Don't count out Bowman or his Red Wings in the West

Sporting News, The, Jan 1, 2001 by Larry Wigge

As Scotty Bowman walks down a lonely corridor outside the locker room after a game two weeks ago in St. Louis, you could almost hear his thoughts. And none of them was about retirement

The wheels never stop spinning for this 67-year-old man of contradictions--he can be your best friend one day and be so wrapped up in something that he'll ignore you the next. It's all part of the mystery of the coach with the most victories in hockey history.

Never has there been a more complex or captivating individual in hockey. Some say he isn't a people person, that he's hands-off even with his favorite players. Others say he could be a perfect liaison to the United Nations because no one acquires more key information in a short conversation as easily as Bowman does.

Details. That's what beams up Scotty Bowman. At his age you would think there are plenty of things he could do to occupy himself away from the rink. But Bowman never stops looking for an edge, whether it means scouring through hours of game tapes or getting on the Internet to search for one little tidbit that might help him.

The Red Wings had a great talent base, but Bowman's attention to detail was crucial in helping them become the NHL's best team in the 1990s, when they won two Stanley Cups in three finals appearances.

Today it's a slightly different story. Detroit has a roster that includes eight players older than 33. It has a former No. 1 goaltender, Chris Osgood, who can't stop a beach ball. And the team is still fighting to overcome the fact that it has bowed out of the playoffs in the second round two years in a row--both times to a faster Colorado team.

On this night Bowman begins his postgame media conference with the standard bill of fare. But after the first wave of inquisitors is gone, the real Bowman shows up.

"That was a pretty good game wasn't it?" he says, obviously looking for input.

"Not bad for a coach who supposedly was going to retire if his team didn't begin to shape up," I say.

I ask him why he is upset with the way his team is playing after beating the Avalanche and tying the Blues in consecutive road games.

"What has to happen is the big players have to play a lot better," he says, mentioning Darren McCarty, Nicklas Lidstrom, Brendan Shanahan and Osgood, players who were key contributors in 1996-97 when the Wings won their first of two consecutive Cups. "They've been rewarded, but now they have to reward the team with better play.

"We have to play in-your-face hockey, which we've had a problem doing every night, particularly in a few games against lesser teams.... We have to get back to good defensive hockey. When you give up six goals in two games, it's everything, not just one little thing. It's sloppy play, the goaltending, it's the whole nine yards. We're not scoring as much as we can, but mostly we're not defending."

Now it's Bowman's mm to ask another question.

"What do you think it will take to make the playoffs in the West?" he asks, and before he gets an answer he says, "I thought it would be 85 to 90 points before the season, but now I think it will take 95 points."

Last season eighth-place San Jose had 87 points to sneak into eighth in the West. In the East, Buffalo grabbed the last spot with 85 points. But the dominance in the Western Conference is far greater this season, where teams are on pace to win at least 100 games more than they lose against the East.

"The crackdown on obstruction has clearly made our game faster this season," Bowman says. "You have to be able to adjust to that speed. You also have to be able to find a way to be more creative, to create more space when you have the puck--and to reduce space within the rules when you are defending the puck."

This attention to detail and passion for hockey--even after coaching his 2,000th game November 24--are why it's hard to imagine Bowman retiring.

Bowman puts the Red Wings in the Western Conference depth chart behind Colorado, St. Louis and San Jose. Earlier losses to Nashville, Chicago (twice each) and Calgary have the coach worried that another bad stretch could put the Red Wings at the bottom end of the eight teams that qualify for the playoffs in the cutthroat West.

"It's going to come down to these head-to-head games against the good teams," Bowman says. The rest of the key stretch, Bowman says, is dead ahead: Los Angeles, Dallas, Colorado and Phoenix at home before hitting the road for a stretch of games in Dallas, San Jose, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary. "That's where we'll find out a lot about ourselves," Bowman says of the road trip.

The Red Wings are loading onto the team bus as he speaks, so he's getting ready to get on the road again. He has also thought about what will happen down the road, figuratively.

"I sat back for about a month after we were eliminated from the playoffs and wondered what I would do if I retired. I even made up a list," Bowman says, smiling. "I kept looking at the list. But I couldn't think of something better to do with myself (other) than coach."