Scotty Bowman
William Scott "Scotty" Bowman (born September 18, 1933 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada) is a former National Hockey League head coach, considered among the greatest coaches in NHL history. Due to his demanding coaching style, it has been said that many of his players hated him for 364 days a year, only to like him on the day they pick up their Stanley Cup rings.
Bowman is the only coach in the Big Four American Professional Sports Leagues (Major League Baseball, National Football League, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League) to win championships with 3 different professional teams.
Bowman became the league's most successful coach over his 30 years of coaching with 1,244 wins in the regular season and 223 in the playoffs. He won a record 9 Stanley Cups with Montreal Canadiens (1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979), Pittsburgh Penguins (1992) and Detroit Red Wings (1997, 1998 and 2002). He won the Jack Adams Award in 1977 and 1996. In the 1976-1977 season he won a record 60 games then, in 1996, won 62, breaking his own record for regular season wins.
Bowman played minor league hockey until a head injury ended his playing career. He moved into a coaching job with the Peterborough Petes of the OHL (the Canadiens junior farm team). Bowman moved into the NHL in 1966 when he became the head coach of the first-year expansion team St. Louis Blues. He led the Blues to the Stanley Cup Finals in the first three consecutive years of the franchise. He coached in St. Louis until the end of the 1970-71 season (his first NHL season with a losing record), and became the head coach of the Montreal Canadiens after the firing of Canadiens head coach Al MacNeil. It was with the Montreal Canadiens that he had his most success, as his new team lost in the first round of the playoffs in 1972 but won the Stanley Cup in 1973. The Canadiens would make the playoffs over the next two seasons but bow out in the first and third rounds, respectively as the rival Philadelphia Flyers won the Stanley Cup. From 1976 to 1979, he led a talented Canadiens squad, with players like Guy Lafleur, Steve Shutt and Ken Dryden, to four consecutive Stanley Cups. Bowman's team won at least 45 games in each of his eight seasons as the Canadiens head coach.
The dynasty in Montreal ended as Bowman stepped down as head coach to become the new General Manager and head coach of the Buffalo Sabres. After failing to turn the Sabres into the winner he had in Montreal, he quit hockey temporarily in 1987 to become an analyst for the CBC's Hockey Night in Canada. He became the Director of Player Personnel of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991 and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame that year as a builder.
Bowman was thrust back into the head coaching duties in the Fall of 1991, after the untimely death of Bob Johnson, who had just won the Stanley Cup with the Penguins the previous season. The following playoffs in 1993, the Penguins were upset by the New York Islanders, after acquiring the regular season's best record. Bowman then became head coach of the Detroit Red Wings.
The following season saw his Red Wings defeated by the young San Jose Sharks. In 1995, the Red Wings made it to the Stanley Cup Finals but were swept by the New Jersey Devils in four straight. This was the Red Wings' first appearance in the Finals in 29 years. In the 1995-96 regular season, he won a record 62 games. However, they lost to the Colorado Avalanche in the playoffs third round. In the 1997 playoffs, Bowman led the team to its first Stanley Cup in 42 years by sweeping the Philadelphia Flyers 4-0. The Red Wings repeated the feat the following season by sweeping the Washington Capitals. In 1999. They were upset by the Colorado Avalanche in the semi-finals.
Bowman decided in February 2002 that he would retire at the end of the season and he went out as a winner as his Red Wings won the Stanley Cup by defeating the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1. It was after the presentation of the Cup on the ice that Bowman publicly announced his retirement from coaching. He remains with Detroit as a senior adviser to the team's management, and also occasionally makes appearances on ESPN as a pre-game analyst.