In the last few hours, real coaching chess has started in the NHL. Winnipeg will be looking for a new coach, on the contrary, he is in Ottawa before signing the contract. And in Los Angeles they decide what to do next.
Rick Bowness retired on Monday after a 40-year coaching career. The 69-year-old leaves after leading Winnipeg to second place in the Central Division, a 15-point improvement over last season and a first-time finalist for the NHL’s Jack Adams Award for Coach of the Year. His last game was a 3-6 loss to Colorado in Game 5 of the first round.
“As I was standing there looking around, it hit me,” Bowness said. “Coaches have always told me, and I’m talking about older coaches than me, ‘You’ll know when it’s time. And when I looked around, I wasn’t happy with the job I’d done. That’s when I knew it was time,'” he described.
Bowness also coached the original Jets, Boston, Ottawa, New York Islanders, Phoenix Coyotes and Dallas. His 2,726 games as a head coach or assistant are the most in NHL history, and he is one of three coaches (Scotty Bowman and Pat Quinn) to serve in five different decades, and the last active coach to lead an NHL team in the 1980s.
So the Jets will have to look for a replacement. Ottawa blew them a theoretical one. According to TSN reports, she had a fling with Travis Green. “Final details are being worked out,” writes Darren Dreger.
Green, 53, was the interim head coach of the New Jersey Devils this season after the team parted ways with Lindy Ruff. He joined the Devils last summer as an assistant coach. Prior to that, he spent more than four seasons as Vancouver’s head coach.
According to reports from overseas, on the other hand, they are tied in Los Angeles. Bring in someone new or give the trust to interim coach Jim Hiller?
“We haven’t made this decision yet. We’ll meet in the next few weeks and see what we decide,” said Rob Blake, the organization’s general manager.
The Kings went 21-12-1 under Hiller and finished third in the Pacific Division, but lost in five games to Edmonton in the first round. “When he took over the team, the job was to get us to the playoffs,” Blake said.
What will be next?
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