The easy smile, the jovial demeanor, and the cropped moustache are more reminiscent of Captain Kangaroo than they are of Toe Blake. Back in British Columbia 15 years ago, when Hitchcock weighed more than 450 pounds, it was hard to imagine him doing much of anything. But he was coaching WHL junior hockey in Kamloops, and he did quite a job of it. In six years with the Kamloops Blazers, Hitch was 291-125-15. But to keep winning -- not to mention breathing -- Hitchcock was going to have to lose a little. His doctor told him that if he didn't drop some weight, he'd be dead in six months.

	Ken Hitchcock is lean, mean and ready to win a cup.

So he started exercising. Put himself on Nutri-System. And by the time Flyers GM Russ Farwell called and offered him a job as an assistant in 1990, Hitchcock was down to 300 pounds. He stayed three years before he was hired by the Stars to coach the IHL Kalamazoo Wings. He was told by an NHL official that players wouldn't take him seriously because of his size, and it got back to him that the Flyers would never make him a head coach if he didn't lose some weight. It was the desire to be a better coach that motivated him to continue his diet.

"I had to feel better and look better," said Hitchcock. "I knew if I was going to get to another level, presentation was going to be a problem." He was 110-60-32 in Kalamazoo, and in January 1996, Stars GM Bob Gainey gave Hitchcock his chance with the big club: he was finally an NHL head coach. He was also 220 pounds -- he had lost half a Hitch.

Hitchcock, 50, fell into coaching by accident. He was working for United Cycle, a sporting goods store in Edmonton. He had aspirations of becoming a professional golfer. Some kids in his neighborhood were playing on the midget team (think little league hockey) in Sherwood Park, and their coach quit with 15 games left in the season. They talked Hitch (who wasn't much older than they were) into filling in behind the bench. "The first speech I made, they died laughing," says Hitchcock.

Maybe at first -- but then they listened. In 10 years, Hitchcock won 575 games and lost just 69, and won a midget national championship.

He still coaches in much the same way. Hitchcock preaches team defense, hard work and sacrifice, and he hammers his messages home with some unorthodox parallels. He shows his team motivational clips from Civil War movies on leadership, fellowship and discipline.

During Hitchcock's first stint in Philly, he visited the battlefield at Gettysburg. He stumbled on a roundtable discussion on the epic battle and listened, a Canadian visitor mesmerized by the strategy and tactics of the war. "The undying support and loyalty of the troops is what I find so impressive. How those generals could get their people to do the things they did is remarkable. Everyone knew the first two waves were going to die, and yet they still rolled up those hills. That part of the Civil War fascinates me."

Hitchcock has played the part of a Union soldier in Civil War re-enactments at Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and Bull Run, but he reveres Confederate General Robert E. Lee. "He was the first to fight and win defensive warfare, the first to have a totally mobile army. He always found a way to fight the battle on his terms," says Hitchcock. "Lee was a quiet leader. The men thought they were doing everything themselves, but Lee was giving them all the direction."

Once again, Hitchcock is camped out in Philadelphia, still svelte after all these years. Physically, he may be a shadow of the man he was behind their bench 10 years ago. Professionally, he is twice the coach. He has never had a losing season at any level of hockey. In Dallas, he won five straight division titles and was a finalist for NHL coach of the year three times. He won the Stanley Cup in 1999. Now, Flyers GM Bob Clarke is relying on Hitchcock to bring hockey's Grail back to Philly for the first time in 27 years.

"Getting players to do exactly what they don't want to do and love it is the key to winning," says Hitchcock.

Spoken like a true general.

E-mail Lindsay Berra at lindsay.berra@espn3.com.