Rick Bowness is taking a leave of absence from the Winnipeg Jets after his wife, Judy, suffered a seizure Sunday evening. She is in the hospital undergoing further testing.
While Bowness is away, associate coach Scott Arniel will be interim coach.
"Our thoughts and prayers go out to Judy and Rick," Arniel said Monday. "Very serious and tough time for them right now. We're just waiting day to day with this and see how she progresses and see how Rick's doing. Everybody is certainly feeling it. It's family here. It's part of what we talk about all of the time. It really hits everyone hard."
The Jets, who host the St. Louis Blues at Canada Life Centre on Tuesday (8:45 p.m. ET; TSN3, BSMW), are 2-3-0 after a 3-2 overtime win against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday, when they rallied from down 2-0.
"It's scary, obviously," Jets forward Mark Scheifele said. "All we can do is hope and pray for them (until) obviously they figure it out and get her healthy again. That's all we can do is pray for them and their family and wish them the best.
"Just amazing people. First and foremost they're amazing human beings, and that always comes first. Obviously, it's a hockey game, but they're amazing people, amazing human beings, and all you can do is keep praying for them. But they are two amazing people."
This is Bowness' second season as coach of the Jets after he spent the previous four seasons with the Dallas Stars, first as an associate and then as coach. He's 48-36-3 in Winnipeg.
The 68-year-old has coached 726 NHL games over 14 seasons, going 260-387-31 with 48 ties. His coaching career began as an assistant with the Jets in 1983, and he's spent more games behind an NHL bench as a coach or assistant than anyone in League history.
"Just thinking about Judy and 'Bones' and their whole family," Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey said. "Just kind of waiting to hear as we get more information. Certainly big news this morning. It's difficult when a member of our family here goes through something like that. Just praying for Judy and the family and do our best here at the rink to do what we need to do for Bones."
NHL.com independent correspondent Darrin Bauming contributed to this report
