The Tampa Bay Lightning has named Rick Bowness as the team's new associate coach. Bowness, who has 24 years of coaching at the National Hockey League level behind him, brings to the Lightning coaching staff a level of experience that it has sorely missed since Wayne Fleming's departure. With his depth of knowledge, Bowness and his winning pedigree were clearly attractive to Steve Yzerman and the Lightning organization.

Bowness joins a coaching staff that will be headed by Jon Cooper. Cooper, for those who are unaware, took over from Guy Boucher towards the end of the shortened 2013 season. Just as Bowness did a lot of winning while with the Vancouver Canucks over the last seven seasons, Cooper has done a lot of winning since joining the Bolts’s minor league affiliate in 2010. With youth and zeal on the one side complemented by experience and knowledge on the other, the two should make for a very formidable coaching tandem.

As mentioned, Rick Bowness spent the last seven years with the Vancouver Canucks as both an assistant coach and an associate coach. Running the team’s defensive core, Bowness oversaw some of the most productive years in Canucks history. Only once during his seven year run did the team miss the playoffs, and in 2011 the Canucks made it to the Stanley Cup Final. That sort of winning experience is worth a whole ton on a team that is looking to become one of the league’s powerhouses in short order.

While many in Vancouver have already been critical of this hire, it’s hard to imagine that Rick Bowness won’t help the Lightning. On a team that has struggled so mightily on the defensive side of the puck for the last couple of seasons, he can only make things better. Clearly it was time for a change behind the bench in Vancouver, but that shouldn’t take away from anything that Bowness accomplished with the Canucks. Working with a defense that has right-handed shots and some stellar young players, Bowness should help to provide some much needed stability on the back end.

All in all, this is a great hire for Steve Yzerman and Co. By grabbing one of the league’s more experienced available coaches, Yzerman has solidified what is shaping up to be one incredibly impressive coaching staff. On behalf of everyone in the Lightning community here at HockeyBuzz, I’d like to send a warm welcome to Rick Bowness. We’re all looking forward to seeing you behind the bench.

As always, thanks for reading.

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