This isn’t Red Wings-related, but it’s a “good read”: one William Scott “Scotty” Bowman spoke with NHL.com’s Dave Stubbs regarding the Stanley Cup Final.
As Bowman is generally based in Sarasota, Florida, he sees most Tampa Bay Lightning home games, but he’s been at home in Buffalo since the regular season was cancelled due to the pandemic. He tells Stubbs that he expects the final to live up to its billing:
“I think we’re going to see spectacular hockey,” the legendary coach said of the series between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Dallas Stars, which starts Saturday at Rogers Place in Edmonton (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, CBC, SN, TVAS). “We never knew what was going to happen with the pandemic, but now the end is in sight.”
Bowman, who turned 87 on Friday, might have a winner picked, but he’s not sharing it publicly out of respect for each organization. Based near Tampa during the winter, he scouts for the Chicago Blackhawks as senior adviser of hockey operations at almost every home game of the Lightning and is friendly with their front office and coaching staff and familiar with their roster.
He includes Dallas CEO Jim Lites and general manager Jim Nill, each of whom he worked with in the Detroit Red Wings organization, and Stars coach Rick Bowness among his friends.
But Bowman, who has won the Stanley Cup 14 times — a record nine as a coach with the Montreal Canadiens (1973, 1976-79), Pittsburgh Penguins (1992) and Red Wings (1997-98, 2002), then five more as an executive with the Penguins (1991), Red Wings (2008) and Blackhawks (2010, 2013, 2015) — has advice for each team.
