The Boss's Son

As the New York Rangers skated onto the ice of drafty Chicago Stadium one night last week, a somber figure watched unobtrusively from a mezzanine seat. For the first time in 22 years, 47-year-old Frank Boucher was neither in a Ranger uniform nor on the Ranger bench. Boucher, one of hockey's greatest centers, had stepped down as coach of the last-place Rangers, though he would continue as manager. In his spot on the bench sat a big handsome blond in a polo coat, a member of hockey's first family.

The new coach, gum-chomping, 36-year-old Lynn Patrick, who had been managing a Ranger farm team, the New Haven Ramblers, had not seen the Rangers play all season. At the final buzzer, he was wringing wet and shaking from tension. Said he: "I've never wanted to win a game so much in my life." The Rangers cooperated by handing the Black Hawks their first defeat in five games, 3-2.

"Take Him Out!" Lynn Patrick was no stranger to the Rangers. For nine seasons before the war, he had been known as a bold, fleet left wing with a deadly left-hand shot. His preeminence was no gift. In Lynn's first game, in 1934, he got the puck, glided confidently toward the goal, was neatly dumped on the ice by a couple of veterans. Sneered one: "Don't hurt him, he's the boss's son." The crowd chanted: "Take him out! Take him out!" They thought he might be trying to get by on his name: his father, Lester Patrick, one of the patron saints of professional hockey and the hero of one of its finest hours,* was manager-coach of the Rangers.

Last week, when young Patrick replaced Boucher, there were some who were still saying that he was helped by being the "boss's son." It was no secret that Frank Boucher, who starred on Lester Patrick's first 1926 six, had been on the outs with papa Patrick. As vice president and a substantial stockholder in the Garden (which owns the Rangers), Lester Patrick was obviously in a position to make it tough for Boucher. But Boucher insisted that the change was his idea, not Lester Patrick's. The job of manager-coach was just too big for one man (all the other clubs have split it up). The Rangers now have eight farm clubs and 284 players, and Boucher wanted time to scout them for new talent. Son Lynn Patrick was not even sure that his father approved of his promotion: "He thinks I'm not ready for the job. He's never thought I was ready for anything."

Lily-White Lynn. Young Patrick learned to skate in British Columbia. But from the time he was five years old his mother was dead set against his choosing hockey as a career. Says Lynn: "Mother didn't want to see her lily-white boy mixed up with those rough characters."/- Instead, he was sent to the University of British Columbia to study dentistry. When he flunked out a year later, his father reluctantly agreed to let him play hockey: "I think he thought I'd be lousy and get it out of my system." Lynn practiced eight hours a day, made the amateur Montreal Royals in one season, was ready for a Ranger tryout the next year.

In training camp, crusty Lester Patrick tried to cut Lynn from the squad, but Frank Boucher persuaded him to keep the boy on. Says Lynn: "It wasn't easy to work under dad." The other players distrusted him, the fans booed him, and his father was rougher on Lynn than on anybody else. But by 1942 Lynn was one of the National Hockey League's top scorers, made the all-star team, and was popular with fellow players.

Last week, the pressure was on Lynn Patrick again. Said he: "I'm plenty scared." Two nights after they beat the Black Hawks, the Rangers shut out Montreal's Canadiens 2-0.

* In the 1928 Stanley Cup, hockey's World Series, Ranger Goalie Lome Chabot was hit in the eye by a flying puck. Manager Lester Patrick, who was 44, had quit the ice two years before, and had never played goal in his life, got into Chabot's sweaty armor and skates. He let only one puck get past him, held on against a furious Montreal Maroons' attack until Boucher scored the winning Ranger goal.

/- Brother Murray (Muzz) Patrick is manager-coach of the Tacoma Rockets.

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