gave the courtesy of response. I appreciated it.
In recent years, Illka could sometimes be seen around the pressbox at the Wells Fargo. He didn't place the face with the name, but always said hello. I will miss that. A picture of him in his playing days is on the wall of the pressbox and I was always glad it was there, because he was an important if often overlooked part of what made those Flyers teams of the 1980s so good.
Sadly, we have lost too many of those fine gentlemen far too young -- Pelle Lindbergh, Peter Zezel, Miro Dvorak (whose children were at a game at the Wells Fargo Center last week), Brad McCrimmon, assistant coach E.J. McGuire, and now Ilkka Sinisalo.