Latest news with #RickBowness
New York Times
a day ago
- Business
- New York Times
The Panthers, the Lightning and the ‘blueprint' behind Florida becoming the new State of Hockey
Mike Rupp wishes he had a time machine. The former NHL player and Stanley Cup champion would love to see how the Tampa Bay Lightning's championship teams from 2020 to '22 would do against this current run of the Florida Panthers. The Panthers are in their third straight Stanley Cup Final, starting Wednesday, following three in a row by Tampa Bay, which won the title twice. Advertisement Who would win? 'I have no idea,' Rupp said, 'It's that close.' 'It would go seven games and probably into OT,' said former NHL coach Rick Bowness. 'Tough to call,' Nashville Predators general manager Barry Trotz said. 'It would be nasty, though.' Part of what makes imagining it so fun is that there's a similar feel to the dominant runs made by the Lightning and Panthers. Minnesota has called itself the 'State of Hockey' since the Wild trademarked the phrase soon after their 2000 inception. But let's be honest: When it comes to NHL playoff success, the actual 'State of Hockey' has become Florida, with no signs of that slowing down. The Panthers and Lightning have won three Stanley Cups in the past five years and 22 playoff rounds in the past six. Since the start of the 2020 playoffs, Tampa Bay (52) and Florida (48) own the first- and second-most playoff wins in the NHL. And for the 'they don't care about hockey in Florida' crowd, both teams played at virtually 100 percent capacity this regular season, and the state of Florida saw a 73 percent increase in youth hockey participation from 2012 to '24, according to USA Hockey. From the star power to goaltending to difference-making third lines, the Lightning and Panthers Cup teams can be seen as mirror images. And that was by design. 'I had the benefit of those Tampa teams existing when we got here,' said Panthers general manager Bill Zito, hired in 2020 after being the Columbus Blue Jackets' assistant GM. 'I watched how Julien BriseBois did it. Winning against them when I was in Columbus (in 2019). Losing to them when I was in Columbus in the (2020) bubble, I got to watch a lot of their team and how it was assembled. There was almost like a blueprint, and by the way, they're right down the road.' Zito said BriseBois, was extremely 'gracious' with his time and offered guidance after he landed the job on the other side of the state, and he used how the Lightning were built as a 'model.' Advertisement 'It would probably be a little pretentious of me to sit here and say they followed our blueprint,' coach Jon Cooper said. 'But yes, there are parallels.' Whether the Panthers can match the Lightning's title count remains to be seen. If they do, it'd put them in similar rare air to Cooper's group. 'Tampa, for me, surpassed Chicago, Pittsburgh, L.A., as far as being like the modern-day dynasty,' Rupp said. 'I don't know if I used that word too lightly or loosely, but I think what we're seeing from Florida right now, they're on the precipice of potentially taking that over.' Now, Florida takes no state income taxes out of paychecks — a huge talking point when it comes to the Lightning and Panthers' runs. The Vegas Golden Knights, Dallas Stars, Nashville Predators and Seattle Kraken also play in no-state-income-tax states, which many point to as an unfair advantage especially in Canada and high-tax states like California, New York/New Jersey and Minnesota. (According to league sources, in the new collective bargaining agreement that's close to being agreed upon, there won't be any new provisions addressing the situation.) There are other benefits to playing in Florida, too, from living on the water and driving to practice in golf carts, but that's been the same since each team entered the league. 'The majority of players in any era would want to be here regardless — taking the lifestyle out of it, taking the tax breaks out of it — but especially now in the run that they've each had,' TNT analyst Ed Olczyk said. 'You want to make as much money as you can as a player, but mostly, you want to win. 'This is a destination now because they win. Each of these teams is a place you'd look to go because they're going to do whatever it takes to win.' So how did they create that winning culture? Advertisement Whatever advantages they have, for much of their histories, these teams have struggled — with the Panthers going from 1997 to 2022 without winning a playoff round. What was the 'blueprint' for going from doormats to borderline dynasties? The systems aren't necessarily identical, and that doesn't really matter. Trotz said the Panthers are a 'true forecheck team,' and while those Lightning teams did damage on the forecheck, 'they were still a very good rush team.' What stands out as comparable is their versatility and relentlessness. Bowness was a long-time Lightning assistant but got a whole new appreciation after losing to them with the Stars in the 2020 Cup Final. 'Both teams can play any style you want,' Bowness said. 'You want to play physical? We'll play physical. You want to play fast? We can play fast. You want to play high-skilled? We can play high-skilled. Those are the ingredients to be able to win games, too. You can play any style you want. They got some nasty players on both of those teams. That's how you win in the playoffs.' Brian Boucher, an analyst for TNT, said Florida's style is more 'smashmouth hockey.' 'Tampa wasn't like that,' Boucher said. 'Tampa had the skill but had an identity line, and they played the game differently. These guys, though, they play the game old-school. … For a lack of a better term, they're bullies. They're bullies, but with skill.' The most important similarity between the two teams, according to former GM Craig Button, is their 'identity' third lines. The Barclay Goodrow-Yanni Gourde-Blake Coleman line was the X-factor for Tampa Bay's back-to-back Cup wins, providing defense and clutch scoring. The same holds true for this year's Panthers, with Brad Marchand-Anton Lundell-Eetu Luostarinen. Advertisement 'They're more skilled than you realize,' Bowness said. 'They (don't) just score, but they're also agitators. They get in your face, they don't back off, they don't get looked off on the forecheck. … They're fast, and they're just very hard to play against because you don't get a lot of time. You know you're going to get hit.' The lines also both came together on the fly. The Gourde line wasn't put together right away after Goodrow and Coleman were acquired in 2020. Marchand was added at this past year's deadline. 'I'd love to see the Gourde-Coleman-Goodrow line versus the Marchand line,' Rupp said. 'Oh my god, I'd pay money for that. That's crazy because they're so alike.' It starts with the captains and two of the game's consummate pros: Steven Stamkos and Aleksander Barkov. 'I say to my son, 'I hope you can be as good a guy as Sasha,'' Zito said. 'He makes you want to be a better person, a better teammate, the kindness that he shows, the way he treats every single person he comes across.' Paul Maurice is Aleksander Barkov's number one fan. 😻 #StanleyCup 📺: @Canes vs. @FlaPanthers Game 4 TONIGHT at 8p ET on @NHL_On_TNT, @SportsonMax, @Sportsnet, and @TVASports — NHL (@NHL) May 26, 2025 Stamkos, the 2008 No. 1 pick, took the hard road to finally lifting the Cup and is regarded as one of the best captains in league history. Tampa Bay also doesn't win the two titles without Nikita Kucherov's ascent and dominant runs in 2020 and 2021. Brayden Point was a Conn Smythe contender both years after being a middle-round steal. The stars for both teams also take care of the defensive side of the puck. Sam Reinhart is a Selke Trophy finalist this year, and Barkov is a two-time winner and one of the best two-way centers in the NHL. Since the start of the 2024 playoffs, Barkov has only been on the ice for four even-strength goals against (excluding empty-netters) in 41 games. He never cheats the game, and when it comes to big moments like his monster assist on Carter Verhaeghe's winning goal to close out last week's Eastern Conference final, he's got the ability to come through offensively. Plus, he has 25 career playoff goals. — x – Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) May 29, 2025 Then you add in Verhaeghe (the Panthers' career playoff leader with 32 goals, including three series clinchers), who won a Stanley Cup with the Lightning in 2020, Reinhart (25 goals), Sam Bennett (24 goals) and Matthew Tkachuk (22), and the Panthers have shown they can stick with anybody offensively. Advertisement 'We know what's going on in Tampa with Point, Kucherov and all the changeover there, but they've always had consistent stars,' said Olczyk. 'They do it a little different way in Florida. I mean, Reinhart, all he needs is one or two chances to score a goal. Barkov is as complete a player as there is. Verhaeghe's as clutch a player as there is. Tkachuk and Bennett can score and punish you.' When Trotz was preparing the Islanders to face the Lightning in 2020 and 2021, his focus wasn't necessarily on stopping Tampa Bay's forwards. It was somehow fighting through Tampa Bay's towering blue line. There was three-time Norris Trophy finalist Victor Hedman (6-foot-7), Erik Cernak (6-4), Ryan McDonagh (6-2), Mikhail Sergachev (6-3) and Luke Schenn (6-2). 'As much as everybody talked about Point and Kucherov and all their forwards, we knew if we played solid team defense, we could limit them,' Trotz said. 'But we talked more about how the hell are we going to get through that forest of trees?' The Panthers have some size as well, with Aaron Ekblad (6-4) and trading for Seth Jones (6-4) this year. Gustav Forsling is only 6-1 but has become one of the best defensive defensemen in the NHL, while Niko Mikkola's star is rising — a well-rounded blueliner who is 6-foot-5 but can also fly. The Panthers have had to shuffle guys in and out the past three years because of the cap, losing solid defenders like Brandon Montour and Radko Gudas. This postseason, Dmitry Kulikov and Nate Schmidt have done a terrific job on the third pair. Olczyk said the Lightning and Panthers' real connection is the back end. 'When you look at the size, you look at the mobility, you look at the difference makers and the depth, it's just not one to 3 ½. It's one to six,' Olczyk said. As good of a job as Zito has done in South Florida, he credits predecessor Dale Tallon for building blocks like Barkov and Sergei Bobrovsky. Advertisement Bobrovsky had a tough start to his Florida career, but Zito knew him from Columbus — knew his commitment and unparalleled process — and felt when he got the Panthers job that goaltending would be the least of his concerns. In three postseasons, Bobrovsky is 40-19 for Florida with a 2.41 goals-against average and .911 save percentage. Andrei Vasilevskiy, meanwhile, had NHL greats already saying he was putting himself onto 'Mount Rushmore' among top goalies, and his 2021 Conn Smythe trophy was well deserved: 1.90 GAA, .937 save percentage, five shutouts. He ended five straight series with a shutout from the 2020 Cup Final through the 2021 Cup Final. Bobrovsky was a Vezina Trophy finalist last year, while Vasilevskiy, who won the Vezina in 2019, was also a finalist in 2020. The top players on the Lightning and Panthers Cup runs, by net rating: Cooper, the longest-tenured coach in the NHL, has coached around 1,000 fewer games than Paul Maurice but is considered by many to be the standard in the league. He was the third-fastest coach to 500 wins in NHL history. Both coaches are also great quotes, strong motivators and collaborative with their assistants and strong game managers. Before last year, Maurice had coached the most games in NHL history without winning a Stanley Cup. Now he's one of four coaches to have made the Stanley Cup Final in each of his first three seasons with a franchise, along with Toe Blake (five, Montreal Canadiens, 1956 to 1960), Scotty Bowman (three, St. Louis Blues, 1968 to 1970) and Tommy Ivan (three, Detroit Red Wings, 1948 to 1950). He's also one of two coaches to win 10 series in his first three seasons with a franchise (Darryl Sutter, Los Angeles Kings, 2012 to 2014). 'Paul and Coop both do a great job preparing their team and any adjustments that are made during the series,' Bowness said. 'They're both very good at that.' Advertisement Back in 2010, Lightning CEO Steve Griggs said the brand was 'dead.' The season ticket base was down to around 4,500. They had missed the playoffs for three straight years. But when Jeff Vinik bought the team that summer, it started the transformation. He hired Steve Yzerman as GM, who helped build those Cup teams before leaving for Detroit in 2019. BriseBois, Yzerman's long-time right-hand man, has been bold and decisive in continuing to build the contender — and keep it together through a COVID-19-sparked flat cap. Unstable ownership plagued the Panthers after original owner Wayne Huizenga sold the team in 2001, but that dissipated when Vinnie Viola bought the franchise 12 years ago and especially when he hired Zito as GM during the pandemic. Zito has made huge acquisitions, including Tkachuk, Bennett, Reinhart, Jones, Marchand, Forsling, Mikkola and Evan Rodrigues. He fills holes when the cap costs the Panthers a player like Montour and even had the guts to fire Andrew Brunette after winning the Presidents' Trophy in 2022. Viola spares no expense, from a state-of-the-art practice facility to off-ice perks for players to allowing Zito and his large front office to think outside the box and do their thing. 'It's empowering that we're able to conduct our business without fear and knowing we have their full support,' Zito said. Zito said one thing Tampa Bay showed him was not to be afraid of trading draft picks. BriseBois traded a first-round pick in each of his deals for Coleman and Goodrow at the 2020 deadline, for example. 'We had this decade of losing, but we have this window now, but we're also trying to continue to perform, continue to win, continue to grow, continue to get interest, continue to grow in our community,' Zito said. It's 'fantasy hockey,' as Trotz calls it, to pick who was better or would win in a seven-game series. Advertisement 'I'd say that Tampa had the advantage of forward, defense and goalie,' Rupp said. 'But the Panthers, as far as being a junkyard-dog-mentality team from every player, there's a way they play, a style they play, that makes it really even for me. The way they play, it's just different. I would give all the categories in favor of Tampa, but when you ask me who would win the series, I have no idea.' Added Zito, 'There's a lot of similarities, from up front to the back end to in goal. Behind the bench, you have very smart people. On top of being very smart hockey people, they're also kind with great senses of humor. And then you have Julien, and as we just saw with Mathieu Darche leaving Tampa for the Islanders, solid people who you can trust. 'These two teams compete against each other, and it's so much fun, because you want to beat them so bad and you know they want to beat us so bad, but when it's over, we were sincerely happy when they won their Cups and I know they're sincerely happy for us during our runs.' The fact that the Panthers, having lost to the Lightning in back-to-back postseasons in 2021 and 2022, started to change and become more like Tampa Bay wasn't necessarily a surprise. And now you can see the Lightning following suit, coming off three straight first-round exits (two to Florida), trying to figure out a way to beat the Panthers. There's a real chance the state's streak of six straight conference titles extends through next season. And they have each other to thank. 'It's very rare,' Trotz said. 'But I think that division rivalries, when your No. 1 rival is winning Cups, it's the best teacher. Those things rub off on each other when you want to beat the Joneses, and the Joneses live next door.' (Photo of Aleksander Barkov, Nikita Kucherov and Sergei Bobrovsky: Mike Carlson / Getty Images)
CTV News
3 days ago
- General
- CTV News
N.B. Sports Hall of Fame welcomes six new inductees this weekend
The 2001 Saint John Alpines team will be inducted into the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame in a ceremony on Saturday, May 31, 2025. (Courtesy: AJs Saint John Alpines) The New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame will welcome six new inductees in a ceremony this weekend. The honour, marking its 55th year, recognizes athletes, teams, and builders for their achievements and contributions to competitive sport in New Brunswick. A celebratory gala for the inductees will be held Saturday at the Imperial Theatre in Saint John. The inductees for 2025 include: Judy Astle – A lead educator, administrator, and volunteer devoted to golf, athletics, and basketball. Sylvio Bourque – A decorated arm wrestler with 26 World Armwrestling Federation championship medals, including six gold. Rick Bowness – A former NHL player with nine seasons between the Calgary Flames, Detroit Red Wings, and St. Louis Blues, who retired as the NHL's longest-serving coach in 2024. George Chase – An expert marksman, Grand Aggregate winner, and two-time Canadian Fullbore Rifle Champion. 2001 Saint John Alpines – The provincial and Canadian men's senior baseball championship team for 2001; the first to ever achieve that feat. Frank Synott – The first New Brunswick-born Olympian and Olympic medalist who captained the U.S. hockey team to silver in the 1920 Olympics. For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
New York Times
06-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Adam Lowry, Rick Bowness and the special Game 7 moment that was years in the making
Adam Lowry's voice broke when he heard Rick Bowness' voice on the other end of the line. Speaking on TNT after scoring the Game 7 winning goal in double-overtime, Lowry appeared surprised to hear the voice of the head coach who made him captain. 'Listen: That's why you're captain,' Bowness told Lowry. 'That effort and that gutsy effort from that team tonight personifies you .' 'I love you' ❤️ What a moment between Adam Lowry and Coach Bowness on the postgame 🥹 — NHLonTNT (@NHL_On_TNT) May 5, 2025 Lowry's emotion is obvious in the video. Winnipeg's Game 7 win — and Bowness' message along with it — were years in the making. Lowry's heart-and-soul effort indeed personifies the Jets. Winnipeg's team is more than the sum of its parts. It's a collection of players who want to play for Winnipeg and for each other. Lowry's leadership as captain has helped more of his teammates feel like their best selves. To hear it from Bowness directly clearly made Lowry emotional. 'He said, 'You're going to bring a tear to my eye,'' Bowness told The Athletic on Monday. 'Well, we both did.' Bowness is retired now. His former associate coach, Scott Arniel, now gets to enjoy the impact of Lowry's leadership. But this story starts a little over three years ago, in December 2021, with a shocking departure. Three seasons ago, there was no chance that Lowry could have been named captain at all. Winnipeg's players didn't get advance warning when Paul Maurice abruptly resigned on Dec. 17, 2021. The Jets were only three points outside a playoff spot and the expectation on the outside was that they should be able to put together the kind of run that erased their slow start. But Maurice kept his departure closely guarded such that even Lowry was left in the dark — even though his dad, Dave Lowry, was on Winnipeg's staff as an assistant coach. On the day Maurice resigned, the Jets promoted Dave Lowry to take over in his absence. It put immediate strain on the relationship between father and son. 'Like, you couldn't have told me or given me a heads up?' Adam Lowry remembers thinking. 'This is a pretty big deal. And it's not that I'm not ecstatic for my dad's opportunity but, one, we were stunned that Paul was leaving. Two, this changed the whole dynamic of the player/coach relationship that we had at the rink.' Assistants tend to be the 'players' coaches' of an NHL coaching staff. The head coach plays the role of disciplinarian, doling out ice time and making lineup decisions. When players are upset, their ire is usually directed at the head coach — and that worked out fine for the Lowrys before Maurice resigned. There was a change in the Jets' dressing room when Dave Lowry took over. 'It was hard for my teammates. I think, for the most part, they handled it really well. People said it was hard to vent or talk about the coaches — and that's a common thing. Sometimes people get fed up and venting is a natural reaction but, certainly, they were cognizant of how I might view these things or if I might change my perception on how I view them,' Lowry said. It added an awkward dynamic to a team that was already well-known for internal disagreements. The 2021-22 Jets were well-stocked with talent but didn't see eye-to-eye about a lot of things. There were cultural issues created in part by ex-captain Blake Wheeler's old-school, top-down approach, in part by Maurice's inability to address those issues, and in part by players — PL Dubois, most famously — who simply did not want to play in Winnipeg. There's no way that version of the Winnipeg Jets, with Dave Lowry as head coach, could have made Lowry the captain he is now — even if Wheeler hadn't occupied the role. 'There would have been no chance,' Dave Lowry told The Athletic . 'One of the hardest things was when Paul (Maurice) left, we lost a really good leader. Not in terms of play and performance but in terms of the vocal component of it. You have a father/son relationship and I'm not oblivious to the fact that, if he stands up and says something or challenges a player, what's the first thing they're going to say? 'Your dad told you to say that.' We, as a coaching staff, lost that voice.' Father and son put their personal connection on hold as well. Instead of having nightly recaps, talking up each other's performances the way so many parents and their children do after a game, they decided to keep a professional distance. They each remember seeing each other only a couple of times away from the rink. 'I think the one was on his birthday,' Adam said. 'My mom was in town. And then the one was on my birthday … There was this glass wall between us.' The Jets missed the playoffs and did not renew Dave Lowry's contract. Assistant coaches Jamie Kompon and Charlie Huddy were also let go. That Winnipeg's management didn't immediately recognize this as an untenable situation — and were similarly slow to address Winnipeg's other cultural problems at the time — held that team back from reaching its potential. No one put it better than Paul Stastny did in the Jets' exit interviews that year. 'We've got to have more respect for each other. When you don't have that, when you don't care about the teammate next to you — potentially — and you just care about what you're doing or certain individual things, that starts bleeding into the game,' Stastny said. It was a damning statement and, from at least one player's perspective, an honest assessment of Winnipeg's team culture. It soon became the reason Bowness was the right head coach — and Lowry the right captain — for a new Jets era. Bowness was well aware of the Jets' reputation for locker room issues when he was hired on July 3, 2022. 'I wasn't in that room, but I was hearing that the Xs and Os were secondary and culture was number one,' Bowness told The Athletic . Then you start reading the comments from players. It had to get your attention and it had to get addressed. That's what we did.' Bowness spent his summer reaching out to Jets players directly, asking questions about what had gone well, what hadn't, and what needed to change. On Sept. 16, the Jets put out a press release announcing that they would play the season without a captain, but with 'a group of assistants yet to be determined.' Wheeler's 'C' was removed but he remained with the team. That itself was a difficult situation, with Wheeler conveying later that he felt 'blindsided' by the move, but it began Winnipeg's cultural shift. The Jets made the playoffs in Bowness' first season but fell to Vegas in five games. Speaking at the podium in Las Vegas, Bowness expressed tremendous distaste for the team's lack of pushback when the season and playoffs got tough. 'It's the same crap we saw in February,' Bowness said at the time. 'As soon as we were challenging for first place and teams were coming after us, we had no pushback. This series, we had no pushback. Their better players were so much better than ours, it wasn't even close.' The Jets traded Dubois to Los Angeles on June 27, 2022, for Gabriel Vilardi, Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kupari, and a second-round draft pick. On June 29, they bought out Wheeler's contract. For Bowness, it was a major plateau in the dressing room's shift from the old guard to the new. 'Listen, I spent nine years with the Jets in the 80s. I never heard one person say Winnipeg wasn't a great place to play or that they didn't want to be there. So when I heard that people didn't like Winnipeg or didn't like the culture, those things hit home with me. The first thing we were going to address was that,' Bowness said. As Bowness made his changes from the top, Lowry grew in his role with the Jets organization and the community. Mark Chipman approached Lowry with the opportunity to get involved with the Toba Centre; Lowry embraced it and wowed the Winnipeg-based non-profit with his humility and his willingness to learn. Bowness empowered Lowry on the ice with some of the toughest checking line assignments in the NHL; Lowry responded by taking his game to its highest level. After scoring 21 points playing for his dad, Lowry produced 36-point and 35-point seasons playing shutdown roles on Bowness' teams. On Sept. 12, 2023, Lowry was named captain. We'll battle beside him any day 😤 — Winnipeg Jets (@NHLJets) September 12, 2023 'When you see a guy like that putting his body on the line, doing everything he possibly can for this team, you have no choice but to follow,' Cole Perfetti said of Lowry. 'He is vocal in the room, but I think the way that he leads this team is through his actions and through his play.' There is also the matter of Lowry's classiness off the ice. Bowness remembers how hard it was to be away from his head coaching duties, but how much sense it made to be with his wife, Judy, after she suffered a seizure in October 2023. Arniel took over as interim head coach during Bowness' absence, paving the way for the success he's having now. Bowness is proud of him for that. But Bowness most fondly remembers his return for an act of kindness from Lowry. 'I'll go back to when we had our medical issue last year and I came back (to the team) in Florida,' Bowness said. 'Adam made sure I got that game puck. We'd won 3-0 so it was a big game for a lot of players. But he took the time to say, 'Make sure Bones gets that puck.'' Rick and Judy, we love ya 🫶 — Winnipeg Jets (@NHLJets) November 25, 2023 Back in 2022, when times were tough, Lowry thinks the Jets were trying to make the best of a bad situation. The suddenness of Maurice's departure left Kevin Cheveldayoff and his staff without an abundance of options. Lowry said assistant GM Craig Heisinger spoke to him after that season to address his concerns. Heisinger told him the Jets had failed to recognize the added pressure and stress. The Jets have put people and processes in place such that they don't end up in such an untenable situation again. The Jets have added four psychologists to their staff since that time. 'That, for me, goes a long way to show how the organization cares about us as people,' Lowry said. 'They care about the members of their organization, they take feedback, and they try to improve our quality of life. In turn, it improves our quality of play.' Lowry's growth between his toughest season and today's Round 2 appearance is not a straight line. It would not be precise to say that he scored the goal that got Winnipeg to Round 2 against Dallas because the Jets recognized their cultural issues and addressed them in multiple ways. But the human side of the game clearly matters to him, to his teammates, to his parents, and to the coach who made him captain. Bowness and Lowry expressed their love for one another as people in that surprise call on TNT. 'Thanks, Bones,' Lowry said. 'Those words mean a lot to me. I love you. I appreciate the time we got to spend together.' Before the call was done, Lowry expressed appreciation for Bowness' wife, Judy, and respect for Bowness' awkward position as the former head coach of both Dallas and Winnipeg. He joked about needing to send a care package Bowness' way to guarantee support for the Jets in Round 2. Bowness told The Athletic that the exchange brought a tear to his eye. But what about Winnipeg's progress, three years after Bowness was hired? Is this team showing him what he hoped to see when he and his staff went to work three years ago? 'The ultimate goal is what Winnipeg has now,' Bowness said. 'They play so hard for each other and push each other. That's a winning team.' (Top photo: James Carey Lauder / USA Today Sports)
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Jets Ready to 'Push Back' in Game 5
Following their disastrous 4-1 series loss to the Vegas Golden Knights in the spring of 2023, former Winnipeg Jets head coach Rick Bowness blew up in his final post-game media conference of the season, citing Winnipeg's inability to push back against its opposition. A year later, the Jets fell to Colorado four games to one, with similar issues plaguing the team. This spring, the Jets entered the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the No. 1 club, earning the chance to play the No. 8 seed St. Louis Blues. Despite the lopsided numbers entering the best-of-seven series, it has been the Blues that have scored more goals and taken control of the opening round series. Sure, Winnipeg pulled ahead 2-0 at home, as expected, but it was in St. Louis where old habits and memories of distant postseason failures crept back into the fold. The Jets have a chance to change the narrative on Wednesday night - a long-lasting script that has seen every single losing postseason series end with four-straight losses (except the 2019 opening round matchup agains these same St. Louis Blues). After falling behind 2-0, the Blues have made life difficult of the Jets, blocking the vision of Connor Hellebuyck while getting a high dose of point shots through Winnipeg's goaltender. 'They got there and they did a good job," defenceman Neal Pionk said. "They had a good mentality getting in there. We've got to find a way to push back here in Game 5.' Pushing back will certainly be the name of the game on Wednesday. Attempting to (Helle) bu(y)ck the trend of four-straight losses will be another. 'Yeah, I think playoff time, that's one of the most important attributes you can have, is being strong between the ears," Hellebuyck said. "You don't want to go into a game playing with fear. If you play with fear, that's when you start to actually make mistakes and want things back. We go out, we play our game and you continue to be better every single shift, every single game and every single day. That's my mindset moving forward, and I'm looking forward to that." "This is fun playoff hockey," he added. "It doesn't matter if you lose 2-1 or 6-1. At the end of the day it's a loss and you move on. Getting back to our game is what we want to do in here and that's our plan for 60 minutes.' For Hellebuyck, the last three postseasons have not been good for his numbers. The soon-to-be back-to-back Vezina Trophy winner still has a lot to prove come the playoffs. "You don't win 47 games and then come the playoffs switch everything up," he shared. "I know how it needs to look. I like a lot of things. I'm not going to go and make huge changes. That being said, I'm going to be better. That's my job, and that's the foot that I'm putting forward. I can't be giving up this many goals. We're a team in here, we're not pointing fingers at anyone. We're going to do this together. I keep saying it, we're in a good spot. 2-2 in the series, pretty much the entire West is 2-2. I'm really looking forward to the next one. It's on, it's playoff style hockey." Hellebuyck will need the support of his defence in front of him to track some of the loose pucks, as well as his forwards to limit chances coming from the Blues' point area. Leading that shut-down charge will be captain Adam Lowry and his bottom-six forward group. "The biggest thing is we don't need to reinvent the wheel, in terms of how we play," the Jets' leader said. "When we play a certain way we've had success against the Blues, and when we get away from that, when we get out of our structure, we stop defending first, we make it easier to get to the net-front, and then you see games like that. "All year long the strength of our team has been our team defence, our five-on-five play. It's important when we look at the game (Sunday) and review the last couple of games we see the areas where we can certainly be a lot better in. And go out and execute. You have the game plan, now it's important to go and put it into practice." And speaking of practice, forward Gabe Vilardi has been participating in team sessions over the past week. He recently switched out his non-contact yellow sweater for a full-contact regular practice jersey and has engaged in battle drills and power play scenarios. It is expected that he will return to the Jets' lineup for Game 5. According to head coach Scott Arniel, Vilardi has been cleared to return to action. 'If he's prepared and cleared to go, then it's all-in.'
