The term “greatness” gets thrown around a lot, and in online vernacular, “The Goat” (greatest of all time) seems to be overused to the point of exhaustion. To the point of almost no meaning.
It is in this theme that I feel it is important for those who may not know the history to reflect on its importance, and when given the chance to talk about true greatness, to highlight those who were the best to ever do it - you must. When it comes to Canadiens coaches – nay, NHL coaches, there is only one answer.
Scotty Bowman.
Let’s get the big stats out of the way. 1,224 regular-season wins and 223 playoff wins – both being the most ever by a head coach, two Jack Adams Awards, as well as nine Stanley Cups as a head coach. No one even comes close to this sort of track record.
In an eight-year span, Bowman would lead the Canadiens to five of those Stanley Cups, four of them in consecutive years (1975-76,1976-77,1977-78, 1978-79) and an average .786 win percentage across those four regular seasons. Frankly, those are stats you can only get playing a video game. One would be hard-pressed to argue against this being the best dynasty in pro hockey, no matter the era.
Now, a coach can’t do what they do without the players on the ice, and Bowman had possibly one of the best rosters ever assembled during his tenure with the Habs – 10 of them being Hall Of Famers – Yvon Cournoyer, Steve Shutt, Jacques Lemaire, Guy Lafleur, Ken Dryden and Larry Robinson to name a few.
Guy Lafleur would win the Art Ross Trophy three times in a row during this span, topped off by a 60-goal - 136 point run in the 1977-78 season. Steve Shutt would also have a 60-goal season in 1976-77, and Ken Dryden would win five Vezina trophies under Bowman’s command. Again, the best of the best were at Scotty’s deploy.
Bowman had a ferocity to him – a determination and a commitment to the game like no other. His mind is that of a five-star general, unyielding waves of attack and unbreakable machinations of defence woven in a beautiful tapestry that could only unfold on a sheet of ice.
Scotty was not necessarily a rigid systems coach but focused on getting the absolute most out of his players. In Montreal, he placed great emphasis on shutting down teams high in the defensive zone, organizing his team to snuff out plays before opponents could set up effectively in the Canadiens' end. In a 2012 NBC sports article Bowman was quoted as saying, “When I was coaching in Montreal, Lafleur and Shutt wouldn’t even know what the ice was like below the top of the circle," emphasizing how much defensive play was done between the blue lines. Notoriously, when he moved on to the Detroit Red Wings, he implemented the “Left Wing Lock” with the left winger essentially becoming a third defenseman, crunching the opposition further upon zone entry. Again, deploying the most effective strategy for the players he had.
The one other point that would be a disservice to leave out would be the man’s reputation for intensity. He had one singular goal – to win – and nothing was going to get in the way of that. There’s this quote from Steve Shutt on the Hockey Hall Of Fame website that kind of sums it up perfectly: “The strangest thing with Scotty (Bowman) would be that the farther ahead we were in the game, the more agitated he'd become. If we were playing a tight 2‐1 game, he kept quiet and didn't say anything. But if we were up four or five goals, he'd go crazy...he'd be screaming at us to stay on them, not to goof off and let the other team into the game.” Or even more famously from Shutt: “You hated him for 364 days a year, and on the 365th you collected your Stanley Cup Rings”
Steve Shutt would finish his NHL career with five Stanley Cup Rings, all coached by Bowman.
Now, this article isn’t anything other than providing the broad strokes of who Bowman was as a coach. There is so much to delve into with each team, the Blues, Habs, Sabres, Penguins, and of course, with Detroit. But he was passionate, he was tactical, he was razor-precise and above all else, he was a winner. I hope for newer fans, this can be a jumping off point to look further into the 70’s Habs and Scotty himself. Your go-to should be, of course, the book “Scotty” by none other than Ken Dryden. Frankly, anything hockey-related by Dryden is mandatory reading, so make sure you get "The Game" by him as well.
Remember, many are good, even fewer are great, but only one can be the GOAT.