MLive’s Ansar Khan spoke with former Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman, who’s watching the Buffalo Sabres’ Prospects Challenge this weekend:
He keeps close tabs on the Atlantic Division.
“It’s a tough division,” Bowman said. “The Panthers, Lightning, Boston and Toronto are going to get challenged now, but how much have they fallen off? Detroit, Buffalo and Ottawa are all into their rebuild, they’re getting some young players. It’s going to be a battle. Montreal isn’t there yet but they’re not patsies. It should be a pretty interesting year. Detroit should be better. I like the two forwards they added – (Alex) DeBrincat and (J.T.) Compher — he was pretty good with Colorado. DeBrincat will score goals.”
The game has changed significantly since Bowman first stepped behind an NHL bench with the expansion St. Louis Blues in 1967.
“Fast game now,” Bowman said. “Oh, my God! I watched these kids today (at the Prospects Challenge) and if you asked me to pick out a poor skater, there’s hardly any. They’re always chasing the puck. I find it even tougher to watch. Before at times you’d see a guy start taking the puck up the ice and looking around. Now there’s not much looking around. You see the puck and you usually see six guys. They’ve changed the game a lot and it’s fast. The equipment, too. The sticks are tuned right up. Skates are much different. Not as flexible but more rigid.”
Scotty is right, the game has changed a lot from when he coached, but man those 90s teams had so much skill/puck possession that I believe they would’ve thrived in this current era.