Bowness resigns as Jets head coach – Winnipeg Free Press

Rick Bowness rides off into the sunset.

Winnipeg's head coach is retiring, a week after the Jets were eliminated in five games from their first-round playoff matchup with the Colorado Avalanche.

Bowness, 69, a product of Moncton, NB, Nova Scotia, has spent parts of five decades in the NHL and has served in almost every role from player to head coach and in between.

He spent the last two seasons as a bench boss with the Jets and was nominated for the 2023-24 NHL Jack Adams Award along with Rick Tockett of the Vancouver Canucks and Andrew Brunette of the Nashville Predators.

“(My wife) Judy and I were ready to call it a day (two years ago), but if I was going to go back into coaching, I couldn't have picked a better place to come back and finish my education. career,” Bowness said at a news conference Monday afternoon.

“I regret not being able to take this team further. It's my biggest frustration and it's something I have to live with.”

Bowness said he decided his future as he walked off the ice after the Jets' season-ending loss.

“I didn't like it, I didn't like the way our team played, that's on me,” he said. “As I stood there and looked around, it hit me.

“The coaches always said to me, 'You know when it's time,' and that really resonated with me. “The time has come.”

Known for his passion for the game, Bowness has done a great job helping the Jets become a more structured team on defense, something that William M. It was one of the reasons why he won the Jennings Trophy. number of goals against (199).

The Jets also set the franchise record for wins in a season (52) and the franchise record for road wins (25) this season, with Bowness getting a nod as one of four head coaches selected to participate in the NHL All-Star Celebration. in Toronto.

Bowness helped the Jets move forward with a leadership transition, stripping Blake Wheeler of the captaincy shortly after hiring him and naming Adam Lowry captain last summer.

Bowness had tears in his eyes when he spoke to reporters last Thursday while the Jets were conducting exit interviews, especially when asked about how difficult last season was — when he was away from the Jets for a month to be with Judy. he suffered a seizure and later left the team for a few days to undergo a minor medical procedure.

“This game has given us the wonderful lifestyle we dreamed of as children. Still love it. There's still a passion for it,” Bowness said. “Listen, I tell the players: every day in this league is a blessing. This. We are treated very well. We are in the best league in the world. Never, ever take a day for granted in this league. I never have and never will. I love this game. It was my life.”

Bowness was vague about his future, but seemed like a man interested in returning to finish what he started.

“I know what I want to do. It will come out,” Bowness said. “We'll let you know.”

True to his word, Bowness and the organization brought his attention to the people on Monday morning.

“I think for him to get his first coaching job in the National Hockey League in Winnipeg and to come full circle and have the opportunity to go on the record that he's made, I think it's poetic,” general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff said.

“We asked (Rick and Judy) to put their lives on hold to come to Winnipeg to help give this group a different voice, a different path, a stronger structure, and … you're sitting around Rick and you're all these things. think about it every day.”

While the focus will be on making sure Bowness gets the right send-off, the Jets' coaching search will quickly become a major focus.

Will the Jets try to promote associate coach Scott Arniel, who has done a great job in Bowness's absence the past two seasons, or will they go through an extensive interview process?

Playoff success may have been achieved by Bowness in two seasons, as the Jets were swept by the Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights in five games.

But while Bowness shared the blame, the on-ice performance was nowhere near where it needed to be despite winning the series opener in each of those series.

“I will take full responsibility for the playoff game. I do. Our team did not play well. The standards I set for the team and myself, we just didn't meet that standard,” Bowness said last week.

“I take responsibility to prevent such a situation from happening again. I need to get more out of the players. It's my job to take those guys to the next level. Again, you learn, every game you can learn something from your players, you can learn something new about them. That's how we learned a lot about our players. It helps.”

While Bowness won't be behind the bench to help with the next step in the process, that knowledge will be valuable to Arniel or whoever becomes the head coach next fall.

Bowness first joined the Jets for the 1980-81 season, which was split between the NHL and the CHL's Tulsa Oilers.

He later became the head coach of the Sherbrooke Jets during the 1982-83 season.

Bowness was promoted to assistant coach with the Winnipeg Jets in 1984-85 and took over from Dan Maloney as head coach in 1989.

Bowness' 2,726 games as an NHL coach are the most in league history, and his lasting legacy is that he is loved by everyone in the game.

Although he never won a Stanley Cup, Bowness' parting gift is that he left the Jets organization in a better place than when he arrived.

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Ken Wiebe
Sports reporter

Growing up in the booming metropolis of Altona, Man., Ken Wiebe grew up wanting to play in the NHL, but after realizing his hands were better at typing than scoring goals, he turned his attention to covering his favorite sport as a writer.

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