It’s been an emotional couple of weeks for the Bowness family.
Rick Bowness Jr., former sports information director for the University of Denver hockey program, is the son of Dallas Stars interim head coach Rick Bowness. They talk every day, with the coach in Edmonton and Jr. in Denver.
And things are starting to get a little awkward between father and son, what with Jr.’s wife, Jodee, the Avalanche’s vice president of ticket sales and service at Pepsi Center, and Colorado and Dallas set to face off in Friday night’s winner-take-all Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals.
“It’s a little different, obviously,” Bowness Jr. said Thursday, a day after the Avs’ 4–1 victory that set up Game 7. “In addition to my wife, I have a bunch of friends that work (at Pepsi Center) and I go to a ton of games. I’ve lived in Denver for six years. I’m not rooting against anybody, I guess, and just happy that they’re both in the second round and it’s been a great series.”
He added: “A sweep one way or the other would have been tough. But we’re going to Game 7 and the games have been fun. It’s great to see (former Pioneers standout) Logan O’Connor doing well — I know him pretty well from DU….We’re just rooting for good hockey, which is what we’re getting.”
Jodee is kind of “shy” these days, her husband said, but “she’s pulling for the Avs, obviously.”
Bowness Jr. met his wife when both worked for the Detroit Red Wings in 2010. He was a PR coordinator and she a service executive. In 2016, Bowness Jr. became partly responsible for his father’s current job when he held his bachelor’s party at Wayne Gretzky’s Toronto — a popular eatery now celebrating its 25th-year anniversary.
That’s where Bowness Jr., the DU employee, introduced his father to then-DU coach Jim Montgomery, who became Dallas’ head coach in 2018.
When looking for a seasoned assistant to help Montgomery begin his NHL coaching career, “Monty” settled on Bowness, who was 63 at the time and had been coaching in the league since 1984. Bowness took over as interim Stars coach in December after Montgomery was let go.
“They saw eye-to-eye on almost everything from the hockey side of things,” Bowness Jr. said of the working relationship between Montgomery and his father. “They worked together on how the team was going to play and that’s still how they’re playing — the old-time, hard-nosed hockey, tough to play against, roll four lines — and you’re seeing how that can work. On paper, Colorado is the more talented team but I think Dallas has made it a series by being tenacious and playing that style.”
The Bowness family is from Halifax, which is also the hometown of Avalanche superstar Nathan MacKinnon and Pittsburgh superstar Sidney Crosby. All three have lake houses at Grand Lake outside Halifax.
MacKinnon and Crosby are neighbors. The Bowness family is across the lake, about a 20-minute boat ride.
“Crazy how small the world is,” Bowness Jr. said.
Particularly in this series.