Blunt Bowness gets pushback

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This article was published 29/04/2023 (862 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They went out quickly and quietly on the ice. But the Winnipeg Jets are now making plenty of noise off of it, with coach Rick Bowness and many of his core players engaging in a public game of finger-pointing following a pitiful playoff performance.

Sure, the season may be over. But it appears the soap opera surrounding the underachieving squad is only just starting. If what went down Saturday is any indication, it’s going to be a long, hot summer around here.

The first episode of “As the Jets’ World Turns” actually played out Thursday night in Vegas, moments after the club was eliminated in five games following a lacklustre 4-1 loss to the Golden Knights. Bowness blasted his troops, saying he was “disappointed and disgusted” with the effort.

“It’s the same crap we saw in February,” Bowness began. “As soon as we were challenging for first place and teams were coming after us, we had no pushback. This series, we had no pushback. Their better players were so much better than ours, it wasn’t even close.”

Naturally, those comments were put to the players as they met the media on Saturday for what is commonly referred to in hockey circles as “garbage bag day.” They clean out their lockers, have exit meetings with coaches and management, then face the cameras and microphones one final time before heading home.

Bowness, who was brought in before the start of the year to provide some much-needed accountability, discipline and structure, had clearly struck a raw nerve.

“I didn’t agree with how he handled himself after that game,” said former captain Blake Wheeler, who was the first at the podium.

“I thought that Rick had an opportunity to address us as a team… now we have to answer that question, right? I think he could have been honest with us. We could have had those discussions behind closed doors.”

Wheeler admitted the season-ending performance “wasn’t up to a standard that we would have liked” but believes Bowness crossed a line.

“It wasn’t like we didn’t know he wasn’t happy with how we played. Because we weren’t happy with how we were playing, either,” he said. “I believe that we can all be upset and pissed off at each other, but let’s do it face-to-face. You guys (the media) don’t need to be involved in that.”

Several other key players including alternate captains Josh Morrissey, Adam Lowry and Mark Scheifele, along with Kyle Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers and Pierre-Luc Dubois, took a similar stance.

“We would have wished that maybe Rick would have come to us and just told us how he felt rather than kind of going into the media and saying those things,” said Lowry.

“Especially if that’s the way he’s felt since February, I think we could’ve had some conversations and maybe try to make some changes. I don’t think our group didn’t have any pushback. I don’t think the comments were necessarily how we feel our team is.”

Morrissey noted how the Jets rallied from a three-goal deficit in the third period of Game 3 last Saturday to ultimately force overtime before going to suffer a hard-luck loss.

“Personally, didn’t necessarily agree with what he was saying,” he said.

Morrissey was knocked out of the series with a knee injury in the opening minutes of that game, Scheifele suffered a similar fate early in Game 4, and Ehlers didn’t play until Game 5.

“I guess the issue that I have with it, is it was just kind of coming out of nowhere,” said Connor.

“If that’s really how he felt … he came out of the locker room after the game and said a little something to us and then he said what he said to the media. Maybe a little more transparency before that.”

It’s unusual, of course, to have this kind of sparring happening between players and coach. For that reason alone, the Jets were making headlines around the hockey world on Saturday, with many pointing to this as just the latest example of dysfunction which has plagued the organization ever since the magical run to the 2018 Western Conference Final.

“It is a little frustrating to hear that,” said Ehlers.

“It wasn’t like we were trying to play bad and not trying for each other. We want to win hockey games and we weren’t able to do that in that stretch and we weren’t able to do that in the playoffs. I still think that we have a pretty tight group in there and we did our best. Obviously, we do have to be better, but we worked for each other, and none of us wanted to be on vacation now.”

Bowness, it should be noted, was not scheduled to speak with the media on Saturday. But plans changed once it became clear more fuel was being added to the fire.

While the Jets coach admitted to having his emotions get the best of him, adding that he regretted using the word “disgust,” he stood behind the rest of his comments.

“I will never accept that kind of an effort in a game like that. You can criticize me for the choice of words, that’s fine. But never will I accept a game like that,” Bowness said. “The hidden message, more or less, is that I never want them to be satisfied. ‘OK, we made the playoffs. We got to Round 1.’ I never want them to be satisfied with that. And there’s a third message that I won’t certainly be sharing with you guys.”

Some would argue Bowness was simply being honest, and that the truth can sometimes hurt. Unlike his predecessor in Paul Maurice, who used to habitually downplay the Jets lacklustre efforts and rarely, if never, dish out public criticism, Bowness just doesn’t operate that way.

“I can’t do that. That’s not me,” he said. “You guys are all knowledgeable hockey people. I’m not going to go in there and say, ‘Oh, we just missed this or we fought.’ I’m not going to say that. We had a bad game. It wasn’t a good enough effort from most of the team. That’s a fact. I can’t hide from that, nor will I sugarcoat it.”

Bowness was fine with players disagreeing with his approach, even viewing their disappointment as a positive, noting no one should like to be criticized. And though his comments after Game 5 clearly indicated a frustration that had been looming for months, he ultimately felt his team took strides both on and off the ice despite an early exit from the postseason.

“Because, listen, we had a great year,” Bowness said. “We had to change the culture. We did. It’s a great culture in there right now. We had to make the playoffs. We did. Those were the goals. Don’t lose sight of those. What they brought our coaching staff in (for), we accomplished. So, we’re not going to lose all that because of a really bad game in Game 5 when you needed the most.”

Though there are certainly lessons to be taken from the fallout of his comments, Bowness doesn’t plan to alter his approach. Or at least not his delivery.

“I’m going to coach the way I want to coach,” he said. “There’s uncomfortable conversations you have and people don’t want to hear those things and I get it. I understand that. But it’s important to me as the coach to be honest and to be blunt and to be up front so there is no grey area. I don’t expect them to like what they hear. But they’re going to hear it if that’s how I feel. And if I feel that I have to share my feelings and get everything on the table, they’re going to hear it.”

Bowness signed a two-year contract last summer and shook off any suggestion he might pack it in early following the roller-coaster ride of this season, which included battling COVID-19 and related health issues.

So is this back-and-forth with his players going to result in some burned bridges needing to be repaired? That remains to be seen.

“We’ll have talks with Rick, we’ll see exactly where he’s coming from, where he’s at with those comments and go from there,” said Lowry.

“People make mistakes,” added Connor. “I just see an emotional guy that wants to win. Maybe he said the wrong thing, maybe he didn’t, but we’ll have conversations about it, we’ll talk about it, and hopefully we can just build on that.”

Dubois, who faces an uncertain future with the Jets, had the final say on the matter,

“I have no problem with the coach saying what he wants to say, we’re all entitled to our opinions. I would have just loved to hear it face to face and not through you guys after the game,” he said. “But everybody’s entitled to their opinion. You don’t have to agree with it. He can come up and say whatever he wants.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton