Ron Francis: Mr. Consistency

Jeff Jacobs
Hartford Courant
November 13, 2007

TORONTO: One was the greatest leader in the history of his sport, if not all sports.

Another had the hardest shot.

The third was the most devastating open-ice hitter of all time.

And then there's Ronnie.

Ron Francis was, hmm, let's see here, give me a minute ... Ronnie was, ah, really, really consistent.

A Hockey Hall of Fame crest on his blazer and a Hall of Fame ring on his finger, Francis laughed softly Monday at the assessment of the Class of 2007. He wasn't offended, not one bit.

"Consistent?" Francis said. "It's the thing I'm most proud of."

His induction speech, words he had edited, condensed and agonized weeks over in fear of omitting a name and offending a soul, would come later in the night. Earlier Monday, with the portraits of the inducted in the Great Hall peering over one shoulder, Francis had ample time to peer over his other shoulder toward the three men who would join him in hockey immortality.

"Everybody knows Mark Messier's staredown," Francis said. "It was intimidating just walking into the faceoff circle against him. ... Al MacInnis shot it so hard, guys tried to flamingo out of the way. ... Scott Stevens, you know, it probably wouldn't have been such a big deal if I hadn't tried to get up and get back to the bench."

But he did, because Ronnie always got up. And when he tried to get back to the bench that night in the 2001 playoffs after one of Stevens' all-time hits, he stumbled around worse than a drunken sailor.

"I knew exactly where Scott was," Francis said. "The puck was coming up the boards, I turned to play it and it rolled the other way. I thought I had more time."

Lights out!

"Obviously, I didn't," Francis said.

Sixteen years removed from a trade that went a long way in destroying major league sports in our town, Ron Francis, 44, remains the greatest team athlete in Hartford history. Only Wayne Gretzky had more NHL assists than Francis. Only Gretzky, Messier and Gordie Howe had more points. He is third in games played. He hit 500 goals. He went on to win two Stanley Cups in Pittsburgh. He won three Lady Byngs for sportsmanship. He won a Selke as best defensive forward.

Everything about his career screams greatness and nothing about Ronnie screams at all.



That was the gentle irony at work on an overcast Canadian day when singularly dominant features were so much a part of the story. Messier could lead men through a burning building. MacInnis could knock that building down with his slap shot and Stevens could knock it over with his shoulder.

Ronnie? He'd ring the doorbell and politely ask if he could enter. But once he got into the building, nobody except Rick Ley, Richard Gordon and Eddie Johnston on March 4, 1991 ever wanted him to leave.

Francis was that conscientious on both ends of the ice. He is that conscientious off the ice.

"So unassuming," Messier said, "so underrated. One of the classiest."

Asked a few years back to compare Francis to another player, John Davidson thought and thought and finally said: "Old Man River." He kept rolling along. The statistic he is most proud of? Twenty-two consecutive seasons with at least 50 points. Only Howe can match it.

"When I got drafted, the comment was good player, but not sure he skates well enough to play at this level," Francis said. "Five years in, 10 years in, 20 years in, they were saying I'm not sure he skates well enough.

"If you look at my game, there wasn't one dimension you could point to. I didn't have a phenomenal shot or was a great hitter. But I was probably above average in a lot of areas."

Excellent faceoff man, strong on his skates with the puck, capable of nifty 6-foot passes around the net. ... Messier said he was always taken by Francis' on-ice vision. Larry Pleau, who drafted Francis in 1981, once said he had never seen a smarter player with or without the puck. Paul Maurice, who grew up admiring Francis in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and later coached him in Carolina, agreed. He said Francis went to places you didn't think he should be and voila the puck showed up there.

While those qualities can be difficult to quantify, they are qualities with clearly identifiable roots.

"At a very early age, my dad emphasized two things," Francis said. "If you stop a goal, it is just as important as scoring one, and if you set up a guy and he scores, that's just as important as scoring yourself. I played that way from an early age and it evolved."

His parents were there in the Montreal Forum in 1981 when Bobby Carpenter's dad pounded the Whalers' draft table in anger after the Washington Capitals pulled a last-minute trade and took his son.

"Hartford got me as the consolation prize," Francis said.

Before the days of satellite dishes, Ron Sr. was there on top of a hill in the Soo, positioning the car just right to pick up WTIC for Whalers games. And 26 years after Francis became Hartford's consolation prize, there were his parents and his brother, Ricky, watching him receive the greatest individual prize of all.

Francis never embarrassed his family, never embarrassed his wife, Mary Lou, a Connecticut girl. There may be more mature, more considerate major league athletes than Ron Francis. I just haven't met one.

"A lot of credit goes to Mom and Dad," Francis said. "You try to pay them back by the way you live your life."

So it was no surprise that family, friends and former teammates 80 in all arrived from the Soo, Hartford, Pittsburgh, Carolina and around Toronto for this day. Dave Keon, Francis' first roommate with the Whalers, showed up, and that struck a chord with Ron Sr., who had been a Maple Leafs fan many years ago.

"There was a cocktail reception here before the Hall of Fame Game Saturday night and walking into the room it really hit home what an elite group I've been invited to be part of," Ronnie said. "This has kind of been like having a wedding without the wedding.

"Ulf Samuelsson [an assistant coach with Phoenix] left me a long message about how upset he was. [The Coyotes] had a game in San Jose and he couldn't make it. He was screaming into the phone that the NHL should not have any games scheduled on this night. 'This is not right!'"

After Francis retired from Carolina in 2005, he got away from the game but then decided hockey is what he does best. He began work last season with the Hurricanes and when Jason Karmanos suddenly left, Francis accepted Jim Rutherford's offer to become assistant general manager. Yes, Ronnie ended up as management with the franchise that dumped him and the one that dumped Hartford.

Like we said, the story that landed Monday in the Hockey Hall Of Fame is full of gentle ironies ... and one constant.

On the plaque that will forever honor Ron Francis as part of the Hall's greatest class are these words: "The epitome of consistency."

Contact Jeff Jacobs

at jjacobs@courant.com.