Scotty Bowman or Wayne Gretzky

[Heaton]

I've been thinking about this recently but are their accomplishments comparable? Such as, is there an argument to say that Bowman has accomplished more than Gretzky has? I'd say they're comparable, Winningist coach vs. The great one, whose career was better?

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[VanIslander]

Apples and oranges.

 

[Snap Wilson]

Fruitbats and orangutangs.

 

[John Flyers Fan]

I've been thinking about this recently but are their accomplishments comparable? Such as, is there an argument to say that Bowman has accomplished more than Gretzky has? I'd say they're comparable, Winningist coach vs. The great one, whose career was better?

IMO Gretzky by a mile. while I agree that Bowman was a great, great coach and probably the best of all-time, you need the horses to have big time winning team.

For example take a look at an average NHL team last year:

Nashville Predators, they finished with 91 points. If you substituted Scotty Bowman for Barry Trotz (someone I'd consider an average head coach) how many more points do you think they earn ??? 94, 96 ???

If however you substituted Wayne Gretzky for David Legwand (slightly above average), I think you'd have seen the Preds somehwere in the neighborhood of 105-110 points.

 

[David Puddy]

while I agree that Bowman was a great, great coach and probably the best of all-time, you need the horses to have big time winning team.

The St. Louis Blues went 13-10-5 under Bowman in 1970-71 and 21-15-14 under Al Arbour, which is a difference of .554 for Bowman and a .560 for Arbour.

The Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup the year before Bowman took over as head coach and eventually was at the helm of five championship teams in his eight seasons there. The season after Bowman left Montreal, the teams only earned eight less points during the regular season with Bernie Geoffrion as head coach. It should also be pointed out that Ken Dryden had also left the Canadiens for retirement.

Buffalo was not a powerhouse. Bowman did a fine job with the Sabres, but his success was comparable to that of Floyd Smith, who had coached in Buffalo for three seasons ending three seasnons before Bowman took the job. During the 1985-86 season, Bowman was forced back behind the bench. He guided the Sabres to an 18-18-1 record, which is .500, the same average the team finished with in going 37-37-6.

The Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup under Bob Johnson the season before Bowman guided the Penguins to there second straight championship.

Detroit actually had a better record (47-28-9) under Bryan Murray in his final season in the Motor City than Bowman's first (46-30-8.) Both those squads, 1992-93 and 1993-94, bowed out of the playoffs in the first round.

I just find it hard to come up with evidence that shows me that Scotty Bowman is the greatest coach in NHL history because of his great record and his many Stanley Cup Championships.

I am certainly not saying that Scotty Bowman merely "went along for the ride." I think he did a great job to win as many games and Stanley Cups as he did with his powerful teams, for not every coach can get talented teams to win games.

I say that Fred "the Fog" Shero did a lot more as a coach than Bowman did. Shero molded the Flyers teams into a tough, highly talented force in the NHL in the mid-70's. He also did a great job with a less-than-great Rangers team in the late-70's.

 

[monkey_00*]

Strawberries and Bananas