Bowman’s thoughts on everything
Even at age 78, Scotty thinks about the game like he’s still coaching
It’s always great fun catching up with Scotty Bowman, who loves talking hockey and watches the league like he’s still behind somebody’s bench.
Among the latest recipients of the Order of Canada, Bowman delivered his observations with the traditional stream of consciousness, flitting from one subject to the next and sometimes back, always focusing on what’s important. Then upon hanging up at age 78, he sent me some material on a Russian player from the Wi-fi on his flight where he was just settling in to watch a game on his I-pad from the Centre ice package as he returned to Tampa, Fla.
“Vancouver really misses [Sami] Salo on the point on their power play, don’t they,” he says, launching into his thoughts about the Canucks. “That power play has everything. They have the two centres, one right [Ryan Kesler] and one left [Henrik Sedin], for the draw and Kesler is one of those special players in front of the net like [Tomas] Holmstrom. Nashville has one too in [Patric] Hornqvist. Great at tipping pucks and interfering with the goalie’s vision. I knew Newell Brown when I was coaching in Detroit and he was in the AHL and then he moved to Anaheim and did a great job there. Of course he had [Chris] Pronger and [Scott] Niedermayer there and now in Vancouver it’s going well again.
“They’re great on the entry. That’s their strength. I know they get a lot of goals from in front, but they also get a lot of shots from the point, which is where they miss Salo. But the entry, they enter the zone like they expect to, they have so many options they’re tough to break up. And they need that power play. If it’s working it can stop teams from taking penalties in the playoffs.”
That’s the plan, of course, and it worked perfectly until the Cup final last year when Boston shut them down, with injuries a factor.
“That was a big win for them in Boston [this year]. The Bruins really have a swagger now. I had guys tell me they were going to be a super team last year and now I see it better. They really have that toughness element in [Zdeno] Chara and [Milan] Lucic, plus all the other guys. Had they [Canucks] lost or worse not even stayed close again, it would have dogged them all season. Now unless they meet in the final, they won’t go back there for a while. But you know, I never liked my players to fight much on the road. It incites the crowd and gets them into it. You don’t want that, especially if you’re ahead. It can change momentum.
“You have to like the Rangers. You know they’ve done a great job on that young defence back there and like Vancouver and Boston they’ve got two goalies. The strong teams have two goalies and use them, they’re not afraid to use them. Lundqvist has been great but he always is. It’s their defence where they’ve done such a nice job. It’s that Ryan Mcdonagh who’s really helped them. They got him from Montreal for [Scott] Gomez. Slats [Glen Sather] made a real good deal there. Yeah, it was [Bob] Gainey. I know they needed some kind of help but that one really worked for the Rangers. He and [Michael] Del Zotto and [Dan] Girardi have really played well.
“Too bad about the injuries [to Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-hopkins] in Edmonton. Those guys are fun watching and that line [with Taylor Hall] . . . imagine what they’ll be like in two years. But when you have three guys like that who are so good in their first three years it can really hurt you. They get into the $6-million or $7-million bracket so quickly after that first contract you can’t do anything else. You can’t get free agents even though guys may want to play with them. Look at all the good players around the league that Chicago couldn’t hang on to.
“St. Louis is really coming. [Jaroslav] Halak is back. I don’t know whether it was [Brian] Elliott pushing him or what, but now they’ve got two. So much of the game now comes down to goaltending. It’s just so important. They don’t score much but that division now . . . Nashville isn’t going away, Chicago and Detroit and now St. Louis, it’s not easy.
“I was at the world juniors and apparently [Evgeny] Kuznetsov is going to Washington next year so they’ve got a real good one there. He’s a nice kid, speaks a little bit of English and he’s married already. When you’re in the top 10 of KHL scoring at that age, that’s something. Not really much risk where they chose him, I guess, [26th overall in 2010] but looks like it’s going to pay off.”