“Life-changing moments” bring Jets' Rick Bowness to the end of the line

Content of the article

The reason Rick Bowness is retiring after 38 seasons in the NHL is because he cried during his farewell press conference on Monday.

Content of the article

It wasn't the result of a hockey game or a playoff series.

Content of the article

What he didn't realize was that he had ripped everything he could out of the Winnipeg Jets, and there was nothing left to gain.

It certainly wasn't a loss of passion for the game.

For the first time in her life, the reason Bowness wanted to be at her Nova Scotia lakeside home after the summer months was to sit in the back room.

It was his wife, Judy.

Bowness stopped mid-sentence on Monday, emotion stealing her breath and tears welling up in her eyes.

“It's your fault,” he said, looking at his 53-year-old partner.

Starting at age 16, Bowness had “life-changing moments” during the couple's two years on the bench in Winnipeg.

There was a severe case of COVID that took down the coach on June 1, and the side effects lingered.

Content of the article

Content of the article

Last season, his wife suffered a midnight seizure that brought their world to a halt.

Another medical procedure has ruled the coach out of his squad once again, while other health issues are still being dealt with.

More than just getting high, it's something that gives a person pause.

Bowness decided to call it a career two summers ago when Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff called during a golf game and finally changed his mind.

The coach made this final decision right after the playoffs.

“Honestly, walking off the ice,” he said. “I didn't like myself, I didn't like the game of our team, it's on me. So I'm not happy with myself, I'm not happy that we lost, it bothered me.

Content of the article

“As I stood there and looked around, it hit me. That's when it hit me. The time has come.”

Former coaches told him he always knew something to remember.

Minutes later, after his 2,726th exit, more than anyone in NHL history, he held back tears as he addressed his players one last time.

“It looked like he was leaning like that,” Capt. Adam Laurie recalled.

After the postgame media session that night, Bouse returned to the coaches' office and released him.

“I'm done,” he told them. “I'm done. I am going to retire. They all looked at me and said, “Are you sure? Want to spend some time on this?

Associate trainer Scott Arniel says his boss “caught us all off guard.”

Content of the article

“I knew health was an important part of his decision,” Arniel said. “But…it was still hard to hear him.”

Leaving must also be difficult.

Especially after getting closer to the final goal, he will taste it three times.

Bowness has reached the Stanley Cup Finals with three different teams, most recently as head coach in Dallas (2020) and as an assistant in Tampa Bay (2015) and Vancouver (2011).

He missed the last run for the Jets job.

But experience also puts this into perspective.

“As you get older, you hope to impact your players' lives on the ice, off the ice,” Bowness said. “It's become more important to me in the last 10 years.”

Although Bowness didn't drink champagne from the Stanley Cup, when her son Ryan, the 2017 Pittsburgh Penguins champion, brought her to Nova Scotia for a day, she spooned some of Judy's Celery Pork from it.

Content of the article

“He's been through the whole trip,” Bowness said.

Back in minor hockey, the attraction traveled to 14 different cities in 12 seasons as a player, with another 12 stops as a coach, two of which were in Winnipeg.

“Hockey is something we know as a family,” Bowness said. “We'd run into people at home in the summer and say, 'How do you do that?' But this is the only life our children will ever know. “Dad plays, Dad coaches, we're moving again.” It was a normal life for them.”

What are the odds that a 38-year career will start and end in the same place after all that wrapping and wrapping, pulling stakes, hammering them back in there?

“I couldn't have picked a better place to come back and finish my career.”

Content of the article

Somehow Bowness saved his best for last.

His 52 wins this season were a career high. For the first time, he was a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's Coach of the Year.

His record in two seasons with the Jets, 98-57-9, is far better than his career winning percentage of .439.

None of those numbers do justice to the people who touched his life, the people he made lifelong friends with.

“Today I'm hearing from the guys you played with and the people you coached from all over the world,” the 69-year-old said. “People don't understand what we're going through. But we all understand what we're going through.”

One understood more than the others.

The one who waved a Jets towel in the stands last Tuesday and cheered on her husband and his team as they walked off the ice for the last time.

Have a healthy and happy retirement, coach.

[email protected]

X: @friesensunmedia

Content of the article