The Watson System

The New York Rangers' training camp in Saskatoon, Sask. was a dismal place last fall. Every hockey player there had read in the papers that his team was a cinch for the National Hockey League cellar. They were all resigned to their fate--until their new coach, former Ranger Center Phil Watson, started giving them the needle. "Last place?" snarled the fiery Canadian. "Why, I never finished last in anything in my life--not even in a poker game. Last season the rest of the league scored 210 goals against the Rangers while the Rangers made a lousy 150. This year we're going to reverse the figures. We'll see where that leaves us."

No Late Nights. Watson's system was straightforward. While he was boss, his players would eat, sleep, talk and think hockey. Did some of the men feel smug because they had reported to camp at their best playing weight? They got the same treatment as the boys who had run to fat over the soft summer months; they were told to take off a few pounds just to keep them concentrating on their diet. Did they think they were sending those trunks of fancy clothes to the Times Square hotels where they had lived it up during other seasons? "Every one of you guys is moving out of the city," said Watson. No more late nights and last-minute dashes to practice sessions at Madison Square Garden.

From his four crack forwards (Lewicki, Hergesheimer, Bathgate and Prentice) Watson announced that he expected a goal a week apiece--the equivalent of one every three games. From the other seven forwards he would settle for twelve goals each before the regular season ended.

From his defense men he wanted a combined total of 20 goals. "What's so hard about that?"

It sounded simple, and when the season started it seemed to work. Too inexperienced to play as well as Watson wanted, the gangers nevertheless took a firm hold on second place, behind the Montreal Canadiens, and served notice that this year, for a change, they expect to make the Stanley Cup playoffs.

No Friends. Not only did the Rangers keep up their expected scoring pace, but in the nets, little (5 ft. 6 1/2 in.) Lome Worsley made more than his quota of saves. Even the heavily padded goalie had a place in Watson's statistics. "I'll be satisfied if you let the puck get past you no more than four times a week," said the coach, and at mid-season Lome was ahead of himself, beaten only 82 times in 35 games.

Last week, against the Detroit Red Wings, Worsley and the Rangers showed both how good and how bad they can be. For two periods the "Broadway Blues" were helpless. The Red Wings scored three times with embarrassing ease. But the Rangers came back to score five times with a demonstration of superb hockey. Lome Worsley was beaten only once more, on a desperate last-minute play. The game ended Rangers 5, Red Wings 4.

Coach Watson has no intention of relaxing. He will go right on telephoning his players at home on off evenings to make sure they are keeping training; he will go right on fining them if they drop into a saloon for as much as a short beer or a long telephone call. Anyone caught swapping small talk with the opposition during pre-game practice will get an automatic $100 fine. "We're not out to make friends," says Philip Henry Watson. "We're out to win games."

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