Wife’s health scare, soul-searching convinced Rick Bowness to retire
Rick Bowness’s passion for hockey still burns as hot as ever but he couldn't escape the feeling it was time to retire. The 69-year-old from Halifax made the announcement on Monday and then opened up in a media session later in the day about why he decided to walk away from the game after 38 years as an NHL coach.
“I didn't like me and I didn’t like the way our team played, which is on me,” Bowness said about his mindset right after the Winnipeg Jets’ elimination from the Stanley Cup playoffs last Tuesday. “So I was unhappy with myself, unhappy that we had lost and that bothered me. But as I was standing there and I was looking around, it dawned on me.
“Coaches have always told me — and I’m talking to the older coaches, older than me — and they’ve always said ‘You'll know when it’s time.’ And when I was looking around, I wasn’t happy with the job I had done and it just hit me then: ‘It’s time.’”
Bowness also acknowledged how his wife Judy’s health scare in the fall was another major factor. He joked at the news conference that ‘it’s your fault’ but he also called it ‘a life-changing moment.’
“Listen, I’m not going anywhere without Judy’s support,” an emotional Bowness said. “As a player we got bounced around and as a coach we bounced around. You have those conversations with your family, ‘Is it time to do something else?’ But Judy’s supported this whole thing. We’ve been together since we were 16 years old so she’s been through the whole ride.
“And I keep telling people this, she’s going to miss it more than me. When I was walking off the ice the other night, I turned and looked at her and she’s got the towel (waving) and everything.”
And everyone who saw how hard the crisis hit the two of them was not at all surprised to see him prioritize their relationship and home life.
“Looking at when he had to step away to take care of Judy and the emotion, you can see the love he has for her,” Jets captain Adam Lowry told reporters. “The amount of things he was willing to sacrifice to come to Winnipeg, to come to a spot where the rumblings were that we weren’t in that great of a spot, right? (He’s) a tremendous human being. It’s a group that I don’t think we’re as far off as the results may say. I think Rick played a huge part in it.”
Bowness was also effusive about his return to Winnipeg nearly 40 years after he broke into the league as a coach with the Jets. It’s no
nd secret Bowness seriously contemplated retirement after stepping down as head coach of the Dallas Stars in 2022 but the chance to head back to Manitoba to complete the full circle was too irresistible.
“You talked me out of retirement two years ago,” Bowness joked to Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff. “Judy and I were all set to call it a day then. But if I was going to pick a place to come back to coaching, I couldn’t have picked a better place to come back to and finish my career.”
It also came as no surprise to hear and read the flood of tributes roll in from across the NHL. Bowness leaves the game as one of the most wellliked and respected figures in hockey’s modern era.
“I think I have a greater appreciation for the National Hockey League and what it means to be in the National Hockey League each and every day from being around Rick and how he carried himself and what he talked about and the presence that he brings,” Cheveldayoff said in a media session.
“To be able to watch him interact with the players, to see how he communicated with the players, to see how he would deliver hard news to players that wasn’t something that wasn’t going to be popular and just his compassion and his directness, one thing that Bones always was and is he’s been authentic.”
Added Lowry: “He did such a good job of making everyone feel like a big part of the team whether they played five minutes, whether they’re in and out of the lineup or whether they’re on the first line or first power play. I think he talks about trying to uplift his assistant coaches, but he empowers everyone in our room. He talked about wanting to have an impact on our lives and he’s a tremendous role model.”
For his immediate future, Bowness will head home to Grand Lake and play his usual generous amount of golf at Oakfield. The only difference is this will be the first time he'll be able to maintain that routine into the fall.
“Hockey is all we know as a family,” Bowness said. “We’d run into people at home in the summer (and they’d ask) ‘How do you do this?’ But it’s the only life our kids knew. ‘Dad’s playing, dad’s coaching, we’re moving again.’ That was a normal life to them.”