The reason why the Dallas Stars still have an interim head coach
Rick Bowness has the Dallas Stars in the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2000, and yet he still wears the “interim” tag.
Exactly what does Bowness have to do to be named the full-time head coach?
Maybe it’s because he does not want it.
The Stars opened their Stanley Cup Final series with Tampa Bay on Saturday night from the bubble in Edmonton. Bowness is the oldest head coach in the NHL, and there is a good chance this may be his last run.
“He definitely has earned the right to come back as the coach,” Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill said earlier this week on a Zoom call with the media.
At 65, and more than five decades in hockey and the NHL, the Stars’ 2020 Cup run simply could be the perfect time for Bowness to leave the game, ideally with a ring.
He and his wife, Judy, have two sons, one daughter, and grandchildren.
Of the Stars’ people in the Edmonton bubble to speak to the media, no one has emphasized the need to appreciate the difficulty in reaching the Cup Final more than Bowness.
Bowness has been asked about coming back as the head coach, often, during these playoffs. He has kicked away the question every time, saying they will address it when the season ends.
NHL teams going on Stanley Cup runs with an interim coach is not a new thing. NHL coaches tend to be disposable batteries.
“I guess if you’re Jim Nill you look at recent history, it worked out pretty well for Craig Berube and the St. Louis Blues last year,” NBC NHL analyst Eddie Olczyk said on a teleconference on Friday when I asked him why the move has happened.
“So maybe, just maybe that’s where Jim is looking at. And look, hey, I know what I would have done, but let’s see how this all plays out. I think everything will be great.”
On Nov. 29, 2018, the St. Louis Blues fired successful coach Mike Yeo and named his assistant, Craig Berube, the interim for the remainder of the year. The Blues won the Stanley Cup.
In February of 2009, the Pittsburgh Penguins fired coach Michel Therrien, less than one year after they reached the Stanley Cup Final. They replaced him with minor-league coach Dan Blysma, and won the Cup a few months later.
In the 2015-16 season, the Penguins fired Mike Johnston and replaced him with Mike Sullivan. They won the next two Stanley Cups.
With eight games remaining in the 1999-2000 season, the New Jersey Devils fired Robbie Ftorek and replaced him with Larry Robinson. The Devils defeated the Stars in the Cup Final.
Jim Montgomery should be the head coach of this team. He was hired to settle a position that has turned into a temp job.
The club now has six head coaches since the start of the 2009-10 season.
When the team fired Lindy Ruff after the 2016-17 season, the man Nill wanted was Gerard Gallant. But team owner Tom Gaglardi wanted former Stars coach Ken Hitchcock, so Hitch was hired.
It was a bad fit, and Hitch lasted one year. Which led to Montgomery. Which led to Bowness.
Of the five previous places where Bowness served as the head coach — Winnipeg, Boston, Ottawa, New York Islanders, Phoenix Coyotes — his run with the Stars is easily the most successful.
It’s not a coincidence this is the best roster he’s had in his tenure. Bowness was cursed to coach some trash rosters, namely the Ottawa Senators in their first-three plus seasons of existence.
His teams had previously made the playoffs once; the 1992 Boston Bruins were swept by the Mario Lemieux Pittsburgh Penguins in the East Finals.
Bowness has spent the majority of his career as an assistant coach, and when he came to the Stars it was to be in that role under Montgomery.
It would only make sense that he be rewarded by being named the head coach, unless he doesn’t want it.
