Scotty Bowman 86-90

[crobro]

Scotty Bowman is now arguably the greatest of all NHL coaches

But why was he persona non grata after his dismissal from the Sabres and forced to wander the wilderness for 5 years

Didn’t his record not make him an instant coaching replacement elsewhere?

Click to read more...

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

i thought he was retired?

 

[The Panther]

He was doing Oilers' broadcasts a bit during 1987-88. He wasn't bad!

 

[reckoning]

I don't think he was looking to coach at that time. He would've had no problem getting a head coach job if he wanted one, but he still had his sights on a management position.

He did color commentary for HNIC on a Montreal-Hartford series in the late-80s, and said he was very impressed with the play of Ron Francis and Ulf Samuelsson in it. Not coincidentally, Pittsburgh acquired both of them after Bowman joined the team.

 

[tony d]

Given he was only in his mid 50's at the time and having some success under his belt it's a wonder he never coached. Did he have any offers I wonder? He was Pittsburgh's director of player personnel before he became their coach so he didn't get back into coaching right away.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

could it be just as simple as his kids were getting older and he wanted to not be on the road all the time?

stan bowman is the only one of the bowman kids (five of them) that i can find the age of. but he was 14 when bowman left the sabres, so the timing checks out. when bowman went back behind the bench to take over for badger bob, stan was starting college.

 

[The Roy Of Ottawa]

Yeah, why wasn't Scotty Bowman big in the 80s?

 

[ShelbyZ]

This article sheds a little on it, at least from the beginning:

How Buffalo Shuffle Beat Scotty Bowman

He will think of something. So far, since he was fired as general manager of the Buffalo Sabres six weeks ago, Bowman has taken (a) it hard, (b) five entire days in Florida, (c) a couple of the paychecks the Sabres are obligated to send him over the next 18 months and (d) his first opportunity in more than 30 years to smell the roses.

The only challenge directly in front of the National Hockey League`s all- time winningest coach is the free time that he pledges to enjoy with his wife and five school-age children.

``I would like a hockey job with less profile,`` he said. ``I can`t put my finger on it. Maybe as an analyst on TV. Something will come along. I think I`m going to write a book.
``Coaching? It would be tough to go back to it. I wouldn`t want to get into anything long-term.

Sounds like he was still getting paid after he was let go by the Sabres, was burned out a bit, and decided he didn't want to uproot his school aged kids out from Buffalo to take a job elsewhere. He did the HNIC gig for a bit until his buddy Craig Patrick offered him a job with the Pens that allowed him to work from home in Buffalo.

Legends of Hockey - Spotlight - One on One with Scotty Bowman

Woven into the Scotty Bowman story over and over again is the recurring theme of loyalty. In 1989-90, Scotty Bowman returned to the NHL, joining the Pittsburgh Penguins as Director of Player Personnel. The executive who hired him was Craig Patrick. Patrick had played for Scotty Bowman on the Montreal Junior Canadiens. Craig's father Lynn had been quick to notice the excellent instruction given his son by Bowman, and when the NHL expansion took place in 1967, Lynn Patrick had hired Bowman in St. Louis. Now, twelve years later, the prodigy was turning to his mentor for support. "Craig Patrick had just signed their coach, Bob Johnson, and I got the opportunity to go in player development. It made a lot of sense. I was looking at getting back in the NHL and the job appealed to me because my kids were going to school in Buffalo and this was an opportunity for me to work out of my home in Buffalo, which I did the first year. I was watching NHL games and we made a good trade towards the deadline, picking up Ronnie Francis and Ulf Samuelsson from Hartford. That completed our team and we won the Cup in the first year. Unfortunately, Bob Johnson got sick during the second year and they were looking for someone to keep the job for him until he recovered. I took the job on an interim basis but Bob died during the season. Bob was a wonderful man and a great coach and brought a winning attitude to the team. He got the most out of the best players. What he brought to the team more than anything was the positive attitude he always had. It was a tragic year when he got sick after winning the Cup. We were struggling at the beginning and Craig Patrick asked me to stay on and I did. We made another good trade that year and picked up Rick Tocchet from Philadelphia and that helped trigger another Cup. The third year, we had the best team we ever had but we got knocked out. Mario Lemieux had some injuries but I was there for his comeback from Hodgkin's and it was a wonderful stretch - two years of coaching and one year as Director of Player Personnel."