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Bowman's coming back NHL's winningest coach returns for one more season
Posted: Monday June 26, 2000 01:01 AM
CALGARY, Alberta (AP) -- Scotty Bowman, the winningest coach in NHL history, is returning for another season with the Detroit Red Wings. Bowman, 66, had been mulling his future since the Red Wings' second-round playoff elimination by the Colorado Avalanche. As the league's entry draft was ending Sunday, Detroit general manager Ken Holland said Bowman would be back under a one-year contract. Holland had told Bowman after the Colorado series he wanted him back. "I wanted to feel in my heart that I could come back and, healthwise, I wanted to make sure I was up to the challenge again," Bowman said of the month it took him to decide to return for a 29th season as an NHL coach. "I feel good I've lasted so long. You like to go as far as you can." Bowman had been the subject of retirement speculation since having knee-replacement surgery and an angioplasty that caused him to miss the early part of the 1998-99 season. Coaching in five decades had been his goal, and he's accomplished it. Assistant Barry Smith also will return. Dave Lewis, the other assistant, is waiting to hear from the expansion Columbus Blue Jackets on his application for the head coaching position. If he doesn't get it, he'll stay with Detroit. Bowman, who coached the Red Wings to the Stanley Cup in 1997 and 1998, said the team needs changes now. "When we won our championships, we were a lot stingier," he said. "It's great to have Scotty still with us," Smith said. "His experience and his gut feelings he has when things happen help over the course of a season." Bowman has coached in St. Louis, Montreal, Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Detroit. His regular-season career record is 1,144-529-294. "The first 20 years, I probably didn't make as much money as I have in the last three or four," he said. Already a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, Bowman has coached eight teams to Stanley Cup titles, and he is the winningest coach in NHL regular-season and playoff history. Bowman is one of only two coaches in the four major sports to win a championship with three different teams (Montreal, Pittsburgh, Detroit). Pro football Hall of Famer Guy Chamberlin coached three teams to championships: the Canton Bulldogs in 1922 and 1923; the Cleveland Bulldogs in 1924; and the Frankford Yellow Jackets in 1926. Bowman also will be the spokesman for the new NHL Coaches' Association.
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