The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Bowness emotional as season ends
Dallas Stars coach discusses missing playoffs
The emotion was all over Rick Bowness's face as he talked about missing this year's NHL playoffs.
The 66-year-old from Halifax met online with media this week after his Dallas Stars were eliminated with just three days left in their season and it appeared hard for him at times to keep his voice steady.
"There was an awful pit in my stomach after the end of the game, much like when we lost in the Stanley Cup final last year in Game 6. Those things stay with you," the second-year Stars head coach said in a Zoom session with reporters. "The disappointment of not getting in after everything we went through, you can't put that into words. You can't. It's an awful feeling in your stomach and it'll never go away."
Every team in the NHL had to deal with unique obstacles during the pandemicshortened NHL season but the Stars had an especially heavy load of challenges. The team had an outbreak at the very start of the year, losing six players and two staff members to COVID-19 in January. The Stars then had to shut everything down for an extended period to quarantine and make their environment safe.
Players eventually returned to the lineup but some struggled with the after effects of the illness and the league also had to compress the Stars' scheduled to a barely manageable degree. Dallas had to deal with two separate four-game pauses in its schedule during the 56-game season, making the back end of the year especially demanding.
"This has been gruelling, there's no way around it," said Bowness, who had to leave the bench mid-game once because of a COVID-19 scare that turned out to be a false negative. "We've gone 11 straight weeks here with four games every six nights. Like I said the other day, during the regular season you get those two or three-day breaks. You get an opportunity to reflect a little more clearly on the last game you played. You get to think and you have more time. The way we've been going, you don't because you're playing tomorrow so you've got to get ready for tomorrow. You just don't get the opportunity to reflect and clear up the big issues. It's just been tough.
"The equipment managers, man, they deserve medals. Travelling with the taxi squad there's all these locker rooms because of the protocols. We've had guys in three different locker rooms. The medical staff, because of all the injuries and the bangedup guys and trying to keep them on the ice and keep them playing. They've been working so hard, it's incredible. It's everyone.
"Unless you've been with us and unless you've travelled with us, and you guys (reporters) are usually in the locker room so you see fatigue and you see the facial expressions. You can see it and you can feel it. On here (Zoom) you can't but we see it and we feel it every day and I've got to tell you, I hope I never have to go through anything like this again.
"But we all wanted to do it and this is what we signed up for and this is what we were dealt so you deal with it. And I give our guys credit. Everyone in this organization has dealt with it the best they can and I'm proud of that. We've managed the schedule as best we can. It's been a grind and if you said again 'This is what you have to do to finish the year' we'd all sign up. We'd do it again but I hope to hell we don't have to."
On top of all that, injuries hit the Stars hard. First-line winger Alexander Radulov missed all but 11 games because of a core muscle injury, star centre Tyler Seguin only got into three games because of his recovery from off-season hip surgery and No. 1 goalie Ben Bishop didn't play at all.
"That's why the pit's in my stomach," Bowness said. "I would've loved to have seen Bish in the net and have a healthy Rads and a healthy Seguin, and roll lines like you normally do. We know, on paper, a healthy team - we're fighting with those other teams for first place in the division. There's no question in my mind.
"So that's a huge disappointment but those are things you can't control. You can't beat yourself up about it. Would we have loved to see our A team out there for just one game? Absolutely. But we couldn't do that so you deal with it the best you can. That's why I'm proud of the players and they know it. They played through it and they played great."