Bowness still looking for answers

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This article was published 30/03/2023 (899 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rick Bowness didn’t hold back when voicing his frustration following a loss to San Jose earlier this week. It included the Winnipeg Jets head coach calling out some of his players’ efforts and an eye roll over a question that involved Mark Scheifele that seemed to suggest the two weren’t on the same page.

The eye roll came after Bowness was presented two different versions — one from Scheifele, the other from defenceman Dylan DeMelo — on how to get out of the team’s collective scoring funk. DeMelo encouraged his teammates to continue to generate shots and drive the net, something Bowness has been preaching all season long, while Scheifele went a different direction, preferring quality over quantity when it comes to shooting the puck.

On Thursday, Bowness threw a blanket on the proverbial fire that inevitably broke out.

“That was more of a response to I didn’t like where that whole (question) was going. Listen, Mark is right and so is DeMelo. To clear up the shooting thing, all we’re telling our players is we get frustrated when there is a clear shot to the net, we have someone going to the net and we make the extra pass, it gets deflected, and nothing happens,” Bowness said. “I’m not talking about a guy standing still at the blue line, with no one in front of the net, and shooting the puck. That’s not what we’re talking about at all. It’s when we’re going on the rush and we do have someone driving the net, and we do have a clear shot, to take it. It’s those times when we don’t take the shot and we make that extra pass, that it gets deflected. That’s what we’re trying to improve on.”

That wasn’t the only part of Bowness’s post-game remarks that raised eyebrows. He also noted some players weren’t giving it their all on a consistent basis, a claim he doubled down on by adding if those players thought they were, that they were dreaming. It’s a comment that couldn’t be danced around, and the message it delivered to the room varies depending on who you ask.

“Just the accountability. That’s a personal thing. You want to have pride in your team, and I trust my teammates that they’re doing everything in their power to put themselves in a position to succeed, put our team in a position to succeed,” said Jets centre Adam Lowry. “That’s the trust. So, yeah, maybe (Bowness) doesn’t think that’s happening right now. I don’t think it’s an effort issue. Sometimes we’re just a little stubborn in how we play.”

Jets defenceman Brenden Dillon viewed the remarks from his coach as yet another attempt to try and motivate the players. The Jets have been a struggling group for some time, including a record of 13-17-2 since mid-January — a stretch that’s seen Winnipeg fall from near the top of the Central-Division standings to clawing for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

“It’s pretty black and white at this stage. We’ve kind of tried a couple of different approaches, from being nice and coddling and positive and we’ve also tried the hard-ass, yelling and screaming approach, too,” Dillon told the Free Press. “I think, basically, what he’s trying to say is at a certain point it’s got to be up to the player, that they want to decide, ‘Yeah, I do want to make playoffs. Yeah, I do want to help the team and do what I do best.’”

Scheifele was prevented from speaking to media after practice, in what was called a team decision. The 30-year-old did, however, have a new role during the workout, moving from centre to right wing, on a line with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Kyle Connor.

That would ultimately shuffle the entire forward groups, with Vladislav Namestnikov between Nikolaj Ehlers and Blake Wheeler; Lowry centring Nino Niederreiter and Mason Appleton on the third line; and the fourth line consisting of Kevin Stenlund in the middle of Saku Maenalanen and Morgan Barron.

“We’re just looking for some offence. They’re our top players, so we put them together,” Bowness said of Scheifele’s new line. “Listen, we need to score some goals. I talked to the three of them this morning and said let’s give this a try, and they’re all gung-ho for it. So, let’s see what it looks like.”

The Jets have scored just 12 goals in their last eight games, and have been shutout three times over that stretch.

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton