Bowness honour long time coming

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This article was published 15/01/2024 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rick Bowness often refers to the Winnipeg Jets as one big family. Those tight-knit bonds were on display once again when news he’s heading to his first NHL All-Star game became official this past weekend.

“The group had a chance to tell him that he was going. He didn’t know it was coming. We had a meeting and put it up on the screen so he found out,” associate coach Scott Arniel revealed Monday.

“I’m sure he could have done the math, too, and recognized where he was but it was good that the players were all there when he was recognized. That was a nice moment. And he’s earned this. Not just this year. He’s earned this over his career.”

Bowness, who turns 69 later this month and has been in the NHL in some fashion as either a player or coach for 50 years, will be the Central Division representative with his 28-10-4 club currently owning the best winning percentage.

“Great for him. Great honour for him. We’ve got to tip our hats to the players there, all the things that they’ve done and how they’ve played to be where we are in the standings is awesome,” said Arniel.

“And for him, it’s a great reward for a guy who’s been around the league for this long and I know he’s excited to go.”

Bowness wasn’t around Monday to soak up the praise in person, as his wife, Judy, was having shoulder surgery for an injury she suffered back in October following a seizure.

“She’s doing great, everything’s really looking positive so he’ll be back (Tuesday),” said Arniel.

Bowness ended up taking a 13-game leave of absence to be by her side, with Arniel and the rest of the staff holding down the fort. Winnipeg went 9-2-2 in that span.

“There’s been a lot of things that have kind of been obstacles at times and he’s handled them tremendously,” said Arniel.

“He’s been a really good mentor for me and just for us as coaching staff, he gives us so much room to work and to do what he needs to do. It’s great for him and great for his family to be there.”

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The Jets were planning to hold a team-building exercise later this week, with a pop-up outdoor practice tentatively scheduled for Wednesday afternoon at Camp Manitou.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other ideas, as this bone-chilling cold snap will keep them indoors.

Jets defenceman Nate Schmidt is embracing a full-blown prairie winter, as the Minnesota product had teammates and fans in stitches Saturday when he showed up to the game wearing yellow garbage mitts along with his dress jacket and suit.

“I’ve had those since I was in high school. Made their way back out of the closet when I came up to Winnipeg. Hey, they’re awesome. They’re a well-oiled machine. I love them,” said Schmidt, who visited with former NHLer (and Winnipeg product) Cody Eakin on Sunday.

“I wore them when I went over to his place. He looked at me and said, ‘You look like you’re from here.’ I love it. This is how I dress.”

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It’s not exactly golf weather right now, but Jets defenceman Dylan Samberg was thinking green on Monday.

The 24-year-old will be teeing it up with the pros this summer as the latest member of the NHL squad to receive a sponsor’s exemption to play in the Manitoba Open, a stop on the PGA Tour Americas Fortinet Cup tour.

“His golf game’s great,” was Schmidt’s scouting report about his blue-line partner and fellow Minnesotan.

“It p—-ed me off because he can play with any clubs. You can give him a pair of left-handed regular shaft or one that’s bent the wrong way and he’ll flip it over and hit it. He’s a carny. It’s frustrating because he just started playing left-handed like four years ago and he’s already better than me. He’s a righty for the first however long of his career and here he is?”

Samberg said the switch happened during his childhood when he realized he could swing it a lot better from the left.

“I started out right-handed and I just thought I was terrible,” he said. “But I was lefty at everything else and then I tried a left-handed club and my parents got me a set and it worked from there on.”

The tournament is slated for Aug. 22-25 at Southwood, where Samberg is a member. Mark Scheifele played in the event in 2018 and 2022, while Kyle Connor competed in 2019 and Morgan Barron played last summer.

“Hopefully, I can go out there and compete. I haven’t really played a lot recently, so it’s tough to assess, but I’m going to try to get some new golf clubs this summer and go from there,” he said.

Schmidt made Samberg a standing offer Monday as the two traded verbal shots in the dressing room.

“Hey, do you need a caddy? I’d love to be your caddy,” he said. “The only problem is we wouldn’t be talking about golf.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg