No storybook ending, but Bowness can be proud of time leading Stars

Rick Bowness can look back at his time with the Dallas Stars and feel proud.
He took over under tough circumstance, navigated tough circumstances, and eventually has to move on under tough circumstances, but he made the best of the situation and eventually did a pretty good job.
Sure, there will be critics - there always are when you're an NHL coach - but the end result is pretty solid, really.

READ MORE: [Bowness steps down as Stars head coach; assistants Stevens, Laxdal and Nelson will not return in 2022-23]
Bowness on Friday
announced he will be moving on
, and the Stars followed suit by saying they will be changing the entire coaching staff. That's the way of pro sports. The Stars lost in the first round, so they have to aspire to be better, and being better means trusting a new coaching staff to come up with new ideas. But if you look back at the Bowness arch, there is a lot to like.
First of all, he took over as head coach after Jim Montgomery was fired, and that in itself is an incredible challenge. Nobody expected Montgomery to be fired. It came as a shock to the entire organization, so Bowness had to deal with that. To adjust to his promotion, the staff of assistant was reconfigured, as well, and he had to deal with that. And, when you look at the group of assistants, it was an interesting group to begin with.

Bowness was running the defense and now had to start running the forwards. John Stevens was good friends with Montgomery and was brought on as an assistant coach who would help Montgomery and oversea different areas of need. He had to start running the defense. Derek Laxdal was brought up from the Texas stars and had to start helping with the forwards and special teams.
Now, each person was capable of doing their jobs. Stevens had run the defense on several NHL teams, including two Stanley Cup champions in Los Angeles. Laxdal was more head coach than assistant, but knew well the challenges of his job. And Bowness had been a head coach, although it was almost two decades earlier.
But the group, along with assistant coach Todd Nelson, came together and found a path. And really, they did a great job later in the year when they restructured the team and headed into the playoffs with a unified coaching style that helped the team get to the Stanley Cup Final in the Edmonton bubble.
Before that, everyone had to deal with the Covid pandemic that shut down the league. That created a challenge, but the Stars turned it into an opportunity, as Bowness directed his coaches to do extra work and solve some problems with a team that headed into the break in an 0-4-2 slump. The group came out with a strategy to activate the defensemen more, and Dallas then went on a run in the bubble, beating Calgary in six games, Colorado in seven games, Vegas in five games, and then losing to Tampa Bay in six games.
That's an astounding run against some fantastic talent, and the entire team deserves credit for it.

Jamie Benn was the leader among the players, and he gives a lot of credit to Bowness. The head coach was able to establish a family environment that was crucial while they were locked in the bubble. While other teams struggled with the closeness, the Stars thrived on it. While other teams buckled under the weight of injuries, the Stars kept digging deeper and finding answers.
It's tough to quantify just how impressive that performance was.
Then, when they returned for the 2020-21 season in January, the Stars were again beset by injuries. Tyler Seguin missed most of the year following a couple of surgeries. Alexander Radulov went down 11 games in anas never the same again. The pandemic postponed four games, a freak winter storm postponed four more. The team had to finish a 54-game season on a chaotic run that included pretty much a game every other night.
Bowness and his players didn't want to hear the excuses. They handled adversity the year before. They simply wanted to get back up and try again.
And they did. With a pretty healthy lineup and a full 82-game season, the Stars were able to grind out 98 points. It was the second-highest regular season point total in 15 years. It wasn't exactly what they wanted, but it was a success.

They got into the playoffs and took Calgary to overtime in Game 7. A lot of that was due to Jake Oettinger and his other-worldly goaltending, and Bowness acknowledged that. Oettinger also acknowledged that Bowness and goalie coach Jeff Reese were a big part of why he was so good.
It was just more confirmation that the 67-year-old was a player's coach who found a way to connect with even the youngest of players.
If you ask the players, Rick Bowness was a good dude. He cared about you as a person, he cared about you as a player, he was honest and fair. That said, he didn't win enough. That's the bottom line in pro spots. Win enough, and you don't have to be a good dude. Lose too much, and being a good dude isn't enough.
The Stars want more than what they have accomplished in the past 15 years. They want consistent winning, they want another run to the Cup. That's fair, and Rick Bowness likely accepts that fact.
So, the team will move forward and try to find a different coach and coaching staff. It's part of the gig, really.

Bowness said in his interview with the media that if wants a job in the NHL, he can have one. That's not cocky, it's simply true. He has coached more games than any man in NHL history, and he is respected as one of the best assistants in the league.
This last job as a head coach didn't end the way he had hoped, and there is disappointment in that. But if it's his last kick at the can as a bench boss, he should walk away with his head held high. He earned a lot of respect from his players and peers.
And that means something.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika.