On Thursday, October 29th, the Dallas Stars organization announced that they have officially removed the “Interim” tag in front of Rick Bowness’ name, making him the ninth head coach in Dallas Stars history.
In December of 2019, Rick Bowness was asked to take over as bench boss following the firing of then current head coach, Jim Montgomery. The Stars recorded a record of only 20-13-5 in the 38 games with Bowness behind the bench and were on a dismal six-game losing streak before the abrupt play stoppage due to the pandemic. It seemed as if the Stars were headed for another late season collapse and that a return behind the bench for Bowness this season was slim at best.
Heading into the 2020 round robin games, it seemed apparent that the Stars just could not get it together and were carrying on that losing streak, even after a four-month hiatus of play. However, when the playoff rounds began, it seemed that the team did a 180 and found the grit and the heart needed to have an amazing playoff run. It is clear that the Dallas Stars players respect Rick Bowness and simply want to play and win for him.
Bowness is a 65-year-old, New Brunswick native and has been behind an NHL bench as either an assistant or a head coach for an NHL record of 2,425 regular season games. As well, Bowness is only one of three coaches in NHL history to have held a coaching position in five different decades. Rick Bowness has served in different coaching capacities at the NHL level for the Winnipeg Jets, Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, New York Islanders, Phoenix Coyotes, Vancouver Canucks, Tampa Bay Lightning and Dallas Stars.
As a player, Bowness was originally selected by the Atlanta Flames in the second round, 26th overall back in 1975. He played for a total of six seasons with tenures with the Atlanta Flames, Detroit Red Wings, St. Louis Blues and the Winnipeg Jets. After his playing career came to an end, Bowness went on to become a player/coach in the AHL for the Sherbrooke Jets. He also served as head coach for the AHL’s Maine Mariners and Moncton Hawks.
In a press release from Dallas on Thursday, Bowness said of the chance to continue, “My wife Judy and I are thrilled to have this opportunity to continue our work here in Dallas. This team is very special for me, that time in Edmonton was unlike any experience I have ever had in hockey and it brought us together as a staff and as a team. We had a great run to the Stanley Cup Finals, but we have some unfinished business left and we’re looking forward to the opportunity to build on what we started.”
Now, moving forward into a new season with the official title of Stars head coach, there are definitely some things that need to be addressed and improved by the team for the upcoming season. The main issue would be the lack of ice time given to their younger players, especially Roope Hintz and Denis Gurianov. With Bowness behind the bench, these two young, talented players have remained at the bottom of the forwards looking at ice time.
That said, they still managed to finish in the top-two in scoring for the team. Something definitely needs to be changed to allow these young snipers more offensive production time. The Stars also need to not rely so heavily on their veterans in Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, Alex Radulov and Joe Pavelski to carry all the weight. Dallas has a strong, deep roster and spreading out the ice time more evenly can only be beneficial.
I believe that with those few minor adjustments, as well as sharpening up their penalty kill, the Stars, who have retained nearly the full Western Conference Champion roster, will be very strong and hungry headed into the new season. They will definitely be looking to repeat that playoff run with only a slightly different outcome this time around.