Scheifele’s praise for Bowness suggests reasons for rift with Maurice

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/12/2022 (1057 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was back in February 2019 when then-Winnipeg Jets coach Paul Maurice described his star centre, Mark Scheifele, as “a-bronze-statue-in front-of-the-building kind of guy.”

High praise, indeed, rooted in a long-standing relationship between a beloved bench boss and the organization’s first-ever draft pick.

Fast forward to Tuesday with Maurice — in town for the first time in nearly a year — now at the helm of the Florida Panthers. Given multiple opportunities to say something — anything! — positive about his former mentor for the role he had in shaping the first decade of his career, Scheifele refused to take a swing at the softballs lobbed his way. Instead, he repeatedly went out of his way to praise Maurice’s replacement, Rick Bowness, and clearly took great pleasure that his two-goal performance played a big part in a 5-2 victory that seemed downright personal.

“I’m not going to lie, that was a good win in my books,” Scheifele began, before things really took a strange detour off the High Road.

“I’m pretty happy with that one. We’re a different team this year than we were last year. It’s been exciting for a lot of us. You see the rejuvenated faces in this room. (Bowness) has been on us each and every day, whether it’s a good game or a bad game, he’s always looking to help us. I think it’s been awesome for me, it’s been awesome for a lot of us, we’re being pushed and we’re being challenged to reach our full potential. That does a lot for our team.”

A spicy soundbite for sure. But one that also raises an all-important question: What happened behind the scenes between these two proud men, who both told me they haven’t spoken to each other since parting ways and had no plans to do so despite being under the same roof.

There will be some suggesting this somewhat petty, even petulant approach by Scheifele speaks poorly of his character. Without knowing every sordid detail of the full story, I’m reluctant to go that route and start pointing fingers.

However, it’s obvious things reached a breaking point last season, with the Jets underachieving, Scheifele’s uninspired play in his own end becoming a major sore point and Maurice seemingly at a loss for fresh ideas or solutions. It ultimately led to him essentially quitting on the team, declaring the need for a new voice.

Maurice was right. After parts of nine seasons, he’d clearly taken this group as far as it could go, and his message had grown stale. A stellar 16-7-1 start to the current campaign with arguably a less-talented roster under Bowness — which has the Jets ranked first in the Central Division, second in the Western Conference and fifth in the NHL based on win percentage — is ample proof that change was long overdue.

It’s fair to wonder — some might even suggest excruciating to ponder — what might have been had the organization not taken the bizarre approach of waiting for the coach to tell them when it was time, an approach you likely wouldn’t see in any other NHL market.

On the flipside, would Maurice still be running the show today if he hadn’t decided to fall on the sword?

Bowness, 67, has been a breath of fresh air. He’s brought structure and new systems, discipline and defensive awareness and accountability to a group that, for far too long, was allowed to do as it pleased without fear of real consequence.

And Scheifele would surely have been at the top of that list. Which makes his apparent resentment for Maurice seem so odd. After all, this was a coach who let him get away with so much, including extended shifts, half-hearted backchecking and careless mistakes.

Is it possible Scheifele, all along, was yearning for some tough love? A kick in the butt, rather than a pat on the back? Given how he answered the questions about Maurice this week, by instead rattling off all the things he appreciates about Bowness, that sure seems to be the case.

He and his teammates are getting it in spades with Bowness. Now, even when they win games, it’s not always going to be sunshine and rainbows. Look at the coach’s comments last Sunday, when an inexplicably slow start against the NHL’s worst team, the Anaheim Ducks, led to a 2-0 deficit, on the heels of an ugly outing 48 hours earlier in a 4-1 loss to the lowly Columbus Blue Jackets. Although they eventually got their act together and rallied to beat Anaheim 5-2, Bowness made it clear that kind of approach won’t cut it.

“It’s just not right to start a game like that,” a worked-up Bowness said in his post-game news conference. “I’m not a babysitter. These guys are men. They’re professionals and they’re paid to show up here and go to work. You cannot play this game without passion. Without emotion. You cannot play this game on your heels. And I hate when we’re on our heels. It’s not right.”

Bowness, it appears, is preaching to the choir and pushing all the right buttons so far.

Scheifele is off to a sizzling start, leading the Jets with 15 goals through 24 games. That has him on track to smash his career-high of 38, set during an ‘18-19 season that had Maurice basically summoning a sculptor to get to work. It’s his energized play on the other side of centre that is most newsworthy. A commitment to defending is a big reason the Jets have the fourth-lowest goals-against-average in the NHL, trailing only the Boston Bruins, New Jersey Devils and Toronto Maple Leafs in that category.

The timing couldn’t be better for the 29-year-old Scheifele, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2024. He’ll be looking for one big final contract, and it remains to be seen whether it comes from Winnipeg or one of the other 31 clubs around the league.

No doubt having a coach he clearly respects and enjoys playing for — something that, for whatever reason, was no longer the case with Maurice — likely helps the cause of the only NHL team Scheifele has known in that department.

They might build a statue of Scheifele one day around here. Thursday’s game in St. Louis will be the 700th of his career (regular-season and playoffs combined), and he’s put up 629 points (263 goals, 366 assists) in that span.

Based on everything we saw and heard this week, I wouldn’t hold my breath on Maurice attending the ceremony.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg