Dave Lowry, in five seasons on the Victoria Royals bench, always presented an air of confidence and quietly harboured a desire to reach the top level of the coaching profession.
He is now there as interim head coach of the Winnipeg Jets of the NHL, stepping up from his assistant role.
Lowry brings with him the attribute all the most successful Island-associated coaches of the recent and not-so-recent past have possessed: A direct, almost blunt, approach to communication with their athletes. Ken and Kathy Shields used it to win basketball championships and Mike Spracklen and Randy Bennett to win Olympic medals in rowing and swimming, respectively, and Pa-Modou Kah a CPL soccer championship with PFC.
“I’m a direct communicator and a firm believer in honesty,” said Lowry, in his media conference, upon replacing the departing Paul Maurice.
“I’m not going to tell them what they want to hear but what they need to hear.”
It’s a fine line, however, between now and when Lowry played 19 seasons in the NHL. But he is clearly attuned to the notion that athletes today do not respond to the methods of old: “I understand the athlete today and how you have to communicate with them.”
There is a difference between explaining and yelling.
“The biggest thing is trust and honesty with the players,” said Lowry, whose son Adam Lowry is a Jets player.
“That’s what this game is built on — relationships with the players and gaining their trust. It’s about connecting with the individuals and letting them know what the expectations are and what we are going to need from them, and having them understand we’re in this together and we have one common goal.”
Cam Hope was general manager of the Royals during Lowry’s tenure in Victoria, in which Lowry went 199-112-22 in the regular season with an additional 21 post-season wins as bench boss, and never missed the playoffs.
“Dave [Lowry] understood that modern athletes don’t care what you know until they know that you care,” said Hope.
“Coaches, like people in all professions, find the level they deserve. It was inevitable that Dave was one day going to be a head coach in the NHL. He ticks all the boxes and I believe he will stay there a long time.”
Loyalty is another trait of good coaches. Lowry recommended his assistant Dan Price replace him on the Royals bench when he departed in 2017 to take the assistant coaching position with the Los Angeles Kings. He is grateful Maurice now did the same for him.
“This [Maurice stepping down mid-season] is not how anybody would draw it up, but I had Paul’s blessing. That was really important to me,” said Lowry.
Price said he learned a lot from Lowry and described him as a “tremendous mentor.”
The biggest technical detail Price said he took away from Lowry was “to play with team speed.”
Lowry touched on that again in addressing the Jets media.
“We want to continue to build the speed factor into the game and find ways to play faster,” he said. “And with consistency. I want them to work.”
That’s the Lowry way, and in many ways it continues through Price, at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
Lowry, however, is under no illusions.
“[Maurice suddenly leaving] shows how humbling this game is and how hard it is to win in the NHL,” he said.
“It’s a hard league to win in on a nightly basis.”
