How Jeremy Colliton receives input from Scotty Bowman

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According to Scotty Bowman's interview with Mark Lazerus of The Athletic, the 87-year-old senior advisor to hockey operations with the Blackhawks — and father of Hawks general manager Stan Bowman — isn't orchestrating all of the team's moves behind the scenes as the occasional fan suggests. He is, however, regularly communicating with Chicago head coach Jeremy Colliton.

Bowman, the winningest coach in NHL history, told Lazerus that his communication with Colliton functions as a back-and-forth dialogue.

"He’s his own guy, and he came from Sweden so he’s got some different ideas. Just because I have an idea doesn’t mean the Blackhawks are going to use it,” Bowman said.

Scotty also used the electricity going out on the Tampa Bay Lightning's power play in the postseason as an example as the type of thing he'd share with Colliton. 

Steven Stamkos was missing from his left-circle spot on Tampa's man advantage with an injury. Bowman pointed out that after Lightning coach Jon Cooper altered the unit to focus more on Victor Hedman's shot from the point, the 2020 Stanley Cup champs' power play was back in business.

Bowman also elicits Colliton's knowledge on things like analytics, to better understand today's game.

“I’m not in (Colliton’s) ear continuously, but I always ask a lot of questions,” he said. “If I see something in the analytics, I ask him about it. I’m trying to put my head around the analytics because I was always interested in that even when I was coaching. We just didn’t have the ability to do what they can do now.”

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