Scotty Bowman sketch and profile by Lou Seligson in the Sunday Express

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Scotty Bowman sketch and profile by Lou Seligson in the Sunday Express

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Scotty BowmanHabs' coach fulfilling his dreamDOUBLE TAKEStory and drawing by Lou SeligsonSt. Louis callBowman's Cup log1967-68 St. Louis 8-101968-69 St. Louis 8-41969-70 St. Louis 8-81970-71 St. Louis 2-41971-72 Montreal 2-41972-73 Montreal* 12-51973-74 Montreal 2-41974-75 Montreal 6-51975-76 Montreal* 12-11976-77 Montreal* 12-21977-78 Montreal 8-1St. Louis Record 26-26Montreal Record 54-22* Won Stanley CupHome for lunchRue! in standsYou're Scotty Bowman. Hockey has been your life since your high school days in Verdun when you dreamed of being a Canadien. Now you're in your seventh year as their coach — your 11th year as an NHL coach — and once again you're in the Stanley Cup finals with the league's best team."I've been in this for 11 years," you think to yourself. "Longer than anybody in length of service now. Maybe I'll beat Toe Blake who coached for 13 seasons. Anyway, I've been lucky and it's a good feeling. It's been a good life."You park your car in the Forum underground garage and get into your office to check in with your secretary on appointments, calls and meetings, look over the mail and begin to worry about your lineup for the game.Before you know it the clock reads 10:30 and you're heading for the team dressing room to meet with the players and announce tonight's line. Then you're out in the rink, sitting among the empty seats, watching the guys practice, watching for limping players, worrying about their condition, their temperament. By 11:15 the opponents are on the ice and you're watching their guys closely — who's injured, who's limping and, looking worried, who's in goal?After an hour you go back upstairs for your usual meeting with good old Claude Ruel, director of player personnel and your closest confidant. You make no moves without Claude."That Claude Ruel," you say to yourself," I wouldn't have it so good without him. We're really close. Even outside of the Forum we're always in each other's sight. We lean on each other. We're like each other's crutches. We talk and plan all day long and even before we go to bed we'll call each other and talk aboutSo today you're up as usual at 8 a.m., having breakfast with your wife Suella in your comfortable two-storey Dorval cottage, saying goodbye to the four kids and getting into your car for the drive to the Forum. That's when your day really begins. Where the action is.You drive along through the thick morning traffic and your mind wanders. Here you are, 45 years old, coaching the best team in hockey. And you go back to when you were a kid playing a wing in high school and someone fractured your skull with his stick and you spent most of a year of school in the hospital. That's it, you thought then, no more playing.So you went to Sir George, studied business, and went to work for a paint company. But even if you didn't want to play anymore you still wanted hockey — as a coach, maybe.By the time you were 21 you were connected with the Canadiens, coaching and supervising some of their minor hockey teams. A few years later, after a stint with the Ottawa Junior Canadiens, you were general manager and coach of another team, in Peterborough.Ah, you recall with a smile, those were the good years. You were single and liked the team and the town. Your home was there. You always think about Peterborough and those years as your best ones.Then came those three years when you were moving around eastern Canada as head scout until 1965 when you took over as coach of the Montreal Juniors and felt closer and closer to the Canadiens.One day came the call to come to coach the St. Louis team as the NHL expansion began. You stayed three years and then, miracle of miracles, you were back to Montreal in 1971 to take over as head coach of your beloved Canadiens.But now you were coming back with a wife, Suella, a nurse you met in St. Louis and married and you were coming home to stay. That was seven years ago and you wonder how fast they went.Career Record 80-48the game and stuff like that."So, usually after practice, you and Claude sit in the dressing room office talking, planning or watching video tapes of the last games.If it's a no-game day you'll go home for a bite of lunch and rest for an hour or so. On those days you'll be back at the Forum by six, going over the line, meeting the whole team in the dressing room at 6:30, talking it up about strategy and plans. But on game days you and the whole team will be taking steaks at a hotel and resting there until game time.By 7 p.m. you will be in your office when the official scorer comes in to deliver the other team's line. You give him yours, naming the two goalies and the 17 players on the official sheet. Then you rush back to the rink as both teams warm up and you're watching things closely again from behind the bench.Everybody's back in the dressing room by 7:45 and you wait until the last five minutes. Then you give the guys a pep talk, spur them on to a good game and everybody's out to the ice.You know people are watching you as you pace back and forth, back and forth, the expression on your face, and you keep that stern no-nonsense confident look.All the time your head is up, your eyes on that overhead clock. Tick, tick, tick, those minutes of play take a bite out of your life as you keep thinking about strategy, about the lines, the goalies, trying to keep fresh men on the ice and planning every move ahead.Over in the end zone sits Suella who rarely misses a Forum game now. When you met her she didn't know hockey, had never seen a game. But now she's always there. You never look for her and never see her during the game. But you know she's there.And way up in the stands is Claude with the phone to buzz you when he sees something important for you. You talk to each other all through the game. And then between periods you and Claude may go down to watch the video tapes before the three-minute warning and you deliver another pep talk to the guys before they go out on the ice.So, finally, the game is over. The press, radio and TV men are crowding around you in the dressing room for half an hour. Then you move out to pick up Suella at the usual spot and go for a late snack at a nearby restaurant before heading for home.It takes a lot to unwind on game nights so you watch TV or listen to the radio and relax and usually go to sleep easily by one o'clock. Except, that is, for the usual late night phone chat with Claude. Some nights you may be crying on each other's shoulders as you console each other saying it's been a long day.Read automatically; may contain mistakes.

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2026-10-19T02:01:13Z · source datestamp n/a · andornot

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