“We’re all big fans of Bones. We let the team down, the organization and the fans down by not being in the playoffs, but Rick Bowness is not the issue at all. He’s going to be part of the solution here.”
Bowness had questioned his players’ lack of caring after their season ended Tuesday.
“I don’t know if I’m back but if I’m back, I’m changing this culture,” he said then. “These guys, they don’t care. Losing is not important enough to them. It doesn’t bother them. How can you go out and play like that? I should have done this about a month ago. But this is why we are where we are. This is why we’re out of the playoffs, that kind of effort.”
Though the 13 players interviewed Wednesday and Thursday disagreed with those words, they were on board with Bowness returning.
“I just love the passion and energy that he brings every day, the communication with everyone,” forward Mathieu Olivier said Thursday. “It’s been really good to have him around and been working with him and we’ve started to build a really good relationship with him and the coaching staff and everyone here.”
Bowness was 21-11-5 for the Blue Jackets this season to run his NHL career coaching totals to 331-419-42 with 48 ties in in 840 games for the Winnipeg Jets, Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, New York Islanders, Phoenix Coyotes, Dallas Stars and Blue Jackets. He retired for personal reasons as Winnipeg coach following the 2023-24 season.
His 2,763 games as a coach (including interim) or an assistant are the most in NHL history.
“I think he’s done a lot of great things for our team, our locker room, our systems,” Blue Jackets center Adam Fantilli said. “He’s done a lot for me. I appreciate it.”
Bowness was pulled from his retirement boat in Florida, as he likes to say, to replace Dean Evason on Jan. 12, with Columbus last in the Eastern Conference and 28th in the NHL at 19-19-7.
At the time, Waddell said Bowness was hired only through the end of this season and his future would be decided at its conclusion.
The Blue Jackets then went 19-3-4 in their next 26 games to move into second place in the Metropolitan Division and fifth in the Eastern Conference.
“Bones planning how he came in and helped us and gave us the template on how to win was remarkable. He helped us out a ton,” defenseman Erik Gudbranson said Wednesday. “We liked his process. Kept us very focused, kept us very dialed in to those small increments. One game at a time. We were very good at that for a good portion of time.”