Bowness points fly from frustrated, fired-up Jets coach

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This article was published 27/02/2023 (923 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rick Bowness looked and sounded like someone who’s had just about enough of his group’s inconsistent and, at times, completely uninspired play. And the Winnipeg Jets head coach carried that passion over from practice to the podium on Monday in an eyebrow-raising media availability.

Bowness, 68, was more vocal than ever, both in constantly shouting at his players to “get moving” during a 50-minute skate at Canada Life Centre, and then when standing in the Matt Frost media centre taking questions about a team that has lost five of the last six games, including two straight no-shows on home ice this past weekend (a 5-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Friday, and a 4-0 defeat to the New York Islanders on Sunday).

“There’s days where you let your assistants run the drills and there’s days when the only voice they should hear is the head coach’s voice. (Monday) is one of those days,” Bowness said of taking charge of the on-ice workout ahead of Tuesday’s clash with the Los Angeles Kings.

“Just the coach getting pissed off and making sure his voice is going to be heard.”

Bowness was asked if he’s concerned the Jets, who were flying high just a few weeks ago, are no longer rising to the challenges he has made of them. They have fallen to a wild-card spot (seventh in the Western Conference in points, eighth in point percentage) with only a five-point cushion over the ninth-place Calgary Flames, who are below the playoff line. Both teams have 22 games left.

“Yes,” he replied, before expanding further.

“There’s been times that we have and times that we haven’t. Trust me, we’re going to keep pushing. We’re not backing off, from our end. They better get used to it. There’s no chance we’re backing off. Certainly not at this time of the year. No. They better get used to it.”

And what about accountability, something that was preached from the start of training camp as a foundation of this group? They even put it in writing, in a player-driven mission statement that hangs in the locker room and was signed by everyone. Has that started to slip recently?

“It has a little bit, yeah. We kind of talked about that this morning. But enough talking about those things,” said Bowness.

And that’s where things really took an interesting turn.

“The accountability, probably, would be behind closed doors now. There’s been moves we’d like to make, that I would like we try and make, but we can’t… 23-man roster and everything else,” said Bowness.

That would appear to be aimed in the direction of general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff. The Jets can’t send anyone down off the current roster without exposing them to waivers, having already lost forward Michael Eyssimont and defenceman Johnathan Kovacevic that way this season. That perceived lack of roster flexibility is perhaps hampering attempts to bring up some red-hot players from the farm, such as forwards Jansen Harkins and Kristian Reichel, and/or defencemen Ville Heinola and Declan Chisholm, for example.

Winnipeg has scored just 33 goals in the last 16 games and could certainly use a spark of any kind right now. Perhaps it will come in the form of forward Nino Niederreiter, who was obtained from the Nashville Predators on Saturday in exchange for a second-round draft pick. It remains to be seen whether Cheveldayoff makes any other moves prior to Friday’s deadline.

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” forward Nikolaj Ehlers said when asked why the offensive well has gone so dry. “Yeah, we want to move the puck faster. We want to hit the net a little more. And all of that starts at practice. So, you get into that mindset that helps you improve your game. We’re confident in our group. At the end of the day, you want to be in the playoffs. If it’s first, it’s great. If it’s eighth, it’s great. We want to finish off on the right note. And that starts (Tuesday).”

Bowness said regardless of what the roster looks like, the answers to his team’s issues are already present. And he stressed that during a a team meeting, and in individual chats he had with certain players prior to hitting the ice.

“We’ve got to hold them more accountable like we did (Monday) morning,” Bowness said. “Just as important is that they have to hold each other accountable. You can’t say you want to be held accountable but not me, make them accountable, right? It doesn’t work that way. So everyone has to be held accountable. When we’re holding them all accountable there’s no, we’re not picking and choosing guys. If you need to get a blast, you’re going to get a blast.”

Bowness, never one to pull his punches, admits he may have done that a bit after Sunday’s stinker, in which the Jets were outshot 12-1 by the Islanders in the opening period and were repeatedly jeered and booed by their own frustrated fans. After the game, he tried to dress it up as a decent effort, something he walked back on Monday.

“I toned it down (Sunday) night. I was heated up and didn’t want to come in and say the (wrong) thing. I don’t need the media to motivate these guys, let’s put it that way,” he said.

Bowness said nothing about expectations or even systems has changed for the Jets this year. Rather, effort and execution have been waning, at times.

“Clearly, we’re a little off now and we’re going to get it back on track,” he said.

“Again, that team wants to win. I know we’re not playing well. We get that. There’s only one way out of it and that’s giving more effort. Start giving second effort. It’s one thing to work hard to get there, it’s what you do when you get there, right? I’ve said this before. We know who we are, we know what we look like. It’s a matter of doing it consistently. We’ve gotten away from that. We’re not reconfiguring how we play, we just have to get more committed to doing it and more committed to doing it with a more competitive attitude.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg