Forty years behind the bench

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This article was published 08/12/2022 (1006 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. LOUIS — Rick Bowness has coached in more NHL games than any other individual in the league’s 105-year history.

It’s an impressive resume that includes 2,568 NHL games across 37 seasons. Over that span of nearly four decades, his tenure in the big leagues is split between 13 seasons as a head coach and 24 as an associate or assistant coach.

Before Bowness ever made it to the NHL, though, like most promising prospective coaches, he got his first shot in the American Hockey League. What makes his journey so extraordinary is not where he got started, but how: as a player-coach with the Sherbrooke Jets during the 1982-83 AHL season.

Thursday marked the 40-year anniversary to the day that Bowness was officially made head coach of Sherbrooke. The Quebec-based outfit had joined the AHL as an expansion team that season and acted as the feeder system to the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets — the club Bowness is currently running.

“What happened was I was named player-coach in training camp. It was supposed to be on an interim basis, because Ron Racette had been hired in July and then he had a brain tumour,” Bowness, 67, told the Free Press following Thursday’s morning skate, ahead of the Jets road game against the St. Louis Blues. “They were hoping he could come back by December. Well, we got to December and he wasn’t healthy enough to come behind the bench. I guess that was the day that they officially named me the official head coach and I finished the season as player-coach.”

Bowness played in 65 of 80 games that year, registering 17 goals and 31 assists for 48 points. He played mostly on a line with Ron Wilson, who led the team with 85 points (30G,55A), and Tim Trimper.

At the time, Bowness was nearing the end of his playing days, a career that began with the Atlanta Flames in 1975-76, with additional stops in Detroit, St. Louis and Winnipeg. In total, Bowness played in 173 NHL games, registering 18 goals and 37 assists, along with several more in the AHL and CHL, including stints in Nova Scotia, Tulsa and Salt Lake, before joining Sherbrooke.

Bowness said he always had an interest in coaching. In fact, by the time he arrived in Sherbrooke, he had already started to make moves in that direction, beginning with a chat with then-Winnipeg Jets general manager John Ferguson Sr.

“I was still paid as a player, but there was a clause in my contract that when I quit playing, they would help me get into the coaching,” Bowness said. “This just came a lot quicker than either wanted.”

Former Jets 1.0 forward Larry Hopkins, now 68 and living in Tulsa, Okla., is likely best known to old-time fans as the occasional left-winger of the Jets’ top line in ’81-82 with centre Dale Hawerchuk and right-winger Paul MacLean. He spent most of the ’82-83 campaign in Sherbrooke, giving him a front-row seat as Bowness wore two helmets, as it were, for Winnipeg’s AHL affiliate.

“I can’t believe it’s been 40 years,” said Hopkins. “He had some assistants helping him, obviously, but he was standing behind the bench in his uniform coaching us, giving us the line combinations for the next shift, and when he was on the ice the assistants took over. It was a unique situation at that time.

“He was trying to jump start us as coach but was still mixed up with playing in the game, and he did a great job. He was a true players’ coach. He never asked us to do anything he wouldn’t have done as a player.”

Hopkins played with Bowness in Tulsa during parts of two AHL seasons (1980-82), but the pair only suited up together for one with the Jets — a playoff game in St. Louis in April 1982. They were on the farm team roster in ’82-83 when the Jets moved their affiliate from Oklahoma to the community 150 km east of Montreal.

“I got to know Rick really well,” said Hopkins. “He was a captain for us in Tulsa and was always a great leader, had a lot of great experience, a hard-nosed hockey player who gave it 110 per cent all the time, and I thought he’d make a good coach.

“He’s had a great coaching career, and he’s still having success. From the standings, I see Winnipeg’s doing well.”

Bowness — who has led the Jets to a 16-7-1 record this season, good enough for first in the Central Division — admitted it was a rocky start to coaching and a less-than-ideal situation in Sherbrooke. The team finished the year a dismal 22-54-4, the worst record in the AHL, and missing out on the playoffs by 29 points in the North Division.

He said he used to call Tom Watt, then the coach with the NHL’s Jets, for advice.

“I would call him a couple times a week just to say, like, ‘Oh my god, what am I doing down here?’” said Bowness.

Asked what sticks out most that season, the man affectionately known around hockey circles as “Bones,” started using his hands to describe how, during that era, the player benches used to be situated close to each other. That offered a unique opportunity, one Bowness said he took full advantage of.

“I would coach from the penalty box,” he said, chuckling. “And the referee snapped. He came over yelling at us saying you can’t do that, you can’t do that. So, I told him, ‘OK, you show me the rulebook where I can’t coach them to play in the penalty box.’ He said, ‘Nope, you can’t do it,’ and then he skated away.”

As for Bowness, he kept the dual role the rest of the season and then played 21 games in Sherbrooke the following year before ending his playing career to start coaching full-time. After Barry Long was promoted to head coach of the NHL’s Jets, Bowness took over his job as an assistant, where he would spend the next three seasons.

He would eventually land his first NHL head coaching job fewer than two years later, when he became the bench boss for the Winnipeg Jets midway through the 1988-89 campaign, replacing Dan Maloney, who was fired after starting the year 18-25-9.

“Was I ready for it? Absolutely not. Was it a great learning experience? Yes,” Bowness said of his time in Sherbrooke. “But there’s two things I learned from that: I wanted to coach, and it also showed me that I was young enough, that if it didn’t work out, I’d go back and play again.”

– with files from Jason Bell

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton