Stars coach Rick Bowness' poor explanation for scratching Minnesota-born Riley Tufte against Wild

In one of the more upsetting hockey stories of this week, Dallas Stars bench boss Rick Bowness made rookie Riley Tufte a late scratch in Minnesota after the 23-year-old Minnesota native had purchased tickets to the game for his family and friends to watch him play his first NHL game in his home state.

Tufte, who has only played two NHL games prior, totalling approximately 12 minutes in ice time across those two appearances, was very excited for the opportunity to play in front of family and friends - and as of the the morning of Thursday's game, he was told he would be in the lineup. It wasn't until later that afternoon that he was scratched in favor of Joel Kiviranta.

It was certainly a sad state of affairs and it could have and should have been handled a lot differently. The excitement that Tufte had been building up over the days and even hours leading up to the game almost certainly resulted in heartbreak. Here's what Tufte had to say prior to Thursday's game.

«Yeah, it's pretty crazy the amount of people that reached out saying they're coming to the game tonight,» Tufte said. «You might see a couple of Tufte jerseys in the stands. I know there will be a couple of high school jerseys. I think my brother is wearing my Duluth jersey. Definitely going to have some fans tonight. My son's wearing a Dallas jersey with 'Daddy' on the back and '27.' Super cool moment for my family and friends and just happy to be here.»

You certainly have to feel for Tufte here. Frankly, scratching him as late as the team did is the type of decision that can sour a player on an organization.

Following Thursday's blowout loss to the Wild, Bowness told the media that scratching Tufte was a very late decision, essentially blaming the team's athletic trainer rather than taking ownership himself or overriding the decision. After all, Bowness is the head coach.

«When I got to the rink tonight, the lineup changed,» Bowness said. «Riley was in, as of this morning. And then when I got to the rink, (Stars athletic trainer) Dave (Zeis) told me that we had a couple of guys that we didn't expect to play, to play so we had to make a quick call there."

The move was almost Mike Babcock-esque. If you'll recall, it was Babcock's decision to scratch veteran Jason Spezza, a hometown guy who had plenty of family and friends in attendance for the team's home opener back in 2019, in what would have been a huge night for his Leafs debut. Many suspect that Babcock lost the room after that. He was fired in November of that year.

Bowness didn't even have a particularly good reason for scratching Tufte for another depth player in Kiviranta who ended up player a little over 10 minutes in the contest.

«It's a big ask for him to go into a big game like today,» Bowness said. «Kivi was out a couple of games, we wanted to get some speed and some energy from him. Riley hasn't played very much, he's only played four minutes one night and seven minutes the last (game). That's a tough ask to put him in those situations. He'll be back in there the next time we come into Minnesota. At some point, he'll play here but tonight we wanted to put a little more speed in the lineup and Kivi sat out a couple (games) and he got the call.»

The Stars are off to a rough 6-7-2 start after missing the postseason in 2020-21. Perhaps it's time for a new voice behind the bench. One that builds up his young players, rather than breaking them down.

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