OverDrive - Bowness on the coaching perspective of trade deadline, the player transition and the Atlantic Division power

Episode Date: March 10, 2025

Longtime NHL Head Coach Rick Bowness joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the NHL, the coaching perspective of the trade deadline and how players transition on teams, the Atlantic Division viewpoints and more.

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Switch to Bell PureFiber, Canada's fastest internet, awarded by UCCLA. Starting from $60 a month. Visit bell.ca for more details and to check availability. Here he is, long time NHL head coach. Here's Rick Bonus. How are you doing, Rick? Doing great, thanks. How are you guys? We're doing very well.

I mean, we're somewhat relieved, I guess, that the trade deadline's over. I'm curious how you felt about it throughout your career. Like, could you sense a difference in terms of the mood in the room once the trade deadline finally passed? Oh, absolutely. You know, as a coach, you always try to control the noise around your team as best you can.

You get there that week, two weeks before the deadline, and it's everywhere and that's all the media and everyone wants to talk about. So you try to avoid talking about it as much as you can but the reality of it is in the locker room, you know the players are talking about it every chance they get and they're watching the news and they're reading social media and they know what's going on. So yeah, as a coach you're happy it's behind you. You're also very very happy when everyone, teammates included, believe you became a better team out of it. But there's no question it's a bit of a

distraction and the challenge again is for every coach in that league to keep as much noise about it out of the locker room as you can. Especially you know during the day of a game you don don't want them to talk about potential trades or who's coming, who's going. But the other thing you had to do is, is when you have a player that's being mentioned every day about possibly traded, you had to have constant communication with him, uh, and let him know what, where he stood and what was going on.

You just couldn't ignore it. Uh, some of those are tough conversations, but nor can you be afraid to have those. But if a player you had was being mentioned every day in every trade going around the league, you certainly had to address that with him. I'm always curious what is more challenging for a head coach after you acquire a couple of different players? Is it making sure those new players are comfortable or more or making sure the carryover players there that are getting pushed

aside to an extent to make room for those new players are Comfortable if you understand what I'm saying like the new guys are coming in You got to make sure they know the system and they know what's going on But if they're coming in and they're plugging in to make sure they know the system and they know what's going on but if they're coming in and they're plugging in someone's moving down the depth chart and maybe they're not overly ecstatic about that which which challenge is more of a priority for a coach post acquisition they're they're both very very challenging there's no question now a lot of that has to do with the person or the player that you're bringing in. And I'll use Seth Jones as an example.

Seth Jones walks into that Florida Panthers room. Every player on that team is excited to see him. And yeah, one of their teammates that they battled through all year is going to lose some minutes, is going to lose some ice time. But every one of them knows this guy has an immediate presence in that locker room and you know he's going to help you win he's going to help you have challenge for the Stanley Cup if you look at Dylan Cousins going into Ottawa okay now he's coming from a team that hasn't made the playoffs so what is it now 13 years and the team is

underachieved the last little bit he's coming in for a very very popular teammate okay so you know they love Josh Norris as you can see the reactions from Brady and Almark. So he's walking into a totally different room. So those players are sitting there a little apprehensive saying, okay, we traded for you. We hope you can come in and find your game again, because everyone's talked about he's having a tough year. Players are well aware of that. We hope you can come in and find your game again, because everyone's talked about, he's having a tough year. Players are well aware of that. We hope you can find your game and help us. And it's up to the coach to mediate that.

You got to help that new player with the video and supporting him in every chance you get, you've got to go to your captain, your leadership group and pretty well, everyone on the team. Okay. We just lost an important part of our team, but now, you know, management feels this guy's going to make everyone on the team. Okay, we just lost an important part of our team but now you know management feels this guy's gonna make it down the road, is gonna make us a better team. Something had to be done to tweak the room so we've done that. Now we all have to support it. Don't have to like it and as we all know hockey is the greatest game of the world but we also know it's

tough business, coaches and players. So you had to just look at those two scenarios. Jones is one thing, Cousins is another. And it's up to the coach to handle both of those. But you'd much prefer handling the Jones scenario than the Cousins scenario. Well, Rick, how does the off-ice component affect you as a coach? Because obviously, you know, the player is probably like their head is spinning. Like, have you found that that's something that really affects some of the players that come into a new team after a trade where they're kind of just like the on ice stuff is actually easier for them than the off ice stuff? Yeah I agree with that.

Your job as a coach again is to make sure that players feels wanted and feels that you're welcoming him with an open arms and we got you, we think you make us a better team. And then you start working with him every day. You're talking to him to see how he's doing off the ice, see how he's doing on the ice. Now the communication between not only the head coach but certainly the assistant coaches as well is to make him feel welcome and make him feel part of the team. Cause a guy like the Dylan Cousins going into, he knows he got traded for a very popular player. Okay. So, um, he, he's just got,

he just got to him him be quiet for a little bit, let us play while the talking form, listen to everybody and just be ready to go and work your butt off every sec every single day. Um, you know, he read all year, I'm going to read him about this kid also all winter that he's going to get traded. He's having a tough year. That's tough on the kid's head.

Now he's got to come in and you've got to get rid of that baggage as quick as you can, uh, with that player. And you've got to open them. Welcome with open arms. You've got to get your teammates in board. And as a coach, you've got to watch those interactions okay on the bench on the ice in the locker room like you've got to have your finger on that pulse as well you can't just trust the players to do it on the loan that they need some

help from the players if there's something you see you don't like right away when you bring a new player in you've got to grab the guys and address it right away because the deal's in made it's not going backwards so everyone's got to work together to make that guy feel a big be feel very welcome and feel a big part of the team. Chatting with Rick bonus so the Atlantic Division Florida Toronto Tampa they all were active leading up to the trade deadline, all brought in multiple players and it's a race for that number one seed. It currently stands, Florida's got 83 points, the Leafs have 79, Tampa's got 78 and you know you got anywhere between 18 and 19 games still left to be

played and a bunch of games against each other so this is really up in the air. When you when you look at those three teams, Greg, Florida, Toronto, Tampa, is there one in is there one team that you have above the rest? Like do you have one team that you look at and say that's my favorite to win the division and that's my favorite to probably come out of the division come playoff time? No not really. You give a little heads up to Florida because they've won the cup but does back-to-back trips to the finals as well. I think that those three teams you talked about they went out and addressed their needs. Toronto as we know when Tre and Chief took over last year we have to be harder to play

against. They've got enough skill up front so they do. They're going to when they're healthy and they get everything in place and they're going to score goals they had to be a much're going to score goals, they had to be a much harder team to play against as they saw in the playoffs. So they bring in the guys that are more physical. And it started last summer. But, you know, Cardinal and Lawton, they're hard to play against. They're big bodies and they're in your face and that's what the tree in chief are looking

for. So they've improved that aspect of the game to Florida. They lost a couple of key defensive last year and Ekman, Larison and Montour. You go get Seth Jones. So, yeah, you know, they made a great movie. He's cause again, those players know this guy's a great player and he's going to help us win this Stanley cup. So again, look at Tampa, they went out and you're going to go into Tampa.

They have that winning culture. You go get Yanni Gort, he was part of that winning culture. He's not intimidated by that. And he'll help Bjorn Krist get acclimated in that locker room. But again, those players are saying, okay, these two guys are helping us. So I don't know who the favorite is. All I know, all three teams, none of them, none of them want to finish second or third because that second and third battle manual, and it's the same as the central division, you're going to lose a really, really good team in that first

round. So all three teams did what they had to do to avoid being put in that position. And you know, all three teams are cutting for that first place. And that's going to be a great race to watch between now and the end of the year. Absolutely. It will be great catching up with you, Rick. We appreciate you doing this. All right.

That was a pleasure guys. Take care. Have a good night. You too. There's Rick bonus. New, all Canadian, the best of our great nation, one song at a time. This is Justin Bieber. Hi, this is Terry Clark. We are Nickelback. Made in Canada, on iHeartRadio.

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