Age has its privileges, something Rick Bowness is fondly enjoying in the overtime of his coaching career.<\/p>\n
At 71 and by his count twice retired, Bowness hasn\u2019t lost the urgency to win in his latest interim job coaching the Columbus Blue Jackets. What he has also instead is that he is freed from the anxieties and fear of losing with Columbus in the thick of a tight race for the Eastern Conference\u2019s final playoff spots entering the last week of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m probably more relaxed now,\u201d Bowness said on Thursday, before a 5-0 loss at Buffalo.<\/p>\n
Relaxed is a word Bowness would not have previously contemplated using upon reflecting on the early days of a career that\u2019s spanned five decades and eight teams, including both iterations of the Winnipeg Jets.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt 41, you\u2019re worried about your career. You\u2019re worried about your next job and everything,\u201d Bowness said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I\u2019m not, right? And I had the same thing in Dallas,\u201d he added, referring to his previous stint as the Stars interim coach. \u201cI\u2019m not worried about extending my career. Man, I\u2019m good. So we\u2019re just going to enjoy every day we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Call it bonus time. Or, perhaps, \u201cBowness Time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Transforming the Blue Jackets<\/p>\n
Lured out of retirement to breathe life into the under-performing Blue Jackets in January by replacing Dean Evason, Bowness had nothing to lose in trying to push Columbus back into contention.<\/p>\n
Under Bowness, the Blue Jackets have gone 20-9-5 to jump from being tied for last in the East standings to sitting two points out of third in the Metropolitan Division with three games remaining. His upbeat approach hasn\u2019t wavered amid the Blue Jackets\u2019 sudden 2-7-1 skid.<\/p>\n
Asked what it will take for forward Kirill Marchenko to regain his scoring touch, Bowness said: \u201cI\u2019d like to see him smile a little bit more, loosen up.\u201d<\/p>\n
And he focused solely on the positives following the loss to Buffalo in a game the Blue Jackets outshot the Sabres, 37-24.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat second period was one of the best periods we played all year. And we came out of it with nothing to show for it,\u201d he said, before looking ahead to the next game at Montreal. \u201cIf we play like that again on Saturday, we\u2019ll be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Blue Jackets have bought in, crediting Bowness for his experience, clear messaging and steady approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe gives us confidence the way he backs us. And you want to play for a guy like that. And we want to do well for him, honestly,\u201d forward Charlie Coyle said. \u201cIt\u2019s what we needed and it\u2019s what he brought. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s any fluke that we started playing well.\u201d<\/p>\n
A journeyman player and coach<\/p>\n
Bowness was a journeyman player who split six NHL seasons across four teams before turning to coaching in a career that\u2019s spanned North America, from an AHL stint in his hometown of Moncton, New Brunswick, to stops with the Islanders, Phoenix and Vancouver.<\/p>\n
He was the first coach of the Ottawa Senators, a franchise that struggled in its infancy, and was fired following a three-plus-year tenure. Success didn\u2019t help Bowness in his first and only season in Boston, where he oversaw an injury-depleted team that reached the 1992 East final, only to be fired and replaced by Brian Sutter.<\/p>\n
His career numbers are relatively modest, with a regular-season record of 330-417-42 and 48 ties, and 28-31 in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Some of Bowness\u2019 most memorable highlights came with Dallas during the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season, upon taking over as interim coach after Jim Montgomery was fired for unprofessional conduct. The Stars finished fifth in the West but turned it on to reach the Stanley Cup Final before losing to Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n
Bowness was rewarded by being hired as the Stars’ full-time coach before stepping down after his two-year contract expired. He spent the next two seasons in Winnipeg before announcing his retirement, citing health and family reasons.<\/p>\n
Bowness said he\u2019s retired twice, though he didn\u2019t specify the first time.<\/p>\n
Still lured to coaching<\/p>\n
And yet, the chance for one more comeback was difficult to pass up when Columbus called.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just love it. That\u2019s why I came back,\u201d Bowness said in January. \u201cThe one thing I missed was the interaction with the players. I loved that part of coaching.\u201d<\/p>\n
He had the same answer in Buffalo this week, especially with Columbus in the playoff mix.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love being in these races. What better time of year to be playing,\u201d Bowness said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s enough teams in our league that aren\u2019t playing meaningful games, right? We are,\u201d he added. \u201cEvery day in this league is a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Age has its privileges, something Rick Bowness is fondly enjoying in the overtime of his coaching career. At…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5108],"tags":[3644,5180,897,230,5179,5,4,1105],"class_list":{"0":"post-549740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-columbus-blue-jackets","8":"tag-blue-jackets","9":"tag-bluejackets","10":"tag-columbus","11":"tag-columbus-blue-jackets","12":"tag-columbusbluejackets","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116381945468639297","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}