Bowman : Red Wings secret weapon

The legendary coach won’t be stopping pucks on Penguins rushes, he won’t be playing the point on the powerplay with Nicklas Lidstrom, he won’t be in front of net chasing loose pucks, but he will be useful in an another way.

Scotty Bowman will have a birds eye view on what Pittsburgh coach Therrien will be throwing on the ice, taking notes and giving his recommendations to Wings coach Mike Babcock.

Pittsburgh coach, Michel Therrien, has said that he does not believe in line matching, one of Bowman’s masterfull skills in his coaching days. Therrien can say that all he wants, but I’m sure he knows that the legendary coach has always had a few tricks up his sleeve. True, Babcock is not Bowman, and has his own way in coaching, which is good, and Scotty won’t deny it, but at the back of Babcock’s mind, he has to say to himself, ‘’ I have a fountain of information, coaching knowledge and experience right in my backward, why not use it.’’

And Why not. You have to be brain dead or not have lived on this planet to not dig in to that vast and immense fountain of information. Babcock is far from being brain dead and has lived on this planet long enough to know that you don’t pass up chance like this, espacially that you have the better chance of winning a Stanley cup this time around then in the first one.Babcock was the coach of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks when they went to the cup finals in 2003 against the New Jersey Devils.

Bowman has won more games in both regular season and playoffs combined, than any player on both sides will ever play in their careers, and that includes both coaches.

A whisper from Bowman to Babcock, could change the series, and we will never know what was said, but it won’t matter once Lidstrom picks up the Stanley cup.