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Bowness believes he can lead Jets to promised land

Newly-minted Winnipeg Jets head coach Rick Bowness sees a good hockey club, one he believes he’ll lead back to the promised land.

Speaking to the media for the first time since he was officially announced as the third head coach of the Jets 2.0 era in Winnipeg, Bowness acknowledged Winnipeg’s shortcomings last season and pledged to be the man to help navigate them back to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

“For whatever reason (the team) lost its way last year,” said Bowness, seated beside general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff at Canada Life Centre on Monday. “Myself, my coaching staff when we get it all together, we’re going to work very closely with ownership, with management, everyone associated with this organization, and we’re going to get it back on the right track and get this team back into the playoffs.”

To do so, Bowness, who coached the Dallas Stars for the past three seasons, leading them to the Stanley Cup final in 2020 before stepping down after in May, will have to unite a fractured group. The 67-year-old is aware of some of the problems that plagued the Jets during their miserable 2021-22 season, something he and Cheveldayoff covered during the courting process.

“All I can tell you from what I’ve seen from the outside is the way the team played was totally different from two years (ago),” Bowness said. “And it had nothing to do with the Xs and Os. It was the competitiveness.”

Bowness, who resides in Grand Lake, played for the Jets in 1980-81 and later started his career as an NHL assistant with Winnipeg in 1984-85. He became Winnipeg’s interim head coach for 28 games in 1988-89 before moving on to be a head coach with the Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, New York Islanders, Phoenix Coyotes and the Stars.

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2022-07-05T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-07-05T07:00:00.0000000Z

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