Jets announce Rick Bowness will miss Monday’s game to rest after recovering from COVID-19

Winnipeg Jets head coach Rick Bowness will not be behind the bench for Monday’s game against the St. Louis Blues.

The Jets announced Monday afternoon that Bowness will be taking some time to rest after recently overcoming COVID-19. Scott Arniel will take over as head coach of the Jets as they host the Blues at the Canada Life Centre.

Bowness, 67, experimented dizzy spells during the Jets’ pre-game practice and had to cut short his media availability on Monday morning.

The veteran head coach served for the Jets in Saturday’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs after recovering from COVID-19 the previous week.

Bowness missed the Jets’ first four regular season games due to illness. Winnipeg fell 4-1 to the Maple Leafs on Saturday to drop to 2-3-0 on the year.

Since beginning his NHL head coaching career with the original Winnipeg Jets in 1988-89, Bowness has served as bench manager for the Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, New York Islanders , Phoenix Coyotes and Dallas Stars before returning to Winnipeg last summer. .

Bowness reached the Stanley Cup Finals with the Stars in 2020. He also had a prolific career as an assistant coach, helping the Vancouver Canucks and Tampa Bay Lightning reach the Finals while working in that role .