Jets have to play a whole lot better: Bowness

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This article was published 31/10/2022 (688 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg Jets head coach Rick Bowness is still grappling with the aftermath of a tough COVID-19 battle, one that sidelined him for eight of the first nine games this season.

“Man, I’ve never been through anything like that,” the 67-year-old said Tuesday as he rejoined the team for practice at Bell MTS Iceplex. “I’m fine. One hundred per cent? No. Don’t expect to be. I’ve learned more about brain fog and fatigue syndrome than I need to know. But other than that I’m fine and I don’t need to answer any more questions about my health.”

Bowness did want to talk about his 5-3-1 hockey club — and admits what he’s seen so far hasn’t left him feeling very good, either.

“Are we happy with our team play? Absolutely not. Not even close,” said Bowness, who will return to the bench on Thursday when the Jets open up a three-game homestand. “In my mind, and I talked to the players about that today, we’ve had one really good game, and that was St. Louis. And the other games have been below the standards and our expectations of how we want to play. So we’re in a good spot and we’re going to have to play a whole lot better to stay there.”

Bowness is especially concerned about the just-completed road trip to Los Angeles, Arizona and Vegas in which the Jets went 2-0-1 despite getting soundly outplayed for long stretches.

“Good teams find ways to win. We found ways to win. In saying that, man, do we have to play a whole lot better? Absolutely. The effort is inconsistent. The compete is inconsistent. And the puck management is a huge issue right now. So we’ll deal with those issues,” he said.

Tuesday’s hour-long practice seemed designed to increase the urgency and pace, with plenty of small-area battle drills.

“They get it. They’re not happy with the way they’re playing. They’re not sitting there saying, ‘Wow, we’re 5-3-1, this is great.’ No one’s in that room saying that. What isn’t acceptable is some of the terrible things we’ve seen in our team play. We have to come to an agreement on what is and what isn’t acceptable in terms of our standards and in terms of our expectations of ourselves,” Bowness said.

Bowness tested positive just hours before the season-opener on Oct. 14. He returned on Oct. 22 to coach his lone game, a loss to Toronto, before experiencing dizzy symptoms two days later and taking another week away.

“Hate it. Absolutely hate it. The thrill of coaching for all of us is the game, the adrenaline,” said Bowness.

“You mention that to the guys, like, when things aren’t good, don’t you get mad? You can’t play this game without emotion or passion, you can’t. The elite players in our league, they play with passion, they play with emotion. It’s not their skill level they rely on. It’s their passion of the game. So we all have to have that passion. So that bothered me too. I didn’t see that emotion and that passion. Everything revolves around that. We’ve just got to get that emotion and that passion level back up, and it has to be on a consistent basis.”

Bowness was asked how he might light a fire under his group if they continue to look so tepid at times.

“Sometimes you have to get behind the bench and act like an idiot,” he said. “My poor wife, listening to me screaming at the television. I’m taking it out on her. I haven’t been around the team enough.”

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The news on forward Nikolaj Ehlers is not good. He suffered a lower-body injury in the second game of the year, one that was expected to keep him out of the lineup for 7-10 days. Now more than two weeks later, he’s still not even skating.

“I don’t think it’s a setback. I just think it’s slower coming around than we hoped,” Bowness said of the winger, who had three assists in his two contests. “He’s going to go see the doctors again (Wednesday), so we are on top of it, but is it slower coming around than we had hoped? Yes, it is.”

Mason Appleton has been filling in for Ehlers on the top line with Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor, but left practice early on Tuesday. It was reported to be illness, not injury-related.

The Jets will also be without defenceman Logan Stanley for a couple of weeks. He’s currently in a walking boot after suffering a fracture. Dylan Samberg has taken his spot, while Kyle Capobianco is the extra healthy defenceman on the roster.

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Speaking of Connor, there’s no question last year’s 47-goal scorer is gripping his stick a bit tighter these days. He has just one goal through nine games, scored on opening night into an empty net. His 32 shots against goaltenders so far have all been stopped.

“I had this last year (in Dallas) with Roope Hintz. Roope went the first eight or nine games, breakaways and two-on-ones, it was unbelievable the amount of scoring chances,” said Bowness. “So it’s just, go hang around the net, it’s going to hit you and go in. Then it did and he got 10 goals in eight games or something. Kyle is getting those opportunities. It’s two different discussions whether he’s getting the chances or he’s not. He’s getting chances. Just hang around the net. It’ll go in.”

Connor can be his own worst critic, admitting Tuesday he expects much better from himself.

“All you can do is try to get better every game. I’m not trying to focus on the results. It’s going to come,” said Connor. “I’m getting far too many good looks at this point. What I’m not going to do is just sit back and feel sorry for myself. I’ve got to go out there and I’m going to compete and play hard every shift.”

He agreed with Bowness’s assessment that the Jets need to improve in multiple areas if they wish to be taken seriously.

“We’re all aware of it. I think we were lucky to get away with some of the points that we did on this trip,” said Connor. “We’ve gotta realize that we can’t sustain it with the way we’ve been playing right now. You know, that being said, Connor Hellebuyck has been playing really good so it’s always great to see that. And we know that we have so much more to give in our standard and our expectation for us so that is exciting. We’re tied for first (in the division) and we have so much more to give.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg