Scotty Bowman
Scotty Bowman
Scotty Bowman
William Scott Bowman was born September 18, 1933 in the Montreal suburb of Verdun.
Despite growing up in Montreal, Bowman was a fan of Bill Cowley and the Boston Bruins.
He picked up their radio broadcasts as a kid in Montreal.
Bill Cowley
As a player, he made it to junior “A” playing on the Montreal Junior Canadiens of the Quebec Provincial Junior A Hockey League.
The 1954-55 Junior Canadiens, which Bowman played 10 games for were coached by former Habs great Elmer Lach, and included future NHL stars, even Hall Of Famers such as Henri Richard and Ralph Backstrom.
Montreal Junior Canadiens 1954-55 roster
Bowman’s playing career ended when he suffered a fractured skull from a vicious stick wielded by Jean-Guy Talbot.
Bowman became a paint salesman and cleverly arranged his schedule so as to sneak into Canadiens practices at the Forum which he had access to due to his affiliation with the junior Canadiens.
Forum circa 1950
At the ripe age of 22, Bowman was asked by arguably the greatest General Manager in NHL history, Sam Pollock, to join the Canadiens as a scout.
Bowman coached briefly in the Central League, then the Junior Canadiens.
In 1967, the NHL expanded, doubling the number of teams from 6 to 12.
One of the 6 new teams, the St. Louis Blues hired Bowman as their first head coach.
Bowman coaching the Blues
In St.Louis, Bowman (and Blues management) acquired Talbot, put him in the lineup, Bowman and Talbot never discussed the incident from their junior days.
Bowman guided the Blues to three straight trips to the Stanley Cup Finals.
The 1970 Finals pitted Bowman’s Blues and the high flying (literally) Boston Bruins.
The Stanley Cup winning goal of that series scored by the Bruins Bobby Orr was captured by photographer Ray Lussier, and is considered the greatest hockey picture ever taken.
Bobby Orr’s Stanley Cup winning goal in 1970.
With Bowman as their first head coach, the Blues had a bespectacled defenseman (who subsequently had a Hall Of Fame coaching career himself) as the team’s first captain.
His name…..Al Arbour.
Al Arbour
In 1971, Bowman returned home to his dream job.
Head Coach of the Canadiens.
Although Bowman earned four championship watches, when he was being groomed for greatness within the Montreal Canadiens dynasty during the late 1950s, his first (of a record 9) Stanley Cup championship rings as head coach occurred in 1973 at the helm of the Canadiens.
Bowman with Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau and Habs legend Serge Savard.
Shortly after the ‘73 Cup, Bowman and his wife Suella welcomed their third child, a boy they named….Stanley.
The 1973 championship was a precursor to the most incredible 4 year run in NHL history.
Starting in 1976, with Bowman at the helm, the Canadiens with a roster loaded with Hall Of Famers such as Ken Dryden, Guy Lafleur, Larry Robinson, Serge Savard, Guy Lapointe, Yvan Cournoyer, Bob Gainey, Steve Shutt, Jacques Lemaire captured four consecutive Stanley Cups.
During that outrageous reign, Montreal played 378 games, including playoffs, and lost only 56.
1976-77 Canadiens. Bowman calls this the greatest NHL team ever assembled.
Bowman’s first NHL boss and long time Habs GM Sam Pollock retired from his position in September 1978.
May 21st 1979, the Montreal Canadiens defeated the New York Rangers 4-1 on Forum ice to capture their 4th consecutive Stanley Cup.
The YouTube clip below is from the Habs celebration after winning the 1979 Stanley Cup. It is in French and includes interviews with Guy Lafleur and Scotty Bowman.
That was the last game Scotty Bowman coached for the Montreal Canadiens.
The summer of 1979 was a tumultuous one for the Habs.
Hall Of Fame goaltender Ken Dryden retired at age 32.
Ken Dryden
Bowman left the Habs to become General Manager and head coach of the Buffalo Sabres.
He served as the team's general manager until 1987, doubling as coach on three separate occasions.
During this time, he missed the playoffs for the only time in his coaching career, in the 1985-86 season.
Despite never achieving Stanley Cup success in Buffalo, he left the Sabres as coach with the highest franchise win rate in their history.
He has since been passed by Lindy Ruff.
Bowman resigned from the Sabres 12 games into the 1986–87 season.
He then turned to broadcasting becoming color commentator for the CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada.
He became the Director of Player Personnel of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1990 and was inducted into the Hockey Hall Of Fame in 1991 as a builder.
That summer, “Badger” Bob Johnson, who had just coached the Penguins to their first ever Stanley Cup, was diagnosed with brain cancer, forcing him to step down, and died on November 26, 1991.
Bowman took over as the team's head coach.
Under Bowman, the Penguins repeated as Stanley Cup champions in a season dedicated to Johnson.
Replica Stanley Cup with the names of every Penguins member of the 1991-92 team as well as the late Bob Johnson. One of these 13 inch cups was awarded to everyone on the team.
The next season, the Penguins had their first 100-point season in franchise history and finished with the league's best record. The 1992–93 Penguins under Bowman set the NHL record for consecutive wins in the regular season with 17.
Their 119 points is still a franchise record.
In the playoffs, the Penguins were upset in seven games in the Patrick division finals by the New York Islanders coached by Al Arbour (remember him?).
Bowman left the Penguins that summer.
In 1993-94, Bowman became coach of the Red Wings.
The Wings won 3 Cups under Bowman (1997, 98 & 2002).
Scotty Bowman’s last game as NHL head coach was June 13th 2002.
A 3-1 victory by his Red Wings to claim the 9th Stanley Cup of the NHL’s greatest coach.
Bowman with the Stanley Cup as Red Wings head coach.
In July 2008, he took a position as senior advisor of hockey operations for the Chicago Blackhawks to work alongside his son Stan Bowman, who was general manager.
The Blackhawks' 2010 Stanley Cup victory gave Bowman his 12th Stanley Cup; including coaching and team management.
The Blackhawks' 2013 and 2015 Championships were Bowman's 13th and 14th respectively.
Bowman stepped down from his advisory role in Chicago on July 1, 2022, saying that "it was time to move on."
He holds the record for most wins in league history, with 1,244 wins in the regular season and 223 in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
He ranks second all time (behind Jean Béliveau’s 17) for most Stanley Cup victories by a player, coach or executive with fourteen.
As a hobby, Bowman has embraced golf, proof that he owns at least one vulnerability.
He plays and officiates.
During the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, journalists walked inside the ropes, all the better to witness a Tiger Woods happening.
But besides his caddie, nobody was closer to Woods than Scotty, the walking scorer. That includes the rest of the field. Tiger romped by 15 shots. He made history. Scotty recorded it.
If you want to learn more about Scotty Bowman, including his 8 all-time greatest NHL teams, I suggest reading Ken Dryden’s (yes, the former goalie) book “Scotty A Hockey Life Like No Other”
