Winnipeg Jets head coach Rick Bowness speaks to media on April 22, at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg.Jason Halstead/Getty Images
Today’s daily gratitude goes out to Winnipeg Jets’ coach Rick Bowness.
There wouldn’t be much point in doing this job if there weren’t a few like him left – hockey guys who speak publicly in the same unhinged way they do in private.
If there are no Bownesses left, we might as well conduct this business by news release. Let ChatGPT do the postgame presser. Put an Alexa up on a podium and let it tell us how the boys showed a lot of heart tonight and no one’s more upset about the result than they are.
After the Jets surrendered their first-round series in Vegas the other night, most coaches would have been sad about it. But not Bowness. He was incandescent. When the team’s night ended, his game began.
Without any prompting, Bowness told reporters he was “disappointed” by his guys. Also, “disgusted.” They had “no pushback.” It was the “same crap” as the team’s late-in-the-regular-season swoon.
Perhaps most hurtful of all: “Their better players were so much better than ours, it’s not even close.”
It’s a subjective opinion, but it’s being voiced by someone who would know. Bowness has been in the league for about a hundred years. He’s coached a million teams.
If he can’t speak authoritatively to a team’s will to win, then there is no point in ever discussing such things. You might as well not have a coach at all. Just let the players arrange via group chat when to meet the bus at the hotel every night and then figure it out on the ride to the arena.
But nobody likes a hard truth in the NHL. For a bunch of people who make their living as entertainers, they don’t seem to understand how entertainment works. It’s the good and the bad. People like both things. Too much of one or the other gets boring.
After Bowness, his players got up on the podium to sulk.
The keynote was left to veteran Blake Wheeler. Choosing his words so carefully that he was speaking at 33 RPMs, Wheeler laid bare the group’s hurt feelings: “I thought that Rick had an opportunity to address us as a team, because now we have to answer that question …”
It went on like that for a long time. If the Jets had a sense of theatre, they would’ve hired a string quartet to accompany him.
We get it. You don’t like it. Then just say that.
Instead, Wheeler complained about “how [Bowness] handled himself” and then said, “I know that our performance in Game 5 wasn’t up to a standard that we would have liked it to have been.”
So what you’re actually saying here is that Bowness was right.
We can argue about the way he said it, but his core point – that the Jets pooched it – was, according to the Jets, correct. So what are we complaining about? That he wasn’t nice enough about it? That’s your beef?
What would you do if you heard your boss got up at a corporate retreat and told everyone he was “disgusted” by your latest quarterly report? Would you take it? I hope not. What I hope you’d do is write an angry, companywide e-mail ran that begins, “Me? He’s blaming me?? Let me tell you all about Mr. It’s-Five-O-Clock-And-I’ve-Got-Places-to-Be’s work habits …”
That’s just one lede idea. It’s hard to go wrong if the insults are sharp enough.
No one should be talked about in a derogatory way in the workplace. Except for this one. The NHL isn’t a faculty lounge. It’s a fighting pit. Wherever NHLers are, they are on stage. The more combative the approach, the better the show.
Bowness did his job – tossing Wheeler & Co. a big, fat underhand pitch. They decided they were too upset to swing at it. Which, again, goes some distance to proving Bowness’s point – no pushback.
However, the real disappointment is that after saying what he actually thought, Bowness took half of it back. He called an emergency presser to put out the fire he’d started.
“One of my many faults is that I’m too emotional and wear my heart on my sleeve …” he began, and kept on like that for even longer than Wheeler had.
Is ‘wear my heart on my sleeve’ the new ‘I tell it like it is’? Because nobody likes those people. You ever notice how no one ever wears their heart on their sleeve when they’re asking you for a favour? They only wear their heart on their sleeve after you’ve turned them down.
“I criticize myself for the choice of words,” Bowness said.
So it’s now your fault that it’s their fault, which is also your fault, or …?
This whole ‘I didn’t really mean it the way I said it’ business makes everyone look silly. It makes Bowness seem like a man who isn’t in full control of himself. Really, what other job does a head coach have?
Assuming Bowness is back next season, it makes his players look like drips. They got called out in the crudest possible terms short of actual swear words and the best they could do was, ‘In future, if you’re going to insult us, we’d prefer you insult us in private.’
It makes the Jets executive look feckless. Now they have a mediocre team that doesn’t try hard enough and a coach who feels bad about pointing that out.
What’s the net result of this domestic squabble? Apparently, it’s deciding that no one is to blame. For any of it.
Bowness feels bad for saying it, the Jets feel bad for hearing it and no one is responsible for the team lying down and dying in five games. It just sort of happened.
All they can do now is hope for a different result from the same people doing the same things in the same way.
But as long as no one is made to feel bad about themselves in return for millions and millions of dollars, and nothing newsworthy is ever said by people who are paid to be interesting, I’m sure it’ll all turn out fine.
“To get it done here is really big. It gives us a day to regroup, rest up a bit and get ready for another really good test in Vegas”
The Edmonton Oilers celebrate a 5-4 win against the Los Angeles Kings in Game Six of the First Round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Crypto.com Arena on April 29, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. The Oilers won the series against the Kings 4-2.Photo by Ronald Martinez /Getty Images
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People always like to say that the two best words in sports are Game 7, but those people aren’t from teams and cities with a chance to wrap things up in Game 6.
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For them, the two best words are ‘It’s Over.”
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And, after a long night of drama at Crypto.com Arena capped an equally-compelling series, Edmonton and the Oilers get to say exactly that, after eliminating the Los Angeles Kings in six games.
Kailer Yamamoto scored the winning goal with 3:02 left in a 5-4 victory, letting goaltender Stuart Skinner off the hook for a third period giveaway and sending Edmonton on to the second round where they’ll face the Vegas Golden Knights.
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“It was a really strange series, a really tight series, hard fought series,” said Oilers captain Connor McDavid. “It’s a good sign our group battled through; those tight games are what brings a group together.
“Up and down the lineup we had contributions. Both goalies stepped up in the series. We had seven D-men play and a bunch of different forwards stepping up at crucial times. That’s what hockey is all about. It’s a good sign for our group.”
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L.A.’s urgency and survival instincts kept things close — they came back from 1-0 down in the first period and 3-1 down in the second and 4-3 in the third — but weren’t enough to withstand an Oilers team that was in no mood for a Game 7.
“Game 7, you just never know what could happen,” said McDavid. “A break here or a break there, a call here or there, you’d like to avoid it at all costs.
“To get it done here is really big. It gives us a day to regroup, rest up a bit and get ready for another really good test in Vegas.”
In a series that never lacked for drama, maybe the biggest shocker of all six games came with Edmonton up 4-3, on the power play and with time winding down in the the third period.
Skinner’s stick gave out on a pass attempt and the puck slid right to Phillip Danault on the doorstep. The freebie tied things up with 12:14 to play.
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“When I got the puck it didn’t feel like there was anything different, it felt totally fine,” said Skinner. “I was trying to hit (Evan Bouchard) with a nice, hard, crisp pass and kind of snapped it on the bottom.
“Free goal for that guy. That stuff happens. It’s about how you bounce back from that, how you respond to moments like that. I thought we did a great job.”
That could have been it, but the Oilers steadied themselves and won it on Yamamoto’s seeing-eye shot in the waning moments.
“I was having flashbacks to Game 4 against Calgary last year,” said McDavid, referring to the Flames scoring on Mike Smith from 160-feet midway through the third period last year to tie it 3-3.
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“It’s good that we’ve been in that situation before where a weird one goes in where you feel like you’re doing a lot of good things. The game is tied and you really didn’t do anything wrong.”
There was supposed to be a terrible first period storm awaiting the Oilers in Game 6, but it never really came.
McDavid scored first for Edmonton just 1:25 into the first period to settle everything down and the opening period was pretty much even after that.
Kings defenceman Sean Durzi tied it on low wrister from the point at 8:12, but Klim Kostin restored the lead four minutes later with his second of a playoffs and the Oilers were up 2-1 at the first intermission.
Edmonton surged ahead in the second period on Leon Draisaitl’s power play goal at 4:06. With a 3-1 lead they finally had a little breathing room.
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But it didn’t last long.
The penalty trouble that haunted Edmonton early in the series came back to bite them again, in a big and costly way.
Nick Bjugstad took a minor for holding Anze Kopitar at 5:22 and Adrian Kempe made it 3-2 at 6:36. If that wasn’t enough, Mattias Ekholm got the stick up on Phillip Danault at 7:17 and Kevin Fiala tied it 3-3 at 8:16.
That’s the third time in the series the Kings have come back from 2-0 down and it should have been enough to shift momentum to L.A.’s favour.
But it wasn’t.
The Oilers did some fighting back of their own on another goal from Kostin at 10:54 to set up the third period excitement.
E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com
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The Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers will play Game 7 of the Eastern Conference First Round at TD Garden in Boston on Sunday (6:30 p.m. ET; TNT, CBC, SN, TVAS, NESN, BSFL).
The winner will advance to the Eastern Conference Second Round and play the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Bruins (65-12-5) would host the Maple Leafs (50-21-11) while the Panthers (42-32-8) would start on the road.
The Panthers won 7-5 in Game 6 in Florida on Friday to even the best-of-7 series after trailing 3-1.
Boston is 15-14 all-time in Game 7, including 14-9 at home. The Bruins lost their most recent, 3-2 at the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round last season.
Florida is 1-1 in Game 7, having defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-1 on the road in the 1996 Eastern Conference Final before a 3-2 double-overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils in the 2012 conference quarterfinals.
Florida coach Paul Maurice is 3-0 in Game 7.
The numbers can be applied to argue for each team in a do-or-die situation.
So, we asked the nine staffers who have covered the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for their opinion on who will win Game 7.
Bruins
As the person who has attended all six games of this series -- not to mention watching the Bruins all season -- I'm at a loss. The Bruins haven't looked like the team they've been all season in almost any games in this series. Goalie Linus Ullmark has looked shaky (and the Bruins could swap to Jeremy Swayman). Coach Jim Montgomery has made some head-scratching decisions but, somehow, I still have faith in this team turning it around. Maybe it's that they've been here so much -- Boston is 4-2 since 2010 in Game 7s after losing Game 6 when they could have eliminated their opponent -- or maybe it's that I can't see captain Patrice Bergeron going down with this team, in this Game 7, in what could be the final game of his NHL career. I'm not as confident as I once was, but I'm going with the Bruins. -- Amalie Benjamin, staff writer
I picked the Bruins to win the Stanley Cup, so I'm not giving up on them now. Look, the Panthers have shown a lot of heart, and they've poked holes in the Bruins' cloak of invincibility. It wouldn't surprise me if Matthew Tkachuk scores another huge goal to finish off the upset. The Panthers have no pressure; the Bruins must be feeling a ton. But Boston had a record-breaking regular season for a reason and odds are, at home, in front of their fans, desperate to win, knowing they can win the whole thing, the Bruins will put their best performance on the ice and move on to the second round. This team has found a way to win time after time in situation after situation this season. I'm betting it will do so again. -- Nicholas J. Cotsonika, columnist
I picked the Bruins to win the Stanley Cup, and I'm sticking with them. Boston will win Game 7 for the same reasons I chose them to win the Cup -- they have too much talent and too much veteran experience to let it slip away. Brad Marchand is leading the way for Boston against Florida with 10 points (four goals, six assists), including four assists in a 7-5 loss Friday. Marchand has played in Game 7 on 10 occasions, winning six, and has seven points (three goals, four assists). Patrice Bergeron has appeared in a Game 7 a whopping 13 times, winning six, and has 11 points (six goals, five assists). David Krejci has 11 Game 7 appearances (6-5) and has 10 assists. Boston had a historic season, setting a new regular-season record for wins (65) and points (135). They'll work to avoid joining the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings and the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning, who each held the previous NHL regular-season record of 62 wins, to not win the Stanley Cup. -- William Douglas, staff writer
Credit to the Panthers for their resilience and defiance, led by Matthew Tkachuk, to come back from a 3-1 series deficit to get to this point. Tkachuk is the major difference for the Panthers, who were too deferential in being swept by the Tampa Bay Lightning (two-time defending Stanley Cup champions at the time) last season. Florida has not backed down against Boston, which was the best regular-season team in NHL history in terms of wins (65) and points (135). But the Bruins were that good during the regular season for a reason and, after losing their way the past two games, I think they will regroup and find a way to win Game 7 at home. Every team that wins faces adversity at some point and this is the Bruins' time to overcome it. --Tom Gulitti, staff writer
OK, I never believed this series would go seven games. Nothing against the Panthers, who have played the David role to Boston's Goliath in stellar fashion, but I still see the Bruins winning in Game 7. Part of it is just seeing how incredible the Bruins were throughout the regular season. That doesn't just disappear in the playoffs. Do you have lapses? Sure. Off nights? Absolutely. The Bruins didn't have many of either in the regular season and they're seeing them now, but I still think they right the ship. I know winning the Presidents' Trophy can sometimes be the kiss of death but as someone who covered the Chicago Blackhawks who won that and went on to win the Stanley Cup in 2013, this Bruins team reminds me a lot of that group. -- Tracey Myers, staff writer
I figured this wasn't going to be an easy test for the Bruins, at least physically. That's been the case. Any time you have Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett and Radko Gudas coming at you shift after shift, it's going to take a toll. That isn't going to change in Game 7, especially in and around the Bruins net where the Panthers have made goalie Linus Ullmark look like anything but a Vezina Trophy winner. What points the needle in Boston's favor for me is captain Patrice Bergeron, if healthy. The forward hoisted the Stanley Cup in 2011, and if anyone knows how to calm the nerves of a jittery team that has lost two consecutive games, it's him. Of course, that's not going to matter if Boston doesn't get more consistent goaltending. -- Mike Zeisberger, staff writer
I find it hard to believe the Presidents' Trophy-winning Bruins are in this position, but they suddenly appear vulnerable against what appears to be a more confident and energetic team with nothing to lose. I'm taking Florida to win. It basically comes down to the fact I have more confidence in goalie Sergei Bobrovsky than I do in Linus Ullmark right now. The Panthers have succeeded in two must-win scenarios already, so why not a third on the road in Boston in a winner-take-all matchup? Ullmark has allowed four or more goals three times in this series after conceding four goals or more just twice during the regular season. Boston had the best regular-season record in NHL history, finished 43 points ahead of Florida in the standings and couldn't hold one-goal leads on two separate occasions in the third period of Game 6. The Panthers have the momentum. -- Mike G. Morreale, staff writer
Paul Maurice is the reason the Panthers will author one of the great upsets in the history of the NHL. The Panthers coach has been here, done this. Boston coach Jim Montgomery has not. It is a huge advantage in games like this. Like players, coaches run hot and cold and the 56-year-old is running hot. His decision to switch to Sergei Bobrovsky has changed the tenor of the series and he has out-coached Montgomery thoroughly throughout the past two games. The 53-year-old Montgomery will be coaching in his 20th NHL playoff game and is on his heels, likely forced into making a goaltending decision that will define his legacy and that of his team. I am going to go with experience in this game and Florida will prove my pick of the Bruins reaching the Stanley Cup Final to be ill-advised. -- Shawn P. Roarke, senior director of editorial
Every instinct I have says it has to be the Bruins. But every instinct I had before the series started said it had to be the Bruins. When they were tied 1-1 after struggling in Game 2, it was Bruins. When they went up 3-1 after winning two games in Florida, there was no question it was Bruins in five. Well here we are in Game 7 and the Bruins have more questions than the Panthers. I'm not sold anymore. So, it's Panthers in seven. They're playing better. They have the good mojo going. They have the biggest difference maker in the series in Matthew Tkachuk. They have, gasp, less of a doubt about their goaltending right now. And still hardly anybody expects them to win. Don't tell me they have nothing to lose. They do. They have Game 7 to lose. But they won't. They don't have the burden of history weighing them down. Tkachuk scores and the Panthers get the job done. -- Dan Rosen, senior writer
The NHL record-setting Boston Bruins and the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche are hosting Game 7s on Sunday, and the momentum of their series couldn't be more different.
The Avalanche are riding high after winning Game 6 in Seattle against the second-year Kraken. But the Bruins have lost two in a row against the Florida Panthers and looked sloppy in doing so.
Both teams have questions. Can Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark, who gave up 10 goals over the last two games, find the form that made him a Vezina Trophy favorite? Can the Avalanche overcome injuries, including a fractured neck for Andrew Cogliano?
Who will win Sunday's games? USA TODAY Sports NHL experts weigh in:
Florida Panthers at Boston Bruins
Time, TV: 6:30 p.m., TNT
Bruins 4, Panthers 3. Florida's Matthew Tkachuk will be hard to shut down, but the Bruins will benefit from David Pastrnak regaining his form after getting two goals in Game 6. If the Bruins can limit their turnovers, they should be able to win against a team that finished 43 points below them in the standings. — Mike Brehm
Bruins 4, Panthers 2. The Stanley Cup playoffs are almost always a random enterprise, but still – posting the best regular season of all time should mean something. The Bruins only lost seven games in Boston all year. Are the Panthers really going to beat them three times at TD Garden in one series? Never say never ... but I would be really surprised if it happens. — Jace Evans
Seattle Kraken at Colorado Avalanche
Time, TV: 9:30 p.m., TNT
Avalanche 4, Kraken 2. The Avalanche might be missing some key players from last season's run, but the core knows what it takes to win a big game. Cale Makar returned from a one-game suspension in Game 6 and played a big role in that Avalanche victory. Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Makar will give the Avalanche enough offense to win. — Brehm
Avalanche 3, Kraken 1. Credit the Kraken: I never expected this series to reach this point but they've been extremely game, and at this point I won't be shocked if they win. But with their backs against the wall Friday, the defending champs pumped Seattle, outshooting the Kraken 39-23 on the way to a 4-1 road victory. With their championship experience leading the way I think the Avs dig deep and win on home ice. — Evans
Toronto Maple Leafs forward Matthew Knies and defenceman Mark Giordano, who each exited Thursday's loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning briefly with injuries, both participated in an optional skate Saturday morning, TSN's Mark Masters reports.
Matthew Knies and Mark Giordano both on the ice at Leafs skate @TSN_Edge
Knies, 20, appeared to be shaken up after he was struck in the leg by a puck on Thursday. He went to the locker room briefly, but was able to return and logged 11:46 of ice time in the loss.
The rookie has appeared in four games in this series, recording two points. He has played just seven professional hockey games in his career, and joined the Leafs in the middle of April after a successful season at the University of Minnesota, where he scored 21 goals and tallied 42 points in 40 games.
Giordano appeared to be injured after a late hit that drew a penalty by Tampa Bay's Pat Maroon. He went to the locker room and returned later in the game.
Giordano played in 78 games for the Leafs this season, his second with the team. He scored four goals and totaled 24 points.
Masters also noted that defenceman Justin Holl participated in the optional skate, where his tendency is to not participate when he is in the lineup. The defenceman has registered a minus-seven rating for the Leafs in this series, worst on the team.
Justin Holl is taking part in Leafs optional skate
He usually stays off the ice when he’s playing @TSN_Edge
Conversely, defenceman Timothy Liljegren did not participate in the optional skate; his usual routine is not to skate when he's playing. Liljegren last suited up for the Leafs in the regular-season finale. He scored six goals and tallied 18 points in 67 games for Toronto this year.
Timothy Liljegren is not on the ice at Leafs optional skate
His usual routine is to not skate when he’s playing
The Maple Leafs lead the series 3-2 and Game 6 will go in Tampa Bay on Saturday night. Toronto has not advanced beyond the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs since the 2003-04 season.
That’s not stopping them from considering making a very tough decision prior to Game 7 against the Florida Panthers.
In fact, nothing is.
The Bruins dropped their second consecutive opportunity at burying the Panthers on Friday, allowing Florida to tie the series at three games apiece and force a decisive Game 7 on Sunday. It was about as poor a performance as could be expected from the most dominant regular-season team in NHL history, which has Boston head coach Jim Montgomery considering changes up and down the roster.
“Montgomery said he considered making a goalie change (in Game 6),” Matt Porter of The Boston Globe tweeted Friday night. “For Game 7, every player is under review.”
The decision to make a change in net is an obvious one, and likely will be the most difficult to make. Ullmark has looked far from the triple-crown winning goaltender that he was during the regular season, especially during the Bruins’ losses in Game 5 and 6. The 29-year-old allowed 20 goals across the first six games of the series, giving him an abysmal .895 save percentage.
The issue with making a change? Jeremy Swayman has not started in the series, meaning you would be headed into a Game 7 with a goaltender who played a total of three minutes in the 17 days leading into it.
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