Rick Bowness Era - Why is it even here and what’s next for the Dallas Stars
My thoughts about probably the most polarizing person behind Stars bench in a long time.
Let me do a bit of a preview of my fandom first, please. I’ve been a Stars fan since early 00’ years thanks to probably NHL 2003 - first PC game I’ve played - and I immediately fell in love with the Dallas Stars and especially two guys. Mike Modano and Marty Turco. This connection was deeply strengthened by one issue of Pro Hockey Magazine (only hockey magazine available in Czech Republic and Slovakia at that time) in which was a feature on Turks. My affinity to him and his masks, cool jersey and pads were pretty strong - so strong it made Marty Turco my favorite player at that time.
The Dallas Stars had an identity as a team already back then - hard to play against, defense first system provided by Dave Tippett which should be effective come playoff time. Spoiler alert, it was not as effective as we hoped it would be. Their best scorer, usually Mike Modano and I think Bill Guerin one time as well, almost never passed 100 point mark, whereas players like Naslund, Jagr and others did it with relative ease.
Flash forward 10 years (to 2013-16) and we have the new Dallas Stars, with Victory Green jerseys, new faces of the franchise in Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin and high octane offense system provided by none other than Lindy Ruff. This is where I fell in love with this team for the second time - especially during the closing stages of the 2014-15 season as Jamie Benn won the Art Ross trophy, famously with only 87 points - and mainly during the 2015-16 season. Many Stars fans can confidently say we were a solid goalie away from Stanley Cup.
Dragging a very good Blues team to Game 7 with Niemi/Lehtonen tandem was everything this team was able to do, but to this day I strongly believe they’d beat Sharks and potentially even Penguins to hoist Stanley Cup. If you add, let’s say Ben Bishop to this team (or even Cam Talbot, who once Jim Nill was not willing to trade Julius Honka for, oh how the times have changed) there is no stopping the team, really.
This all would probably lead to establishing Dallas Stars as the offensive revolutionaries of the game, as Ken Hitchcock famously proclaimed during the 2015-16 season - “This is the future of hockey, Dallas Stars style of play.”
It just didn’t happen.
We all know what happened instead.
Injury-riddled 2016-17 season brought Lindy Ruff to the end of his contract and it just wasn’t renewed. Tom Gagliardi intervened and Ken Hitchcock was hired.
Total change of philosophy of Dallas Stars hockey came with it. Defense first. Tyler Seguin would become the next Mike Modano and subordinate himself to the good of the team, play 200-feet hockey and more. It was his best goal-scoring season, to be frank, with 40 goals that year.
Late-season collapse and a lot of strange vibes coming from Hitchcock ended his tenure rather prematurely and this is where the story gets interesting.
Jim Nill was entrusted by the owner Tom Gagliardi to find a long-term solution for the Dallas Stars hockey team in the coaching position. It was really understood as a franchise defining moment and Nill went bravely into non-recycled waters of possible coach, thinking outside the box and potentially bringing a new culture and system all together.
I remember following this process as closely as possible from across the pond thanks to Sean Shapiro and his coverage. The names mentioned as possibilities were pretty interesting - Sheldon Keefe, Jim Montgomery or Todd Nelson among others.
In the end, the decision was Jim Montgomery and I was honestly pretty elated about it. Finally a young coach, who will trust the youth and help them develop. All this talk about possession style of play (really similar to Keefe’s Toronto today, honestly) just helped it.
The first few months were pretty rocky for Montgomery (“fucking horseshit” quote from Jim Lites, culture of mediocrity quote from the coach himself) but he’s found his saddle and eventually led Stars into postseason where they faced Central Division champs Nashville Predators.
I watched this series during my vacation in Nepal and Dubai (the time zones there are much friendlier than in Europe to watch playoff hockey by the way) and it was something. The OT winner from John Klingberg is still one of my favorite go-to-videos on Youtube. I remember coming back from vacation to Game 6 in round 2, which was played at 21.00 local time in Europe against St.Louis, at home to potentially get into Western Conference finals. We know how it unfolded, with 1-4 loss and then another Game 7 loss against the Blues. Maybe I should’ve stayed on vacation until the end of the playoffs to ensure the Stanley Cup for the Stars. I seriously take the blame, we can move on now. Or can we?
The next season (2019-20) started rough but during November and early December, Stars were one of the best teams in the league. They had the process, during which they should hit the target on 6 things in a game. Sean Shapiro documented it quite heavily and it was clear that if they did that, they were successful. It was Montgomery’s thing. I always like when the coaches preach process during the regular season. This is where I come to the core of what I wanted to say in this blog.
We all know what happened and how shocked everybody was when Montgomery was dismissed for personal reasons. Rick Bowness was promoted as interim head coach and we could see the differences immediately.
Rick was pretty rusty in press conferences even and had to adjust pretty heavily into the head coach role. His role was just to steady the ship until the replacement is found.
Stars lost 6 straight in February where basically everybody started to become impatient with “Bowness Hockey” - just when the COVID outbreak began.
Rick Bowness, to his credit, managed to turn the public view around by the Stars performance in the bubble. More activation from the defenders and generally just the better vibe around the team helped Stars to reach the Stanley Cup Final. Of course it wasn’t that simple.
Stars faced pretty leaky Cam Talbot in Round 1 vs Calgary and also mostly not great Pavel Francouz and Michael Hutchinson for the Avs in Round 2. Typical Vegas scoring drought when it matters most and voilá - Stanley Cup Final. That’s the other way of looking at it.
My view is that Rick Bowness is a good hockey mind who can prepare the team to face one opponent in a series better than prepare a team to cruise through the regular season. Oftentimes we hear quotes from him after victories in the regular season - “We got the 2 points, that’s all that matters”. He isn't a particular fan of a process, per se. He just needs wins to get to the Stanley Cup playoffs. Sure, it’s key. But is it enough for the long term?
We’ve seen it many times this season where Stars are “turtling” in the 3rd period when they lead, basically allowing the opponent to come back into the game, juuuust to hang on for a one-goal victory.
It isn’t going to work every time, as evidenced by the Arizona Game 81 this season:
It’s a sign of a coach who is afraid to lose, in my view. So many lost overtimes last year and injuries plagued the season, but the question should be: Why were there so many overtimes in the first place?
Yeah, Stars were missing Seguin, Radulov and Bishop which is daunting itself. But many games were played “not to lose” instead of “to win” and that’s exactly why the margin is so thin - as evident during this season. I can say it’s the Stars improved OT/SO record which brought them into the playoffs and probably not many would disagree with the statement.
I’m not going to talk more about other issues Stars fans have with Rick Bowness - incorrect utilization of young players like Denis Gurianov, Thomas Harley and on the other hand, over reliance on players like Radek Faksa. Hell, it’s not only the fans who go on about it. It’s the hockey analysts as well, just to mention a few - Micah Blake McCurdy @InnefectiveMath, Dmitri Filipovic or Dom at the Athletic.
I want to end on a note of my perspective. I know I’m not there to watch the games live. I follow them as closely as possible from Europe, which is a hard-enough task to do sometimes. I fully believe Rick Bowness can prepare a team for a grueling playoff series and even help the team win, we’ve seen him do that in the bubble. They can also be swept by the Calgary Flames in the coming days and no one will bat an eye, to be fair.
I would just like to see the coaching philosophy in the Stars front office as a key point to focus on during this summer. I want to feel as a part of the philosophy and unite with it. Think Jurgen Klopp in Liverpool FC but in hockey. I want it to be a long-term solution, ideally.
I like Rick Bowness as a person. I’m sure the players too. Maybe not everyone, but most of them. He’s best suited as an assistant who has been there, done that. Since he was promoted as a head coach, I don’t get the vibes from him as a “players coach” anymore, though.
I don’t like the lack of self-reflection where every time it’s the players’ mistake and not a single one time it’s the coaches, for example. It’s only my perspective and it could be very wrong but I’d appreciate the change and I’m sure many fans as well.
It’s been statistically proven that the offensive hockey actually wins in the playoffs in the last few years, so I’m a bit afraid of the Dallas Stars philosophy. I trust Jim Nill, although maybe less than 5 years ago, but I’m really not sure if they get it right, when it comes to the next coach, who will come sooner or later for the Dallas Stars.
I do hope they get it right, though. It is vital for the fandom of many Stars fans.