When someone who was always called a kook starts to be called an innovator, it means he's not very innovative anymore.
-- Fred Shero
Yesterday's posthumous selection of Fred Shero for the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto took decades to happen. Shero was an iconoclast -- a soft-spoken and often shy one -- whose approach to hockey coaching and hockey strategy often ran counter to the conventional wisdom of the time.
Not only did Shero win two Stanley Cups with the Flyers and take Philly and the New York Rangers to a combined four Cup Finals after a highly successful coaching career in the minor leagues, he was at the cutting edge of many once-radical ideas that are now simply considered standard parts of the game.
Shero was one of the NHL's first "systems" coaches, who stressed very specific methods of breakouts, forechecks and puck support. He was the first NHL coach to hire a full-time non-playing assistant coach. He was among the very first to embrace morning skates. He was the first NHL coach to use video study. He was a vehement supporter of NHL teams recruiting European talent and of North American coaches studying the Soviet system. Shero even traveled behind the Iron Curtain during offseasons and struck up an unlikely friendship with the father of Russian hockey, Anatoli Tarasov.
More that that, Shero had a way of getting his players to believe in themselves and in their role on the team. Part of his secret was the way he constantly stressed the importance of his role players. Shero believed, for example, that what Bob Kelly did in creating energy for the team in limited ice time was every bit as important to winning as the goals that Rick MacLeish or Reggie Leach scored. Shero repeated that message time and time again, and he got his players believe it. The Broad Street Bullies era Flyers took tremendous pride in performing whatever their assigned duties were on the club.
The Flyers of the mid-1970s did NOT win championships because they fought so much and intimidated teams. They won because they almost never got outworked, and because they were better coached than most of their opponents.
Shero's Flyers had three Hall of Fame players and no shortage of skill, but it was the way Shero got the team to embrace the unglamorous parts of the game -- board work, team defense, puck support and puck discipline -- that was the crux of their success in five-on-five play. The goaltending of Bernie Parent and a strong penalty kill (an absolute necessity given the sheer number of times the team had to play shorthanded) gave the team the confidence to be the marauders of the NHL.
Take away Fred Shero and there are probably no back-to-back Flyers' Stanley Cup championships, three straight trips to the Finals and no resounding victory over CSKA Moscow. Without Shero's system, would Parent have had nearly as much as success in his second stint playing for the Flyers? If not for Shero having had so much success, would a fellow maverick coach such as Hall of Famer Roger Neilson ever have gotten the opportunity to take somewhat similar methods to Shero's one step further at the NHL level?
Shero was never one to cozy up to the hockey establishment. He believed in an us-versus-them approach to coaching, and the fact that everyone from Clarence Campbell to the New York and Canadian media detested the Flyers was actually something that Shero and his players embraced. Behind the scenes, Shero could also be a pain in the neck to Ed Snider and Keith Allen, particularly during the off-seasons. To their credit, Flyers management usually went along with Shero's seemingly off-the-wall requests and learned that his annual threats to quit were usually not serious until the very end.
The Fog was a complicated man. He was painfully shy and socially awkward away from the rink. He smoked like a chimney and drank excessively but he recognized the importance of his players being in good condition (in an era where quite a few hockey players were in similar year-round shape to baseball players or even bowlers).
Shero didn't like to talk much, and players who played under him are hard pressed to remember a single time he hollered at them. He communicated through his written messages --which generally stressed hard work and commitment, boldness, inspiration or were simply offbeat humor with no particular meaning other than lightening the mood.
As Gene Hart said of Shero, the coach realized that hockey is a children's game played by grown men, and he realized that his players needed to have fun coming to the rink. If it meant asking players to do bizarre drills during practice or feigning befuddlement about the identity of a recently called-up player who magically appeared on his lineup card, he would do it.
Shero's concept of managing practices was counter-intuitive to most of his contemporary coaches and is still not the norm to this day -- but it worked. Shero believed in heavy practices and a greater emphasis on correcting flaws at times when the team was winning. It was after losses, especially ugly losses, that the practices were more likely to be cursory or silly. His belief was that winning creates motivation to work even harder, whereas losing calls for mental regrouping and team bonding more than heavy re-emphasis on systems.
Strategy-wise, Shero did things that other coaches wouldn't have dared to try. For example, rather than keeping the puck away from Bobby Orr's side of the ice during the 1974 Cup Finals, Shero instructed his players to make Orr handle the puck and defend the rush as often as possible so as to wear him down over the course of the series.
Another example: Shero was fascinated by an idea that originated with Tarasov. The legendary Russian coach believed that the most dangerous opponents weren't necessarily the ones who were stacked with the most skill. According to Tarasov, those teams tended to be the most predictable. Rather, it was dealing with opponents who kept you guessing that presented the greatest challenge to a coach.
Shero ultimately applied that principle in his strategy of beating CSKA. When Shero studied the Russian system in depth, what he found was that, for all the fancy passing and skating, they actually had very predictable and rigid methods of attacking and defending. If an opponent refused to chase the puck and didn't let themselves get outnumbered, the Soviet team had no Plan B. Likewise, the Flyers kept the Russians off-balance by playing the body rather than the puck, and by shooting from odd angles.
Not everything that Shero did worked, of course. But when the weight of all his accomplishments and, yes, innovations are weighed, his Hall of Fame credentials are overwhelming. The fact that Shero had to wait over 30 years from the time of his retirement as a coach -- and 23 years after his death -- to get inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame was ridiculous.
Year after year, overwhelming cases for his place as a Builder in the sport's history would be made. All his detractors had to offer back were weak excuses ("he didn't coach in the NHL long enough," "his team was a goon squad") when the Hall had already enshrined the GM who built the Flyers roster, the team owner, their goalie, their captain, and their top two-way winger.
At long last, the composition of the Hall of Fame selection committee was right to get Shero inducted. It's a very political process shrouded in secrecy, but it is not hard to look at the members of the committee and see where the support base likely came from to finally get Shero into the Hall.
Former Flyers coach Pat Quinn is the co-chairman of the committee. Long-time Shero candidacy supporter Mike Emrick is still on the committee. John Davidson and Anders Hedberg, who played for Shero on New York's 1979 Cup Finalist team, are on the committee. So is Scotty Bowman, who once famously said of Shero that sometimes he thinks the Fog doesn't know Tuesday from Wednesday and sometimes he thinks Shero is a genius, recognizes Shero's importance. I suspect that committee member Brian Burke also has a very strong respect for Shero's place in shaping the modern game.
Fred Shero's selection to the Hall of Fame was a great day for hockey finally embracing one of the game's most important contributors of the last half-century. It was a great day for the Flyers organization and his former players. Most of all, it was a great day for Ray Shero, who will get to accept his late father's long-belated induction on his behalf.
From everything I know of the man, Freddie the Fog would have hated standing in front of a crowded room to give a speech. But to have his son speak on his behalf, and for the players he coached to bask in the acknowledgement of their own success under his tutelage, would no doubt have been something that would have given him great pride.
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Lindros HHOF Wait Could be Lengthy
For the fourth straight year, Eric Lindros was denied entry into the Hockey Hall of Fame. I suspect he is going to have to wait considerably longer before he eventually gets inducted.
The primary case against Lindros is that his career was too short. He missed too many games due to injuries, holdouts while awaiting trades and a pair of NHL lockouts. That argument doesn't hold water, however, when you consider the fact that Cam Neely and Pavel Bure had their careers cut short by injury yet are inducted in the Hall. For all the games he missed, Lindros still played in 760 regular season NHL games. Neely played in 726 and Bure played in 702.
Yesterday on a local television program, I heard a veteran newspaper columnist -- someone whose knowledge of hockey, quite frankly, is limited at best -- say that Lindros doesn't deserve to get in because he was "never a dominant player" except in the lockout-shortened 1994-95 season when he won the Hart Trophy.
In reality, through the eighth season of his NHL career (in other words, the period spanning his entire Flyers career) Lindros was on a pace to have the third-highest points-per-game average in NHL history, trailing only Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. He was a two-time finalist for the Hart and would have been a finalist a third time if not for a collapsed lung in 1999 that ended his season during the stretch run.
Due to the mounting concussions and other injuries, Lindros declined swiftly over the course of his stints with the Rangers, Maple Leafs and Stars. Even so, he still finished 15th all-time in points-per-game game average. I will also add that the prime of his career overlapped with the low point of the NHL's clutch-and-grab era. Lindros often had to deal with opponents grabbing his stick or draping themselves across his back (he often responded with elbows, slashes and accidentally-on-purpose high sticks).
Lindros was a once-in-a-generation player. I have never seen such a big, physical player who also had so much skill and finesse. Lemieux was just as big and even more skilled than Lindros, but physical play was an irregular part of Lemieux's repertoire (though he could steamroll opponents when he wanted to). Lindros played a style that was simply not conducive to having a long career, but when he was in the lineup, he was absolutely one of the most dominant players the game has ever seen.
Even Lindros' critics would have a hard time making a convincing case that he was not one of the game's elite players during the 1990s. Based on his on-ice accomplishments, he belongs in the Hall of Fame even if his career and prime were shorter than they could or should have been.
The real reason why Lindros is not in the Hall, in my opinion, is because of how much still-lingering personal dislike there is for his family (and, to a lesser extent, for Eric himself) within much of the hockey establishment. His candidacy has additional baggage beyond the injuries and combined three-and-a-half seasons missed for non-injury reasons.
Lindros and the Flyers have finally mended fences and he has started to take his deserved place among team alumni. But just because the differences with the Flyers have been patched up and Bob Clarke has supported his HOF candidacy doesn't mean that there still aren't plenty of influential people in the Hall of Fame circles who are staunchly opposed to him gaining induction.
The Lindros family bucked the hockey system throughout his junior and NHL careers. Now they are getting paid back in a way by some of the enemies they made in the hockey establishment during the 1990s and early 2000s.
The Lindroses defied the junior hockey system, refusing to have Eric play for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and then orchestrating his rights to be transferred to the Oshawa Generals. They defied the NHL Draft system as Eric refused to don a Quebec Nordiques jersey at the 1991 Draft and then refused to sign a contract with the team. Eric's parents were very hands-on in giving their opinions of how day-to-day things should be handled by his coaches and team management. They wanted medical second opinions and to select their own specialists when Eric had injuries.
Unfortunately, Eric Lindros' shortened NHL career provides an air of legitimacy to those who would want to see him excluded from the Hockey Hall of Fame under just about any circumstances. Due to the number of games he missed, he fell well short of those "career milestone" numbers -- 1,000 games, 500+ goals, 1,000-plus points -- that would have made it impossible to justify excluding him on the basis of his on-ice merits.
For these reasons, I would be shocked if Lindros gets into the Hall in his fifth try or at any other point in the foreseeable future. I would be thrilled to be proven wrong.
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Ranking the Flyers Top 10 Forward Prospects
The Flyers do not currently have any forwards in their system who are likely to have a major impact at the NHL level. That does not mean, however, that the cupboard is entirely bare. Here are the top-10 forward prospects in the organization:
1. Scott Laughton (C): The team's first-round pick in the 2012 NHL Draft has added considerable muscle since the start of last summer and has begun to develop his offensive game in addition to his already advanced defensive abilities and grit. Laughton had a five-game stint in the NHL at the end of the lockout last season and could get a look with the big club again this year if he has a strong training camp. Although he is likely to play on the fourth line in his first NHL season or two, Laughton has definite top-nine upside and is no longer a huge stretch to say he could even eventually become a top-six player in an NHL lineup down the road.
2. Nick Cousins (C): A prolific playmaker in junior hockey, Cousins may not have a future on NHL scoring lines because he lacks both size and high-end speed. However, as he continues to improve his defensive play and refine his skating, he could evolve into an agitating top-nine forward at either center or wing. He will likely need at least one full AHL season before being ready to compete for a spot with the big club.
3. Tye McGinn (LW): The young power forward gave a solid accounting for himself in limited action with the big club last season. He is good at doing the dirty work along the boards and is willing to drop the gloves when necessary. He still needs to improve his skating and defensive play. McGinn has a decent knack for deflecting the puck and potting rebound goals but is not a natural goal-scorer.
4. Michael Raffl (LW): The 24-year-old Austrian rookie could compete for a spot with the big club at some point this season, or spend the year in the AHL. It all depends on how well he adapts to the smaller-rink game. Raffl is a good two-way player and was a top scorer in Swedish second-tier hockey this past season, but it remains to be seen if he has what it takes to produce offensively in the NHL. I personally see him more along the lines of ex-Flyer Mika Pyörälä -- who did fine defensively in his brief NHL stint but couldn't buy a goal -- rather than Damien Brunner.
5. Marcel Noebels (W): The German forward is another player at the minor league level of the Flyers system who needs some more work on his defensive play and especially his skating. But if he can improve in those areas and use his size with greater consistency, he could have an NHL career similar to that of ex-Flyer Ruslan Fedotenko, who was of similar size and skill set at the same age.
6. Jason Akeson (RW): I discussed Akeson in-depth in my
May 8 blog. The odds are still against him becoming an NHL regular due to his lack of size, speed and average-at-best defensive play but he has made commendable strides in that direction. He earned his late-season callup and the support of Flyers' captain Claude Giroux for his NHL candidacy is something that could work in his favor if Akeson continues to improve in some of his areas of weakness.
7. Petr Straka (RW): The former Columbus second-round pick re-emerged as an NHL prospect this past season after a dominant offensive season in the QMJHL. Overage seasons should always be taken with a huge grain of salt -- by that point, players have physically become men playing against boys -- but there is no denying Straka's raw offensive gifts. He is probably going to have to score his way to an NHL role and then keep scoring to stay in the lineup at the top level. That can often be a tougher thing to do than finding other niches at the top level.
8. Kyle Flanagan (C/W): The undrafted free agent college standout appeared in 13 late-season game for the Phantoms after completing his collegiate career with St. Lawrence University. He produced seven points (one goal, six assists). The 5-foot-9 forward relies on his finesse and creativity but also has a little bit of chippiness in his game. The 24-year-old did not have the immediate pro impact that Matt Read did upon signing his first pro contract, but players like Read are the exception rather than the rule. Flanagan will get a full AHL season to show what he can do.
9. Taylor Leier (LW): The undersized but gritty and speedy two-way winger is coming off a strong season for WHL champion Portland despite early-season injuries and a concussion in the Memorial Cup. His pro role would likely be as a bottom-six winger who kills penalties and contributes on the forecheck and backcheck. Even so, Leier can score a few goals when opportunities present themselves.
10. Derek Mathers (RW): Mathers was arguably the most feared fighter in the OHL. Although his hockey skills are relatively modest, he is not a bad skater for a player of his big frame and has the potential to eventually evolve into a serviceable fourth-line player who can do other things in addition to dropping the gloves. He will play his first full AHL season in 2013-14.
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Flyers Introduce New Players
Yesterday, the Flyers held a press conference/ photo op to formally introduce Vincent Lecavalier, Mark Streit and Ray Emery as members of the team. As is typical for these sorts of events, little of note was said in the brief session.
Perhaps the most notable statement came from general manager Paul Holmgren, who identified Claude Giroux, Lecavalier and Sean Couturier as the team's top three centers. Translation: the plan heading into training camp is for Brayden Schenn to play left wing on a full-time basis. Of course, that is subject to change as the season actually gets underway.
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