Originally Posted by Badger Bob
Relationships with Scotty Bowman are kind of different in the Buffalo region, where I reside. He still lives here. The only time he was GM was with the Sabres. He started with the team, right after they made the conference finals, and left with the first overall pick in the '87 draft (Turgeon). You know what a record like that leads to.
It made me think that, in some ways, he was an opportunist. Although this is true, it's hardly the whole story. With St. Louis, he was coaching the Blues in a conference of expansion teams with little serious chance of capturing the Cup. Somebody in Montreal must've been impressed enough with his work to put himself in the position to get the Canadiens job, besides being originally from the area. That record speaks for itself.
Then, he got the Sabres job. This is essentially the only black mark on his record. His next chance to shine was in Pittsburgh, after our old pal, Badger Bob, passed. Coaching Lemieux & Jagr at their best wasn't such a bad gig. Then, of course, it was off to Detroit, when the Red Wings were getting on the verge.
It's easy for any of us to say, "well, look at the talent that he had in Montreal, Pittsburgh and Detroit!" Well, yeah, but he had to handle the egos in Montreal, get some one dimensional goal scorers to pay attention to the defensive aspects of the game (looking at Steve Yzerman) and keep all of those teams focused on the main goal.
I did meet him once, and he's just like when you see him on TV. Ask a question, he pauses, looks up and gives a thoughtful reply. Really impressive man to be around. It was only for 5 minutes at a car show. Wish it could've been longer, like an hour, just to pick his brain about hockey. He did give me a nice momento: he autographed his Detroit Red Wings business card.
A couple of great stories about him:
In the late 70's the Rangers were playing the Canadiens. Phil Esposito was frustrated at being shadowed by Doug Jarvis. He couldn't contain his frustration. He shot a dirty look over at Scotty, while on the bench. Scotty said, "All night, Phil. All ****ing night."
The other was a little more recently. Luc Robataille described his initial experience with the Red Wings at their camp in Traverse City. He had a relatively minor injury. After workouts, he saw Scotty in the hall. Scotty asked him how he was feeling. He said not too bad. Scotty told him that they were there to win the last game in June. They did.
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