Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/1c273f70-6569-4ac2-a1d4-7efebc8eb768.jpeg] Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports Lester Patrick had it and the others didn't. When the National Hockey League's "great American Expansion" took place in the mid-to-late 1920's it was the Rangers president-manager-coach Lester Patrick who emerged as the undisputed "King Of Hockey. He had the goods – all of them. For starters Lester was tall, regal and handsome. What's more he also had the reputation and the dossier. Lester was a Hall of Fame defenseman; one of the best ever; the first defender to lead an offensive rush; a maneuver later refined by Red Kelly of the Detroit Red Wings and Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins. Patrick was creative and bold. The Silver Fox and brother Frank Patrick invented the playoff system which now we take for granted but then was revolutionary when invented. Debonair yet determined, Lester once won a playoff game when his goalie was badly hurt and – of all things – Lester put on the pads and then put on a show. But for the New York fans, he was a showman and arguably the best coach of his era. Patrick's Hall of Fame center Frank Boucher knew Lester – the good and bad – as well as anyone. "Behind the bench, he struck dramatic poses and was in turn kind, sarcastic, pompous, vain, callous and contrite," said Boucher, "depending on the circumstances. He had both a compelling arrogance and winning humility." Then, a pause: "By all odds he was the most knowledgeable hockey man I have ever met." He also had a sharp wit as defenseman-turned-referee King Clancy learned from Lester in – of all places – a Catholic mass!
