Parton of the Puck

It was one of the wildest brawls in hockey history. When Orest Kindra-chuk of the Philadelphia Flyers and Mike Christie of the California Golden Seals were penalized for fighting earlier this season at Oakland's arena, they quickly resumed their scuffle in the penalty box. Other Flyers wasted no time charging into battle, and they were followed by some of the Seals. When officials finally broke it up 40 minutes later, they slapped 170 penalty minutes on ten players from both teams, ejecting eight from the game. Was Flyer Coach Fred Shero chagrined at the conduct of his team? Not a chance. "Some people say I should have been fined for not controlling my players," he says. "Hell, I would have fined them if they hadn't gone in to support Kindrachuk."

It is that kind of attitude that has made Fred Shero at once the most admired and most despised coach in his sport. He is admired because under his direction the Flyers last season became the first expansion team to win the Stanley Cup. He is despised because the Flyers seem to be reaching for heights of violence at a time when the National Hockey League is trying to reduce senseless savagery on skates. So far this year, the Flyers show no signs of letting up on either front. With nearly half of the season complete, Philadelphia has a comfortable lead in its division, plus some 900 minutes in penalties, 400 of them for fighting. That gives the Flyers a good chance to break their own league record of 1,756 penalty minutes set two years ago.

Shero's critics charge that he sends his men onto the ice looking for a fight. Opponents point to the presence of three "enforcers" in the Flyer lineup--Defense Man Andre ("Moose") Dupont and Wings Bob ("the Hound") Kelly and Dave ("the Hammer") Shultz. That trio seem to swing more at opponents than at the puck. Shultz set a league record of his own last season by occupying the penalty box for 348 minutes, the equivalent of almost six full games. (This year may be worse. He already has accumulated more than 200 penalty minutes.)

Shero offers no apologies. Of Dupont, Kelly and Shultz, he says, "I've been blessed with their abrasive natures. They make other teams wary and cautious." As for the Flyers' penchant for penalties, he explains, "we get more because we scrap more. We get into more fights because we check closer and make more contact." Indeed, hard contact is the heart of Shero's tactical philosophy: "I don't have any use for a player who only looks for the puck in open space. He has to be willing to make contact, to use his stick and body to get the puck."

The Shero system requires more than brute force. The Flyers' mentor has visited the Soviet Union to study Russian hockey techniques and has read Road to Olympus (the bible of Russian hockey) at least 50 times. Following the Russians, Shero became an ardent believer in conditioning and discipline. As a result, he sends his team onto the ice with a precise plan of attack and defense, plus some rigid rules about avoiding mistakes. He insists, for example, that his team, if leading by one goal, never take long shots at the open net in the final seconds of a game when the opposition goalie has been removed. His reason: the puck might rebound onto an opponent's stick and set up a tying goal.

No Friends. For a General Patton of the puck, Shero, 49, who once played for the Rangers, has a surprisingly mild manner. He rarely raises his voice in practice or during games. "I'm always thinking of ways to make practice fun," he says. He has succeeded so well that many of the Flyers work out even on days off. They all call him Freddie. Not that Shero himself relaxes much. "I can't get along without thinking hockey," he says, and is so devoted to the game that he admits to having no friends. Even his wife and two young sons hold second priority. If that leaves them unhappy, they are joined by many opponents around the league who wish that Fred Shero were a little less fanatic about hockey.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.