Bowness: 'I still have the passion to coach' following Stanley Cup Final

When the Stars made the transition from Jim Montgomery to Rick Bowness in December, all sides said they would look at Bowness as an "interim" head coach until the season was over.
Who knew the season would go like this.

Bowness still is the team's "interim" head coach, and he and general manager Jim Nill are expected to talk soon. But both Nill and owner Tom Gaglardi said earlier that the job is Bowness' if he wants it.
"Rick and I have both agreed from the start that we'll sit down at the end of this and we'll digest everything. Go through it," Nill said Sept. 15. "He definitely has earned the right to come back as the coach."
Bowness has said on several occasions that he won't talk about the job until the season is over, but he was asked what he has learned about himself after the Game 6 loss and he was quite philosophical.
"I love the game. I love coaching," Bowness, 65, said. "What I learned is that I still have the passion to compete, I still have the passion to coach. That's what I've learned. I know I'm getting up there, and there's a lot more behind me than ahead of me, but I still have the passion."
The loss against the Lightning was emotional. Bowness spent five years with Tampa Bay as an assistant coach and left in 2018 to come to Dallas. He knows most of the players and was a mentor to head coach Jon Cooper and Conn Smythe Trophy winner Victor Hedman.

"I have great rapport with all the players there, so I worked with them all closely for five years," Bowness said. "It's hard to describe. You only get so many shots at winning the Stanley Cup, so you're dealing with emotions of that. Again, I have a great rapport with a lot of the players that are still there, so it's different. I can tell you that."
This is the third time Bowness has made it to the Stanley Cup Final. He was an assistant coach with Vancouver in 2011, and the Canucks lost to the Bruins in seven games. He was an assistant coach with Tampa Bay in 2015, and the Lightning lost in six games to the Blackhawks. Then there is this year.
"Three kicks at it in the last nine years, and it's disappointing," Bowness said. "But again, from sitting here as a coach, I couldn't get any more out of the team than we did, so you have to live with the results. You've got to roll with the punches. You deal with it the best you can. I couldn't ask for more from our players, so if it wasn't enough to beat that team, then it wasn't enough."
That said, Bowness believes he has plenty of energy to keep coaching.
"That's the most important thing," he said. "I've always told my family that the day I wake up and I don't want to go to the rink, then I know the passion's gone. We're not there yet, so I'm just going to keep pushing."
Bowness last was a head coach in 2004 with the Coyotes before his promotion, but he has been on an NHL bench as assistant coach or head coach for 36 seasons. Nill said he saw a lot of things in the playoffs that made him know Bowness can be the team's head coach going forward.
"When you watch a team play, you can tell who they're playing for," Nill said. "This team is playing for the coach, and the coach is coaching for the players. That's a great reflection on everybody."

Stars ready to leave the bubble

Coaches and players were asked in the morning if there was anything they will miss about the "bubble," the quarantined environment that allowed them to compete for the Stanley Cup? The Stars arrived July 26, and Tampa Bay started its quarantine in Toronto about the same time.
"Not one bit," Bowness said. "I've already told my wife, 'Don't even expect to go to a restaurant for a while.' No, there's not one bit. Actually, you make the best of it and that's what we've done. It is what it is. We knew coming in and we were all prepared to be here 9-10 weeks and that's where we are. No, there won't be one bit of this bubble life that I'm going to miss."
Stars winger Corey Perry chuckled when he was asked.

"We just hope everything in the world gets back to normal and we can have fans back in the building and get back to our regular schedule," Perry said. "That's what we're looking forward to."
Cooper also laughed.
"Probably the best part of this whole thing is going to be when we check out," he said.

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This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika, and listen to his podcast.