Sports

SHERO, BURNS WORTHY OF INDUCTION

BOSTON — The Hockey Hall of Fame announced new voting procedures beginning with 2010 that will allow the process to be less restrictive and more inclusive, specifically as it relates to female candidates. It’s a welcome change.

But this is the year for the 18-member panel of voters to remedy what in my mind its most glaring omission to date and one that cannot be defended.

This is the year for the committee to elect Fred Shero, the coach who only helped revolutionize the game during the ’70s on Broad Street, to the Hall of Fame.

This is also the year for the committee to honor the great Pat Burns with election and induction in November so he can receive his plaque and enjoy the tribute he so richly and unambiguously deserves.

The absence of Shero, a pioneer who studied systems in the Soviet Union well before it became vogue and was the first to add an assistant coach to his staff and behind the bench, must be the result of a vendetta. There is no other way to explain it.

Shero, who guided the Flyers to the Stanley Cup in 1974 in their seventh season of existence by defeating the Original Six Rangers in the semifinals and the Original Six Bruins in the Finals, and then defended the title the following year, is the only NHL coach of the modern era to have won consecutive Cups who is not in the Hall of Fame.

And though scores of NHL fans recoiled in horror at the tactics employed by Shero’s Broad Street Bullies, critics and nose-holders were few and far between when the Flyers employed those methods to literally run the Red Army off the Spectrum ice in that famous 4-1 Philadelphia victory on Jan. 11, 1976.

Shero and the Flyers were the toast of the NHL that day, you better believe they were, with honor that day in the eye of the North American beholder. Shero — and Shero’s memory — should be the toast of the NHL at the Hall of Fame this year.

And Burns should be as well. Understand, this is not a plea for a sympathy vote. It is, however, a call for the committee to recognize greatness behind the bench at an opportune time for everyone. And, make no mistake, Burns represents greatness.

He was coach of the year with Montreal, Toronto and Boston, the first three NHL teams that he coached. He did not win the award with the Devils, his fourth and final team. In New Jersey, he only won the Stanley Cup, using a touch of brilliance to guide the weakest of New Jersey’s hat trick of championship squads to the 2003 crown.

He took the Canadiens to the Cup Finals in 1989, his first year as an NHL head coach. He moved to Toronto — the equivalent of a baseball manager going from the Yankees to the Red Sox — and guided the Maple Leafs to consecutive conference finals.

Burns won 501 regular-season games. His teams won 78 playoff games, seventh most ever, and 14 playoff series. He was a towering presence behind the bench, respected by everyone in the game, a coach who made his players and his teams better and who has character we all would aspire to match.

I do not believe in a lowest-common-denominator Hall of Fame, but if Bob Johnson is a Hall of Fame coach, and if Roger Neilson is a Hall of Fame coach — and both are — then Pat Burns is a Hall of Fame coach and so, it should go without having to say, is Fred Shero.

And this is the year for both to receive their due recognition.

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The Devils and Martin Brodeur packed so much emotion into the run to 552 that a letdown was inevitable from both the player and the team. We have seen it before — that’s the advantage of being old — when Mike Bossy was on his quest to duplicate Maurice Richard‘s 50-in-50.

When Bossy got his 50-in-50 by scoring twice late in the third period against Quebec on Jan. 24, 1981, the Islanders had won six straight. They immediately went into a 2-6-2 tailspin. And they were defending Cup champions on their way to three more.

Meanwhile, 2006 Entry Draft: Devils trade 25th pick to St. Louis for the 30th and 77th picks. Devils choose Matthew Corrente 30th and Vladimir Zharkov 77th. Blues choose Patrik Berglund 25th. Meanwhile, 2005 Entry Draft: With 24th choice, Devils select Nicklas Bergfors. With next pick, Blues select T.J. Oshie. Scouting director David Conte, explain please.

Tim Thomas, who signed a four-year, $20 million extension with the Bruins yesterday, will be considered on over-35 contract even though he doesn’t turn 35 until April 15. For contract purposes, the player’s age is calculated on the June 30 before the season the deal goes into effect.

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Meanwhile, the Blues’ John Davidson might want to send a belated thank you to Vancouver GM Mike Gillis for the Canucks’ three-year, $7.5M offer sheet to David Backes that St. Louis matched. Because Backes would have commanded far, far more had he come up this summer or next.

Finally, there is no better hockey show than Hockey Night in Canada’s “After Hours with Ron McLean and Kelly Hrudey,” the latter of whom is the hidden gem — hidden south of the border, that is — whose presence would elevate dramatically the shockingly inferior NBC and Versus telecasts.

larry.brooks@nypost.com