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...
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