Fred Shero

Bill Barber, perhaps the best left winger of his era and the Flyers' all- time leading goal-scorer, yesterday was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Barber, the Flyers' director of pro scouting, scored 420 goals in his 13 seasons with the Flyers and was named to the club's own Hall of Fame in 1989. In addition to Barber, former Buffalo Sabres center Gilbert Perreault was elected in the players' category. Former Boston and Toronto defenseman Fern Flaman was elected in the veterans' category.

Penguins general manager Ray Shero , whose deft handling of the salary cap and midseason hiring of coach Dan Bylsma in 2008-09 helped Pittsburgh win its first Stanley Cup in 17 years, has agreed to a five-year contract extension that runs through the 2015-16 season. Shero's current five-year contract, signed at the start of the 2006-07 season, would have expired at the end of this season. The Penguins have twice played for the Stanley Cup and won it once under Shero, an assistant general manager in the NHL for 14 seasons before being hired by the Penguins.

The Flyers called down the ghosts from their illustrious past last night. Fred Shero was there, and Rick MacLeish, and thanks to the magic of videotape, Kate Smith flickered to life, booming "God Bless America," proud and strong. Maybe it was all just a big coincidence that the current Flyers, skating in front of a crowd whipped to a fever pitch by the Flyers Hall of Fame inductions of Shero and MacLeish, went out and laid a 5-3 back-alley whipping on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Maybe.

Based on e-mails, some fans took offense to this sentence that appeared in my game story in last Sunday's Inquirer: "For the second time in the last three games, Ian Laperriere energized the Flyers with a fight as he helped them outlast the lowly Carolina Hurricanes . . . " My message to the e-mailers, with all due respect, is to take the advice offered by the late, great Fred Shero many moons ago: "If it's pretty skating they want to see, let...

You don't have to be a descendant of Fred Shero to figure out what the Flyers need to do most: improve the defense. And, though it might seem strange, they are tinkering with the idea of adding one of the great offensive players in history, Brendan Shanahan, to reduce the number of goals they are allowing. Shanahan, 39, a free-agent winger with 680 career goals, had a lengthy discussion with Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren yesterday. Holmgren lauded Shanahan's efforts as a two-way player and said his defense would help the Flyers.

Game 1 Tonight 7:30 NATIVE SONS Pittsburgh knows how to grow hockey players. Flyers center R.J. Umberger grew up in Plum Borough, Pa., 13 miles east of Pittsburgh, and was a Penguins fan as a youngster. He signed as a free agent with the Flyers in 2004. The Penguins? Ryan Malone grew up in the wealthy suburb of Upper St. Clair, 10 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, where he also attended high school. His father, Greg Malone, a center, won two Stanley Cups with the Penguins, in 1990-91 and 1991-92.

In the salary-cap world of the NHL, patience is not a virtue. An up-and-coming team can be down and going in a blink when a general manager has to shed players to clear cap space on a bloated payroll. With free agency, players change teams like underwear. So when the Stanley Cup seems within reach, you go for it. Now. Penguins general manager Ray Shero, son of Fred Shero, the only coach ever to mold the Flyers into Stanley Cup champions, considers himself a patient man. But when he took the measure of the Eastern Conference and saw the opportunity to nudge his team to the top of it, he made a move that prompted a fair number of hockey people to wonder if he had momentarily lost hold of his senses.

Fred Shero, who coached the Flyers to Stanley Cup championships in the 1970s, once scribbled this message on a blackboard for his players: Win today and we walk together forever. For John Stevens' Flyers, it could be: Win today or you'll be known as an underachieving team forever. It's not an ideal situation, but that's where the desperate Flyers stand, down by two games to none to Pittsburgh in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinals heading into today's 3 p.m. game at the Wachovia Center.

Who's next? Who will sign up for the least secure job in the National Hockey League, a 30-team league in which 33 coaches have been fired in the last 3 1/2 seasons? The Flyers, heavy contributors to that amazing number of pink slips, yesterday escorted Bill Barber to the exit door. Now, Bob Clarke, who received a firm vote of confidence from team chairman Ed Snider as they sat alongside each other during a news conference to announce Barber's firing, is in search of the Flyers' sixth coach since he returned as general manager eight years ago. Snider, who said he leaves such decisions to Clarke, made clear that he will take a more hands-on approach in finding the next coach.

In a dreary docking area outside the visitors' locker room at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill., on Saturday morning, Phantoms coach John Stevens was pedaling like mad on a stationary bike. He was sweating profusely, but going nowhere. On the other hand, his career is moving along nicely. With a two-games-to-none lead in the best-of-seven Calder Cup championship series, the Phantoms can toss another shovel of dirt on the Chicago Wolves in tonight's Game 3 at the Wachovia Center.