{"id":408770,"date":"2026-01-15T10:01:33","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T10:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/408770\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T10:01:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T10:01:33","slug":"rick-bowness-wins-columbus-blue-jackets-coaching-debut-takeaways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/408770\/","title":{"rendered":"Rick Bowness wins Columbus Blue Jackets coaching debut: Takeaways"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rick Bowness was on a boat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More: Columbus Blue Jackets, Rick Bowness focused solely on the present<\/a><\/p>\n

Cruising the Florida Intracoastal Waterway in Fort Lauderdale with his wife, Judy, the 70-year-old former NHL coach was the picture of retirement. Then, he received a text message Jan. 12 from Don Waddell, a longtime acquaintance and president\/general manager of the Blue Jackets.<\/p>\n

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Bowness told his wife that Waddell probably wanted to talk before agreeing to acquire a former player of his in a trade, but the Jackets\u2019 GM instead offered a job. Head coach. He smiled and glanced at Judy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWait until you hear this one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Waddell, speaking at a mid-day press conference <\/a>on Jan. 13 at Nationwide Arena, relayed that Bowness needed just a few seconds to reply, \u201cI\u2019m in … let me just run it by my wife.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s how one of the NHL\u2019s most experienced coaches<\/a> went from happily retired, cruising through life on a boat, to answering questions in Columbus in the span of 24 hours, hair tousled and voice raspy after coaching the Blue Jackets to a 5-3 victory <\/a>over the Calgary Flames<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI love it,\u201d Bowness said.<\/p>\n

Even losing his voice?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d he said. \u201cI talk a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blue Jackets players confirmed that part, saying it was different having the head coach in their ears all game, often individually, but that\u2019s the part of the Bowness wanted to experience again. After getting through his and his wife’s unspecified health issues, which prompted his retirement with the Winnipeg Jets in 2024, Bowness is back in the NHL coaching realm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love it,\u201d he said. \u201cI just love it. It\u2019s why I came back. It\u2019s what I missed the most. When I was out a year-and-a-half, the thing I missed most was the interaction with the players, and I love that part of coaching \u2026 working with the players and talking with the players and helping them get better. The second part is that I love being behind the bench.\u201d<\/p>\n

\""When<\/p>\n

“When I was out a year-and-a-half,” Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness said of ending his retirement, “the thing I missed most was the interaction with the players.”<\/p>\n

So, here we go.<\/p>\n

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A season that began with Dean Evason coaching the Blue Jackets continues without him in that role, replaced by a guy with similar energy who says a lot of the same things about successful hockey teams. Will this coaching jolt get the Blue Jackets back on track? Is there enough runway left to rejoin the playoff race? What\u2019s in store for Bowness and the Blue Jackets beyond this season?<\/p>\n

Time will answer those questions.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, there are 35 games left for the Blue Jackets (20-19-7) to close a six-point gap in the race for the second wild card in the NHL\u2019s Eastern Conference, a.k.a. the last playoff ticket. There are also seven teams to leapfrog, but Bowness\u2019 first Blue Jackets win has already moved them past the New York Rangers<\/a>, the new last-place team in the conference and Metropolitan Division.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a decent start, so who’s to say miracles can\u2019t happen in Columbus? Ahoy!<\/p>\n

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Here are three takeaways from Bowness\u2019 debut:<\/p>\n

\"Blue<\/p>\n

Blue Jackets center Boone Jenner fights Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson.<\/p>\n

Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a> captain Boone Jenner gets first \u2018Gordie\u2019 while dousing Calgary Flames<\/p>\n

Boone Jenner isn\u2019t an enforcer, per se, but he\u2019s the type of power forward who can do a little bit of everything, including fight.<\/p>\n

So, it was no surprise that a slash to the back of his legs following a whistle led to a donnybrook between the Jackets\u2019 captain and Flames defenseman\/irritant Rasmus Andersson. The surprise landed after the game, when Jenner revealed that he had just registered his first Gordie Howe hat trick (a goal, assist and fight in the same game).<\/p>\n

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Following the fight, Jenner added the goal with 1:34 left to play for a 4-3 lead, and the assist came on Charlie Coyle\u2019s insurance tally into an empty net.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the Boone Jenner I remember coaching against for a long time,\u201d Bowness said. \u201cBoone \u2026 I love watching him play. I\u2019m glad I\u2019m coaching him, because he\u2019s a hard guy to play against because he doesn\u2019t quit.”<\/p>\n

\"Blue<\/p>\n

Blue Jackets center Charlie Coyle had his first two-goal game of the season in a 5-3 win over the Flames.<\/p>\n

Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a> shoot with accuracy against Calgary Flames<\/p>\n

The four goals that preceded Coyle\u2019s empty-netter were scored with wrist shots past undersized Flames goalie Dustin Wolf.<\/p>\n

Wolf, like Blue Jackets goalie Jet Greaves, is listed at 6 feet tall and might actually measure a tick under that mark. That means there\u2019s space to shoot above his shoulders when he drops into a butterfly position on his knees.<\/p>\n

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Coyle had the first two-goal game of his Blue Jackets tenure; and he Jenner, Dante Fabbro and Zach Werenski all beat Wolf under the crossbar and over his glove and blocker. Coyle also screened Wolf for goals by Fabbro from the blue line and Werenski from the top of the left circle.<\/p>\n

\"Blue<\/p>\n

Blue Jackets center Kent Johnson shoots past Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson.<\/p>\n

Coach Rick Bowness unleashes Columbus’ Kent Johnson, Dante Fabbro<\/p>\n

Fabbro, who\u2019d been locked in Evason\u2019s proverbial doghouse, reunited with Werenski on the Blue Jackets\u2019 top defensive pairing with Denton Mateychuk (upper-body injury) and Damon Severson (illness) out. Fabbro skated 21:02, gave the Jackets a 1-0 lead early in the game and finished with one of his best performances.<\/p>\n

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Kent Johnson did the same on the top forward line, logging a season-high 20:55 on 22 shifts. Johnson, who also struggled to exit Evason\u2019s doghouse, forced a late turnover by Flames defenseman MacKenzie Weegar that led to Jenner\u2019s winning goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe deserved those minutes,\u201d Bowness said. \u201cHe played hard. He\u2019s not the biggest guy, but he competed. \u2026 and he\u2019ll keep those minutes as long as he keeps playing like that.”<\/p>\n

Blue Jackets reporter Brian Hedger<\/a> can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com<\/a> and @BrianHedger.bsky.social<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Rick Bowness wins Columbus Blue Jackets coaching debut: Takeaways<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rick Bowness was on a boat. More: Columbus Blue Jackets, Rick Bowness focused solely on the present Cruising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5108],"tags":[3644,5180,5390,26,1285,2921,897,230,5179,8744,7405,692,2628,504,5,693,1943,2339,35,4,3327,12090,18,2566],"class_list":["post-408770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-columbus-blue-jackets","tag-blue-jackets","tag-bluejackets","tag-boone-jenner","tag-calgary-flames","tag-charlie-coyle","tag-coaching","tag-columbus","tag-columbus-blue-jackets","tag-columbusbluejackets","tag-damon-severson","tag-dante-fabbro","tag-denton-mateychuk","tag-don-waddell","tag-dustin-wolf","tag-hockey","tag-jet-greaves","tag-kent-johnson","tag-mackenzie-weegar","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-nhl","tag-rasmus-andersson","tag-rick-bowness","tag-winnipeg-jets","tag-zach-werenski"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115898540997795014","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}