Unlovable legend

Successful, but coarse Bowman seems to go on forever

DETROIT (AP) -- Scotty Bowman never was accused of being a players' coach.

Bowman has coached numerous great players in their prime or near-prime -- Lemieux, Hasek, Yzerman, Henri Richard, Lafleur, Dryden, Brett Hull -- and all shared similar feelings about the hardest-to-read, most enigmatic yet most successful hockey coach around.

None loved him. Some barely tolerated him. Others hated him. All disliked his manipulativeness, his unpredictability, his aloofness, his imperiousness. Yet all respected and admired him, and few wished to play for anyone else, including his Stanley Cup-chasing Detroit Red Wings of today.

In Pittsburgh, the players -- led by Mario Lemieux -- so despised him that they worked out an agreement with general manager Craig Patrick that he would coach only on game days, not practices. Despite the awkward arrangement, they won a Stanley Cup together, mostly because an all-offense team finally bought into Bowman's belief that no team can win a championship without defense.

Of course, Bowman was an old-style coach when everybody was an old-style coach. What makes him stand apart is he remains an old-style coach today, even as the NHL has expanded five times in size from its Original Six.

That means the coach runs the show, period, no questions asked, no intermediary meetings with agents or middle men allowed. The players play the game, and those that play it his way, his style, his system, keep playing.

"How to get along with him is to show up, work hard -- and keep your mouth shut," Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman said. "And play well defensively."

Those who don't follow that advice? They're on the scratch list or the waiver wire or exiled to the AHL, perhaps never to be seen again during the Bowman era.

But then, which era is not the Bowman era? He coached in Stanley Cup finals during the 1960s, when Lyndon Johnson was president, and still is today, during the second administration by a president named Bush.

He has coached during five decades, even as hockey has evolved from a time when players didn't wear helmets to a wide-open game, through the Canadiens, Islanders and Oilers dynasties to today, when teams are so well-coached, well-prepared and systematized that, Bowman said, "It's so hard to score, it's like soccer."

No matter, Bowman perseveres at age 68, a senior citizen who remains as far ahead of the coaching pack as he was when he was hired by the St. Louis Blues, about the time Carolina coach Paul Maurice, 35, was born.

A Red Wings victory in the finals against the Hurricanes would bring Bowman a record ninth Stanley Cup, one more than his mentor, former Montreal coach Toe Blake, and as many as any coach in any major pro sport.

Only two NBA coaches, Phil Jackson of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers and Red Auerbach of the Boston Celtics, have also won nine titles, with Jackson winning his ninth Wednesday night.

"I don't care about records," said Bowman, who, because of his fascination for history and statistics would seem to contradict that statement. "I just hope I live long enough to see somebody break them."

Good luck, Scotty -- and don't wait up. No other current NHL coach has won more than one Stanley Cup. It would take decades for any coach to match his 1,244 regular season victories or 222 playoff victories.

How has he done it? How has he stayed so contemporary while staying so old-fashioned, a Vince Lombardi type during a time when the trend is to hire coaches or managers who relate well to their players?

Perhaps it's because Bowman arguably is the best bench coach ever in any sport, a man who always seems to be a line change or a move ahead of the opposing coach. Philadelphia Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock, one of hockey's brightest minds, was exhausted after matching wits with him during a Dallas-Detroit playoff series because he always felt he was reacting to Bowman, not the other way around.

"When it's not a big game and you might ease up on things, that's when he makes it difficult on you, uncomfortable on you," Yzerman said. "But the more pressure there is, whether it's a Game 7 or a clinching game, he seems more comfortable and really at ease."

Hull said, "You look at the experience he has and the decisions he makes, and you trust them. The best way to get along with him is, when he puts you in situations, do whatever it takes and whatever you can to succeed, and you will get along with him just fine."

The question now is whether Bowman will chase another cup, or if he's finally done. He's already has said he won't be coaching following the 2003-04 season, after which the NHL will get a new labor agreement.

"I will enjoy it when I finish, when I finish coaching," he said. "I was fortunate I was 32 or 33 when I started ... I was fortunate to be with a team [Detroit] that spent quite a bit of money on players. That's the way I look at it -- I was fortunate."

 

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