MYSTERY MAN : No One Is Sure How Bowman Does It, but He Does It Better Than Anyone

From his mother, who was known to break up friendly card games by hurling her cards into the fireplace if dealt a losing hand, Scotty Bowman inherited his competitiveness.

From his father, an immigrant Scottish blacksmith, Bowman inherited the ability to bend the unbendable.

John Bowman used a hammer to shape iron. His son uses a will of iron to shape hockey players of dissimilar backgrounds into teams that have won 975 regular-season and 158 playoff games. No other coach in NHL history has won as many.

“Scotty has one mission,” Detroit Red Wing defenseman Paul Coffey said, “and that’s to win.”

Like his father, Bowman employs methods that are not gentle. He does not pat backs or play favorites. He’s blunt to the point of rudeness, unconcerned about his image or his popularity.

He never explains his benching of players, and he created a nonexistent muscle pull to justify replacing goaltender Chris Osgood with Mike Vernon for Game 3 of the Red Wings’ quarterfinal playoff series against the St. Louis Blues. Osgood had won the first two games.

“I see what you [reporters] go through all year trying to figure him out,” Vernon said. “I’m not going to start trying to figure it out now.”

Bowman remains a mystery to players who have seen him every day of the week, six or seven months a year for half a dozen years. He’s manipulative. Distant. Infuriating.

Above all, he is successful, the winner of six Stanley Cups as a coach and one as director of player personnel for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Under Bowman’s steely gaze, the Red Wings this season set a single-season record by winning 62 games. The previous record of 60, which Bowman said a few years ago would never be broken, was held by the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens. They were coached by Bowman. He was voted the NHL’s coach of the year that season and is a finalist for the award this season.

“It would be a sin for them not to win it all after the way they played all season,” said King Coach Larry Robinson, who played for Bowman in Montreal.

“I think sometimes great teams are the hardest to coach. People think you just send guys over the boards, but there’s much more to it. Even if you’ve got lots of talent and a great team, you’ve got to push them. Scotty always seemed to push the right buttons.”

The Red Wings’ record-breaking season also made them overwhelming favorites to win the Cup, which would make Bowman the first coach to win with three teams. That’s one distinction he never sought.

“It’s something that doesn’t happen because you want to move,” he said. “I’ve moved a few times and I’ve never regretted it. Some of the moves have been by design, some happened not by my choice [such as being fired as general manager of the Buffalo Sabres]. You never want to move that much because I never wanted to move my family. But the kids are older now so it’s not so bad.”

The Red Wings’ playoff path hasn’t been as smooth as their regular-season dominance suggested it would be. Nikolai Khabibulin’s acrobatics in goal for the Winnipeg Jets took the Red Wings to six games in their first-round series, and the Blues--coached by Bowman protege Mike Keenan--won the last two games to tie their series. Game 5 is today at Joe Louis Arena.

Bowman, however, is not worried. He has been here before. There is little he hasn’t seen, having this season passed Al Arbour’s NHL record for most regular-season games coached (Bowman has reached 1,654) and having long ago broken Arbour’s playoff record for games coached (Bowman has coached 254).

“There’s a lot of pretty good teams now. It’s the playoffs and the parity of the teams that makes everything close,” Bowman said. “You can’t dwell on the losses. Once it’s over, it’s over. You’ve got to start thinking about the next game. I haven’t stayed up late worrying about a loss, oh, since I’ve been with real good teams. You have good nights and bad nights. You can’t worry about it.

“Our focus is good and we’re not giving up a lot of chances. Those are the things you look for. We’re not giving up a lot of outnumbered situations, and for the most part, we’re disciplined.”

Discipline. Preparation. He demands no less of his players than of himself.

Robinson said that he used to have nightmares about Bowman and awaken with his hands squeezing his pillow--as if it were Bowman’s neck. But with a season as a head coach behind him, Robinson sees Bowman in a more favorable light.

“Hate is the wrong word, but when he was coaching us, he wasn’t a guy you as a player respected. But you respect him more now that you’re through,” Robinson said. “To you it’s a game. To him, it’s much more than that. He’s always trying to stay a step ahead. He’s constantly thinking of ways to make you a better player.

“I guess I misunderstood when I was a player, but being in his shoes now, I understand a lot better why he did the things he did.”

He always has a reason for what he does, although it may not be apparent. Veteran winger Dino Ciccarelli, a 500-goal scorer, was benched by Bowman for stretches this season. When the playoffs began, Bowman reinstated him and uses him often on the power play, where he has produced three goals.

“I did wonder then why I wasn’t playing, but it makes sense now. No player likes missing games, but it’s hard with our depth to keep everybody happy,” Ciccarelli said. “I bit my lip a little bit and didn’t say anything and I’m glad. At my age [36], he didn’t want me playing 80 games. And he was right. I do feel much fresher now than if I had played more.”

Bowman’s playing career ended when he was in his teens, after an opponent hit him in the head to keep him from scoring on a breakaway in a junior game and fractured his skull. The culprit was Jean-Guy Talbot. Years later, when Bowman was general manager of the Blues, he acquired Talbot on waivers without a second thought.

Talbot was merely trying to avoid losing. Bowman understood that and held no grudge. “I got over the injury and became a coach. We never talked about it,” Bowman said. “It was just part of the game.”

There is no part of the game that eludes Bowman’s scrutiny. He watches countless games on TV and spends hours on the phone--sometimes calling assistant coach Dave Lewis in the middle of the night--to uncover any tidbit of information that might help win a game.

“He sees the game totally differently than any coach I’ve ever been with,” Lewis said. “He’s definitely not an Xs and O’s guy and he rarely uses a blackboard. Yet he’ll see situations that have the potential to arise and be prepared for them . . .

“Scotty’s at his best if there’s total chaos going on in the game. There’s line changes, the left wing and right wing are being interchanged, the fans are going crazy. He’s the calm in the middle of the storm. It’s like a pacifier for him. He loves it.”

Said Blues assistant coach Roger Neilson, who coached the Sabres when Bowman was Buffalo’s general manager: “His thinking is what sets Scotty apart. He’s a hard guy to carry a conversation with. Conversation is like a hockey game for him, where he’s three moves ahead of the next coach. You’re talking about one thing and he’s three things ahead and you never quite get caught up.”

Bowman, who will be 63 in September, has been offered a contract extension to coach next season and then become the club’s personnel director. As usual, he hasn’t offered a clue about his thinking.

“That’s another part of Scotty’s schtick. He likes to be unpredictable and keep people guessing,” Neilson said. “He likes to do that with his team too. It keeps them sharp.”

Bowman acknowledged he’d like to get 1,000 regular-season victories, but Lewis said Bowman wouldn’t stay only for that. If the Red Wings win the Cup, that would provide Bowman a graceful exit.

“I think it’s been a very good year, but I don’t want to make any decisions now. After the playoffs I’ll sit down and think about it,” he said. “There’s a lot of factors involved, but I think I’ll make a decision pretty quick once it’s done.”

Said Robinson: “I get a Christmas card every year from his family. When I go by, he says, ‘Hi.’ He’s a hard guy to really get to know and get close to. But I tell you, I’d love to get inside his head sometime. Nobody knows more about this game than he does.”

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The Bowman File

A look at where Scotty Bowman ranks among NHL coaches:

GAMES COACHED

Coach: Games

Bowman: 1,654

Al Arbour: 1,606

Dick Irvin: 1,437

Billy Reay: 1,102

Jack Adams: 982

*

VICTORIES

Coach: Wins

Bowman: 975

Al Arbour: 781

Dick Irvin: 690

Billy Reay: 542

Toe Blake: 500

*

LOSSES

Coach: Losses

Al Arbour: 577

Dick Irvin: 521

Bowman: 434

Sid Abel: 426

Jack Adams: 397

*

WINNING PERCENTAGE

Coach: Win%

Bowman: .663

Claude Ruel: .648

Toe Blake: .634

Floyd Smith: .626

Glen Sather: .616

*

STANLEY CUPS

Coach: Cups

Toe Blake: 8

Bowman: 6

Hap Day: 5

Al Arbour: 4

Glen Sather: 4

Punch Imlach: 4

Dick Irvin: 4