The magical philosophy of Fred Shero

Fred Shero has finally been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. What an honor! It's a beautiful thing. Personally, I feel he should have been in there a long time ago, but that's neither here nor there. He's in now, he belongs there and that's all that counts. I have so many great memories, qualities and stories that I could share about my coach, but I've selected a couple of my favorites to give my readers.

Let me paint the picture of Fred Shero from my perspective. When I got traded back to the Flyers from Toronto and I met Freddy for the first time, we clicked instantly. I liked that he would look at you directly in the eyes when he would talk to you, and he made a statement that will stick with me forever: "I don't know anything about goaltending. You're on your own." And I loved it.

That's the way Freddy was with all the players, you know. We had a system defensively. We had four different ways to come out, depending how the opposite team would forecheck us. Not to mention, we had four different ways to practice these plays, every possible scenario, and we very seldom made mistakes. That was 90% of our success.

Offensively, we also had a system to move in across the blue line, but within that system, Freddy would allow you to break away and create a two-on-one scenario if you had the chance. We had the green light to do this, which was really respected by the players. So, we played within the team, we played within the system, but he allowed you to be the individual that got you into the National Hockey League to begin with.

Freddy was repetitious. He held much value in practice. Sometimes, we would get bored of doing the same drills and tasks over and over, but that was because once we got good at it, we wanted to move on. But Freddy made sure we kept on so we were ready for any situation and we would know how to handle it. I had so much confidence in our players that I could have taken my gloves off and rested behind the net until the play started to evolve. We had two wingers coming back deep; we had the centers coming in deep, so we were confident that you could pass the puck to either one, depending on the forecheck. We were just solid.

Freddy was always behind his players and always spoke well of his players. You see a lot of coaches today that are very vocal publicly about their players, but if Freddy had a problem, it was never in front of other teammates or the media, but always in his office, one-on-one. It would eliminate you from looking foolish in front of your team.

Freddy was fifteen years ahead of the game, one of his many identifying markers in the game of hockey. The first year we won the Cup in 1974 against the Bruins, honestly, the Bruins should have won in four games. They had Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito and all those guys, who were awesome players. But Orr was the catalyst on that team. All the teams would say "keep the puck away from Orr," but they obviously were not very successful. Freddy came along and said, "Shoot the puck in his corner, make him skate, and take him while he's skating," specifically because no one would touch him. Freddy had people up in the press box, and if you decided to stick check Orr as opposed to body checking him, Freddy would fine you $100 every time. He wanted you to put your body into Orr. Instead of staying away from Orr like every other team in the NHL, Freddy wanted us to face him. So at the end of each game, and definitely by the end of the series, Orr was tired. And that is how we beat the Bruins and won the Stanley Cup.

During the second stint in the Stanley Cup Finals that we won against Buffalo in 1975, the Sabres had center Gilbert Perreault, who was in the same league as Bobby Orr -- just a tremendous, powerful skater, very intelligent and an all-around good hockey player. Freddy knew Perreault was a playmaker, so he told our forwards and defenseman to force him to go across the blue line from the left side. Then, force him to go all the way across to the right side, without touching him, making him a "right-winger" and consequently, out of place. Each player was then forced to spread out and move toward a corner, and he just couldn't shoot. As soon as that play would develop, we started checking, and nobody was open to receive Perrault's passes. Shero had the ability to recognize Perrault's strength and ultimately strip it from him.

I've been asked if there were any team rules off the ice that Freddy would enforce, and rule number one, was not to talk about it. So I won't talk about it.

In the summer of 1975, Freddy stayed at my cabin next to my summer home in Wildwood, New Jersey, after we won the Cups. He stayed at my place the entire duration of the summer with his wife and two sons, one of which is Rejean Shero, who is currently the general manager for the Pittsburgh Penguins. A dock protruded from the home into the bay about 30 feet, covered on the end with a canopy, and Freddy would sit there and read books with his beautiful dog, a big, white German Shepherd.

One day, the boys said they wanted to go fishing, and I had my boat behind the house, of course. We went tuna fishing, about 60 miles out, but Freddy wasn't feeling well so he went below deck to lie down. I asked the kids what they wanted to do, and they took a vote. They said "let's keep on fishing!" Finally, I went down below to check on Freddy and ask how he was doing, and very calmly, he put one finger on the center of his glasses, slid them up the bridge of his nose, and he said, "Not very good." And that's when I told him, "All those stop-and-starts you make me do, now we're even." He had no reaction, the same demeanor he sported when we played. That's just the way he was.

Sadly, Freddy left us in 1990, 23 years ago. It goes by so fast. And then today, look at the beautiful things that are happening. Freddy's son, Rejean Shero, got voted as the GM of the year, and Freddy got inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. What a beautiful story.

Share this with people simply for the fact that if you keep moving on in life, more beautiful things will continue to happen. But most of all, I'm grateful that I got to play under the direction of Fred Shero, an incredible coach, family man, friend, and most importantly, an incredible person. And I could not be more proud that he has finally been awarded this great achievement.

I am making myself available for readers to submit their questions pertaining to sports/life/current events/relationships/etc., to Bernie@legendssportsmarketing.com. Submit your questions and I may randomly choose yours to be the subject of my next article!

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Bernie will lend his expertise to an elite goaltending camp from July 29th-August 2nd, 2013 at the IceWorks Skating Complex in Aston, Pa. The camp will feature on ice training with Bernie and other professional trainers, daily classroom and video sessions, photo opportunities, autograph session, and more. To register for this exclusive camp, camp details, and coaching staff bios, please visit www.thegoalienet.com.