Inferno Interview - Ben Bowns

7th Jul 2014 | Posted by The Inferno

With around 2 months to go till the new season,we've finally caught up with the first signing of the summer!

Ben Bowns has signed with the team from the Hull Stingrays and if it all pans out the new ownership are hoping to build the team around him for the next few years. It's been a steady rise for Ben over the last few seasons, from the Sheffield Scimitars (as they were known at the time) in the EPL, to the Stingrays, and now to the Devils in the Erhadt - alongside playing for Team GB!

We spoke to Ben to see how the summer was panning out and his thoughts on the move to Cardiff, the new ownership and what we can expect from our new man between the pipes...

The-Inferno - When did you first get involved with hockey? Growing up did you have a Hockey hero?

Ben Bowns - I first went to watch a hockey game when I was 4 years old with one of my best friends Lloyd Gibson (who I played with throughout my junior career in Sheffield and at the Sheffield Steeldogs in the EPL). Funnily enough, that game was Sheffield Steelers against the Cardiff Devils! After that game I wanted to play hockey and things just went on from there...with a lot of help from my parents obviously!

Growing up my favourite goalie was Patrick Roy, I loved how he used to play and how influential he was on the ice. He was calm (the majority of the time), confident and he had such great presence on the ice.

 

The-Inferno - And onto the most important question... What was the main reason for signing for the Devils for next season?

Ben Bowns - If I'm being honest, the Devils are a team that I've always fancied playing for. Sometimes you just have good feelings about teams and take a liking to them. Cardiff was one of those teams, luckily for me they became interested in me too.

I've heard nothing but great things about the city and the fans. We had some crazy, loyal fans in Hull these past two years but from what I've heard when I've spoken to players from Cardiff, it sounds like the Cardiff fans are as loyal and loud as they come. You've definitely been noisy when I've played in the BBT over the past two seasons! If you combine that with a great city it makes it one of the best, if not the best, place to play in the country. Enjoying living where you play is half the battle when trying to play at your best. The other half is enjoying playing for your club - this is where the fans come into the situation when choosing a new club...no one wants to play at a club with no fans or quiet fans. So when you look at it that way, why wouldn't you want to play for Cardiff? Enjoyment is contagious, having fun when you train and play results in you training and playing harder, this in turn brings results because you find yourself performing at a higher level. I don't know anything in life or hockey that is more fun than winning and I intend to try and do a lot of that with Cardiff!

The other main reason was that playing at Cardiff gave me the opportunity to play in the Erhardt conference and challenge myself further. The Gardiner conference was a great challenge with some very good teams and close games, but I wanted a new challenge. This chance also enables me to be taken more seriously (if I do as well as I plan to) within Britain and Europe.

Finally, I like to go to clubs where I can see myself playing for a few years rather than just a season and providing I do as well as I plan to, then I could see myself at Cardiff for more than just one year.

 

The-Inferno - What’s your proudest achievement to date playing hockey?

Ben Bowns - I've had a few really proud moments throughout my years playing hockey. The first one was winning the Gold medal with the GB u20s in Hungary on a shoot out against the hosts. The feeling of saving that final penalty was amazing and something, as of yet, I haven't reached again.
The year after this with the u20s in the Div.1 world championships in Belarus was another amazing experience. We were expected to be relegated but instead we won a bronze medal, I also won the GBSC Player of the Tournament, GB's MVP and the goalie of the Championships.

More recently and more well known was playing in the Div.1B World Championships with GB, to then win GB's MVP and be awarded the GBSC Player of the tournament was a massive honour and to be able to share that with my mum and girlfriend, who were out there at the time, was really special too as they know how hard I've worked to get to where I am now. In a way it allowed me to give something back to my parents for everything they've done for me.

The-Inferno - It was a bit of a rough time last season, but with the new ownership lined up and Kelman coming in from Belfast things are looking good! Does the change of ownership affect your move to Cardiff at all?

Ben Bowns - Hopefully, it doesn't really affect my move apart from making me even more excited about getting started down there! I've heard nothing but great things about Todd and how he runs his teams. I've spoken to the Belfast guys throughout the last few years when playing for GB and they've always said how good the set up is there and how good a guy Todd is. Having spoken to the Belfast guys like I just mentioned and then seeing what Todd has done in Belfast, I can't help but think that Cardiff has just taken a huge step forward towards becoming the definite best place to play in Britain...especially when the club moves into the new arena. It's extremely exciting times. I made a move to Cardiff to challenge myself but also to have the chance to win and if anyone in Britain knows how to build a winning team, a winning environment and a winning club then it's Todd Kelman!

The-Inferno - Have you had a chance to talk to Kelman yet? Any thoughts on the change in ownership?

Ben Bowns - I've had a very brief talk with Todd but at the moment I'm actually on holiday in Fuerteventura. I'm sure I'll get to talk to him a bit more once I get back. However, as mentioned in the last question, I can only see positives no matter what club you're at if Todd is in charge. I'm sure it's going to be great for us players and great for the fans too.

The-Inferno - Do players talk amongst themselves about what a certain GM is like to work for and the problems teams have?

Ben Bowns - Yes, players do talk about experiences at clubs just like people talk to each other about their jobs. But, what is said between players always stays between players.

The-Inferno - Do you have any sort of superstitions or things you have to do before starting a game?

Ben Bowns - I don't tend to have superstitions before a game, but I do have set routines. Superstitions can mess with your head if they're broken or not carried out correctly. Whereas, routines can be broken or adapted. Plus sometimes as a goalie you'll find yourself stuck in a little rut so you'll change something within your routine to try and snap yourself out of it and help you to re-focus or approach a game in a different way. So for this you'd obviously change your routine but couldn't change a superstition.

The-Inferno - Any plans to change the colour of your pads to something more scary, say red?

Ben Bowns - Yeah, definitely. I don't think yellow will go with the Devils' strip, but I'm not going to give away anything on the colour scheme apart from they're not white. Anyone who's close to me will know that I like to be different, there's too many white pads around now so I always like to make sure I have some colour in my pads. My pads for next season were really fun to design to be honest, the Devils have a good colour scheme that let's you come up with some awesome designs. These pads will be slightly different, I worked closely with Puck Stop on the design this year and you'll see what we came up with once they're completed. I don't know if they'll be to everyone's taste just like my yellow ones in Hull weren't, but I think they'll look awesome!

The-Inferno - What can we expect from your game? Are you the type of nettie who will order his D men around?

Ben Bowns - The first thing anyone will notice is that I'm big and that's how I like to play. Your size, big or small, is never a disadvantage, so I like to use this to my advantage. You'll never catch me giving up on a puck, no matter where the puck is, or how likely the player looks to score, you can be certain I'll be doing everything to save that puck! At the end of the day it's hockey and anything can happen. I'm a big believer that if a goalie attempts to make a save (even if there's an open net at that second for the player to shoot at), then there is still a chance for the goalie to make the save. Seeing a goalie flying across out of the corner of their eye will make the player think a little before they shoot and that split second could be the extra time I need to save that puck.

I'm an extremely vocal goalie, I can't play without talking. The goalie can see the whole ice in front of him so we should be talking to our team mates and giving them a hand, then when it's needed I'll make sure the defence do what I want them to do, although this part is mainly done in training during the week. The defencemen in front of me will already be smart enough to know what to do and I'll just have to adapt to how they play and help them adapt to how I play.

Even though I am extremely vocal, you will never hear me shouting at a player, I'll shout to them but never at them. The last thing a guy needs is someone screaming at him in a negative way. At the end of the day no one is more frustrated than a player when they make a mistake so screaming at them or being negative will not do any good what so ever. Plus I believe that a goalie must be respected and liked by his players, and by screaming at them I definitely will not gain their respect. A goalie must be well liked and seen as a leader out on the ice, not necessarily like a captain, but someone who is calm and composed and comes up big when needed. If I'm liked, then I know the players will go that extra mile to bail me out when needed and I'll definitely be doing everything I can to bail them out when that's needed and just generally trying to keep everything out of our net!

The-Inferno - How do you feel the level of British goal tending is at the moment and where do you think it will be heading in the future?

Ben Bowns - British goaltending at the moment isn't in a bad state but it's not in a great state either. There is hardly any goalie coaching happening at clubs in the UK, only a very few clubs have monthly goalie specific training, never mind weekly, so how can we as a nation expect goalies to come good when we don't train and educate them? But saying that there are some very good young goalies coming through that I hope get the training they need to keep developing them.

The first two British goalies anyone will think of are Stephen Murphy and Stevie Lyle. My aim is to become the best and most decorated British goalie of all time and I'd like to think that in 10 years time I'll still be playing like Murff and Stevie are now, but when people think of British netminders 10 years on then they'll add my name on to that list too.

The-Inferno - Following on from that, do you have any plans you would like to put in place to improve/change it in the uk?

Ben Bowns - I've actually been put in charge of the National Goaltending Program by the EIHA. We've already put a few things in place to develop goalies more. We've already put a rule in where junior clubs MUST have a registered goalie coach who actually has experience playing in goal. One of the things that alarmed me is seeing a junior club put on a weekly goalie session and having it run by a parent who's never played the sport before but had interest in the position because his/her son was a goalie. Who will that help really? I've also put in a 5 year proposal, one of the aims is to make it compulsory for clubs to run goalie specific sessions run by their head goalie coach. The aim is once a week but rather than cramming it in straight away I think it would be more beneficial to run one a month, the one every two weeks the year after, then within 5 years be at a stage where each club in the UK runs a goalie session once a week.

I know it will be hard to get some clubs to change their approach and attitude towards goalies but I'm confident we'll get there and start to see more British goalies coming through the ranks and eventually playing in the EIHL and for GB.

The-Inferno - How did you find becoming GB #1 during the recent IIHF World Championship tournament and what advice (if any) did Murph give to you?

Ben Bowns - To be honest I wouldn't class myself right now as the GB no.1 at all. I got lucky with Murff being Ill at the World Championships this year, which gave me a chance to show what I can do at that level. Murff always gives me advice wether that be on teams to go to, my play, what pad design to go for, anything really. We do talk quite a bit and I couldn't have hoped for anything better from him to be honest. He could have had a mentality that he's the best British goalie and I'm just a kid coming up, back in my first year when I was 20. But instead he's been unreal and I think we have a pretty good relationship, Not just within hockey but out of it too.

The week I spent with GB in Lithuania was the most I've enjoyed playing hockey for a long time! The dressing room at GB is something special and only the guys that have experienced it will know what I'm talking about. Being there for milestones such as a good friend of mine, Matty Davies, getting his first game, all the way through to being there when Ash Tait played his 100th game was unbelievable especially considering I grew up watching him.

Going back to the original question, I still believe that Murff is the no.1 goalie in GB but I'm closer than I've ever been and I plan to push Murff all the way and really put in a challenge for that spot. But first my mind will be 100% on the Devils and winning silverware in my first year at the club, I honestly believe we'll have a team that is capable of doing that.

 

The-Inferno - Anything else you'd like to add?

Ben Bowns - I can't remember ever looking forward to a new season this much in my life and I hope that the fans in Cardiff feel the same. I honestly believe that the club will put a very strong team together and if I play as I know I can and aim to, then we will have a good chance of winning some silverware.

As long as you the fans stay strong together, support the club and get behind the players in the noisy BBT then we'll have no excuses for not winning, because I believe we will have the ideal set up right now...great city to live in, the best club set up, a solid team and great noisy fans! If you get behind us then I'm certain we will give you plenty of things to cheer and get excited about.

I came to Cardiff to win, I intend to try and do that and I firmly believe we will

We’d like to thank Ben for taking the time to speak to us and wish him all the best for the upcoming season.