'He made us a better team': Why Stars' deep run starts with Rick Bowness

Rick Bowness was asked if this is the strangest year in his coaching career and he replied without hesitation: "Absolutely."
That's saying quite a bit. Bowness is 65 and has been on an NHL bench for 36 seasons. He has coached in more than 2,400 regular season games and has seen pretty much everything. On many of his Zoom calls from the Edmonton bubble, he reminisces with writers from other cities who are chiming in with questions, and they fall back on old stories.
"That's what happens when you get old," Bowness jokes.

But if he is indeed "old" and he has indeed seen everything, then he should be more than ready for whatever the NHL has to throw at him. Well, not everything.
"It's just been crazy," Bowness said. "Pretty much from December on, it's been the weirdest year of my life."

In December, the Stars fired head coach Jim Montgomery for "unprofessional conduct." General manager Jim Nill went to Bowness and asked him to take over. It was a request from friend to friend. It was a decision everyone believed was best for the franchise.
"I told Jim then I would do it, and then we could talk in the summer (about) what was next," Bowness said. "Who would have thought we'd be here now?"
The same deal is in place. Bowness doesn't want to worry about the future or the past, because it distracts from the job of winning hockey games. He likes to work hard, do all of his due diligence, and be prepared when the puck drops. Once that happens, he believes the chips will fall where they are supposed to fall. If he does his job and the players do their job, then he can live with the results.
"I think what Rick is so great at is staying calm and staying consistent," Nill said. "It's a very reflective time for everybody. The league has done a great job, and we're all thankful that this has gone off so well, but there are challenges in the bubble, and he has had to manage those. It's a big test mentally, and he's helped lead the way for all of us."
Bowness said before training camp began that he considered not participating in the Return to Play. He's a grandfather now and he used his down time to visit his children and grandchild. He's 65, and that comes with the normal warnings from doctors.

"I was certainly serious about not coming," he said recently. "With my age and health issues, you have to be very, very careful. I was uncomfortable coming. I had heard of all the wonderful things they were going to do to keep us safe, but until you live it day to day, there is a lot of uncertainty. But they've done a great job with everything here in the bubble.
"Is it tough living? Sure. But if this is what we have to deal with in order to have a shot at the Stanley Cup, then you roll with it."
And that really is at the heart of who Rick Bowness is.
He signed up for this job, and he's going to finish it. He's committed to the organization, and he's committed to the people in the room. He knows his role, and he wants to do it as well as he possibly can.
"Bones is extremely calm, but he also has a lot of passion," said forward Jason Dickinson. "I think that's what we take from him -- the love of the game. He's been doing this forever and he clearly has his heart in the game. That passion is translated to all of us as players. We feel that, and we really want to play for him, we want to do our best for him. That's kind of a testament for what he's done in his career and how many guys around the league respect him."

Bowness is asked about players from Zdeno Chara to Nathan MacKinnon to Sidney Crosby. He's asked to compare Miro Heiskanen to Alexander Edler or Victor Hedman, because he's coached all three. He's a walking encyclopedia of hockey knowledge.
And that knowledge seems to create an understanding that there's no reason to panic. If you really live in the moment, you can react to anything. If you're down 3-0 in Game 6 against Calgary, you can come back. If you allow a goal in Game 7 against Colorado with four minutes to go, you can still find a way to tie the game. If lose your No. 1 goalie, you can lean on your backup.
Bowness gives credit to Nill for building this team. He gives credit to his assistant coaches for helping to develop this team. He gives credit to the players for buying in hard. But a lot of what is happening now came from his mind.
He had the time to sit back and reassess what the Stars were doing during the regular season. He had time to put his imprint on the team. So when players returned to camp in July, Bowness had a new plan which pushed defensemen to become a bigger part of the offensive game and demanded that forwards be there to back up the defensemen.
It was a risk, and that showed early in round-robin play. But once the Stars caught on, they became a much more dangerous team.

"I think what Rick did during the down time was really important," Nill said. "When he took over in December, there was really no time to reset, so he just kept things rolling and focused on making the playoffs, and did a great job there. But when he had the chance to really analyze the team and analyze other teams, he made some big changes and he made us a better team."
Now, they are in the Western Conference Final for the first time since 2008. Now, they have made the playoffs two years in a row for the first time since 2008.
"It's important," Bowness said. "We are trying to build an organization here, and you want to be consistent."
Bowness has definitely done that.
He was an assistant on the Canucks coaching staff from 2006-13. He made the playoffs in six of seven season and was part of the 2011 group that lost the Stanley Cup Final in seven games to the Bruins. He then joined the Lightning staff and helped them to the playoffs in four of five seasons. His teams made the conference finals three times and the Stanley Cup Final once.

Now, in two seasons in Dallas, his teams have played five rounds of playoff hockey. That's more than the Stars played in the previous 10 seasons combined.
Mix into it the fact the team played before 85,000 fans at the Winter Classic and now are playing before zero, and that pretty much sums up Bowness' year. For a guy who has seen everything in hockey, he's getting new experiences pretty much every day.
Now, all of that said, he still has never won a Stanley Cup, so it's still on the "to do" list. And if the hockey gods are listening, then the strangest, craziest, most bizarre year of Rick Bowness' life might have a suitable ending.
"Do we have a chance to win it all? Absolutely, we have a chance," he said. "It's who handles all of this the best, and I think we're handling it pretty well right now."
The man at the helm is setting a pretty good example.

Game 2: Stars vs. Golden Knights (Dallas leads 1-0)

Tuesday, 7 p.m. CT
Where: Rogers Center, Edmonton
TV: NBCSN
Radio:The Ticket 96.7-FM, 1310-AM
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika, and listen to his podcast.