NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: HURRICANES v RED WINGS

June 13, 2002

Scotty Bowman

COACH BOWMAN: I told my wife about ten minutes ago, she was kind of hoping I would, but I made up my mind in February on the Olympic break.

COACH BOWMAN: Other years I never was sure, then after a couple of weeks you wanted to come back, especially the last three years. I thought about it in 1998, and then came back for three more years. I was fortunate I had three more chances to win another Cup, and I know it's time now. I didn't know it was time then. I just felt it was time.

COACH BOWMAN: No, I made up my mind in February, this was it. Just too much, got lucky this year with the break, '98 we had the Olympic break, and this year we had like 13 days.

COACH BOWMAN: I wasn't thinking about it that time. I was just trying to get back into the series, but I had a lot of confidence in this team and I made my mind up. I was going to work as hard as I can, I didn't want it to be a distraction. I never told any of them because I didn't feel that's what they wanted to hear anyways. Maybe some of them would have, who knows. I just felt that it was time.

COACH BOWMAN: Maybe two or three people that I could trust.

COACH BOWMAN: To go from the first game of the season, win the Presidents Trophy, and to win the Stanley Cup is not an easy chore. Colorado did it last year. I had a lot of confidence, especially with fellows like Hasek and Robitaille and Duchesne and Olausson. Sort of the same motivation that Colorado had. These players have had great careers but never had their name on the Stanley Cup. I was -- I haven't been able to talk to the team, but one of the regrets you have as a coach -- when I had the big team in Montreal I was coaching in the '70s, now that you see replace of games and you see -- you never really get a chance to tell those guys how good they really were. Although, now I do it because I see a lot of them. They know how I feel about them, and I am going to tell my same guys the same thing, not just the Hall of Fame players. I am going to tell all of them that it's a wonderful feeling for those players that have won before, but it is a special feeling for the ones that have not won and don't have a lot of time left on their careers.

COACH BOWMAN: Well, the challenge was there before '98 and I just felt -- more this year with the Olympic break. I just felt a lot more energized going into the Playoffs, knowing it might be a two-month run and it's pretty difficult. I had a lot of help from both Barry Smith, Dave Lewis, Jim. It's a pretty constant chore to be a head coach of an NHL team. It starts in September. My family has grown up supporting me in hockey, and my wife, especially. And you know, I have got a granddaughter now and I got my son, his wife is going to have a baby in late August. And I think it's just time to enjoy what the other people enjoy quite a bit of too.

COACH BOWMAN: Like you mentioned, it would be an awful tough vote, but when you look what Nicklas Lidstrom did all -- I don't know if the vote counting -- I am sure it's for all the way through the Playoffs, the minutes he logged, just about a perfect player on the ice, very few mistakes. You could look at his game anyway you want, scored some very big goals for us, and it's a wonderful tribute to him. It is a tough choice for some of the other players, but I think when you look at the ice time that Nick -- you can't take anything away from Dominik as well and the way Stevie battled through and Brendan came through tonight and the last game. I kind of felt Brendan would break open, he's always done that. He goes on good hot streaks and Sergei Fedorov was certainly outstanding. But Nicklas, with the minutes he logged, I am sure every one of those players would feel the same way about him.

COACH BOWMAN: I told Brett Hull, Stevie, Brendan, a few of them, because they are all running around with the families and everything else. I have been pretty fortunate, as I said, that you have to thank a lot of people, but the two people that I thanked the most would be my wife, who I met in St. Louis when I was a young coach, you know, about 35 years ago, and the other person that I would thank immensely is Sam Pollock. He gave me my first job when I was 22 years of age. He had a lot of confidence in me, brought me to Ottawa and brought me back to Montreal and started a run of a lot of Stanley Cups there, 5 of them. He was the general manager on four of them. Somebody has to take a chance on you, and he's the one that took the chance on me.

COACH BOWMAN: Kenny and I haven't real -- I mean, we structured my contract so that when I coached my last game that I would be able to remain with the organization as a consultant. We have talked briefly last year and the year before when I hadn't -- we both hadn't decided that if I was -- he decided but he gave me a lot of time to think it over and I told him I really don't want to be a scout or go to a lot of games, but I'd like to stay with the organization. I came to Detroit for two years in '93. I signed a two-year contract, and the real mitigating factor was a terrific contract that Mike Ilitch gave me at the time and also the fact that he said this is two years, but we want you to be a Red Wing after your contract is over and I listened to him. I said that's what I want -- I didn't want to be without a team because I have been on five teams, and this is the way I wanted to end up my career with the Red Wings and now I mean there's always something that they will find for me and I guess it will depend on how busy I want to be.

COACH BOWMAN: Well, yeah we went -- they went 4 straight. Toe I think at that time had said before that was going to be his last series, you know, I have had a long career and bounced back you know, over ten years ago with Pittsburgh, I owe a lot to Craig Patrick forgiving me an opportunity and that was -- it's going to be very interim, but it turned out we had a great season and won a second Cup. I didn't do as much there as I did hear, but it's time. I think the organization is in good shape. I have had a career that I never thought I'd ever have and it means a lot for me to leave on a winning note.

COACH BOWMAN: Just go to golf tournaments and score and referee, which I always wanted to be. I am only kidding. My family is spread out I have got two boys in Chicago and one in New York and one in Augusta, Georgia, so I have got a lot of people I can see and just enjoy it.

COACH BOWMAN: Yeah we usually talk at the end of the year, I wanted him to know before anybody else did. It has been a terrific five years. He came in under a tough situation because the team had won in 1997. He grew with the job and he -- I admire the way he worked. He's -- he never asked me to manage and he of course he never wanted to coach. That's the way the organization was run. He did keep me informed from time to time, but I worked under Sam Pollock for eight years and similar type of situation, Sam had coached some teams, but Kenny I don't think has coached. But there was no -- he never asked me who was dressing, who was playing, and I think that's why the organization has been successful. Everybody has their job to do and he being a former scout, he knows how important that's. He treats his people very well and I am very pleased we had five years with each other and able to come up with the two Cups.

COACH BOWMAN: The way I feel now I talked to Mr.Ilitch and I told him it's time, and his wife said no we have to talk, but I am not looking -- they treated me well, and I think they know in the last three years I had decisions to make and they were -- I felt good about my coaching career because I know how precarious it is. More changes today in the League and I -- you know, that is the thing I probably enjoy more than the 10 -- the nine Cups as a coach and the other as a director of personnel but I never got fired as a coach, and that's what -- I think that's my proudest moment. I actually got fired in Buffalo because I wouldn't coach. That I feel good about that.