{"id":438069,"date":"2026-01-31T14:18:33","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T14:18:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/438069\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T14:18:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T14:18:33","slug":"starting-to-realize-what-we-look-like-when-were-playing-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/438069\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Starting to realize what we look like when we\u2019re playing well\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a> were in the Eastern Conference cellar as recently as the beginning of January, ranking worst in the conference with 45 points after their game on January 11.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 12, the team made a surprising move in dismissing head coach Dean Evason<\/a> and replacing him with veteran bench boss Rick Bowness.<\/p>\n

The new voice behind the bench seems to have made all the difference, as the Blue Jackets have rattled off wins in seven of eight games under Bowness and surged into the playoff conversation in the Eastern Conference entering play on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re starting to see what we look like when we\u2019re playing well, and that\u2019s important,\u201d Bowness said before the Blue Jackets\u2019 defeated the Chicago Blackhawks<\/a> 4-2 on Friday.<\/p>\n

Charlie Coyle<\/a> scored a hat trick in the game, which was their fourth consecutive victory. The Blue Jackets now sit six points behind the New York Islanders<\/a> and Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> for the third spot in the Metropolitan Division.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey know our strengths, they know the things we\u2019ll continue to work on and pound on, but they\u2019re seeing it on the ice because I hear the comments on the bench. I hear them talking on the bench. So, they\u2019re starting to realize what we look like when we\u2019re playing well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Columbus has made sharp improvements in many areas in the eight games with Bowness behind the bench – whether small sample size can be thanked or not, their improvements in goals per game (2.91 under Evason vs. 3.88 under Bowness), goals allowed per game (3.38 under Evason vs. 2.63 under Bowness) and shots against per game (30.9 under Evason, 28.3 under Bowness) have led to a completely different looking team on the ice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main focus was taking care of our net,\u201d Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner<\/a> said after Friday\u2019s game to reporters. \u201cWe were giving up too many shots against and rushes against, and things like that are going to hurt you.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, the numbers are what they are. It\u2019s going to be tough to get wins in this league consistently. It\u2019s just the details on the defensive side of the puck and how we can play more with the puck. That was the main focus, and we\u2019re trying to build off that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blue Jackets have also tended to start quicker recently: Columbus scored the opening goal in seven of eight games under Bowness, compared to 25 times of 45 games under Evason. Superstar defenceman Zach Werenski<\/a> thinks that\u2019s been a key factor in the recent turnaround.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think playing from behind, you can kind of sometimes end up chasing the game a little bit. So I feel for us, to get in front, just establish our game, get to the game we want to play, I feel like maybe we haven\u2019t done that enough this year,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been doing it as of late, and it\u2019s a big reason why we\u2019re having success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Columbus is in the playoff conversation, but are still firmly on the outside looking in for a potential postseason berth. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t done anything yet and you can never forget that. We haven\u2019t done anything,\u201d Bowness said. \u201dYeah, we\u2019ve won a few games. So what? We\u2019re still chasing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never lose that hunger to understand where we are and what we have to do to keep going forward. We\u2019re not patting ourselves on the back by any stretch of the imagination, and we have no reason to. When you keep pushing and get that X by your name that you\u2019re [qualified for the playoffs], then you can take a little bit of a breath.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blue Jackets seek their first postseason appearance since the 2019-20 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Columbus Blue Jackets were in the Eastern Conference cellar as recently as the beginning of January, ranking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5108],"tags":[4759,3644,5180,897,230,32986,5179,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-438069","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-columbus-blue-jackets","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-blue-jackets","10":"tag-bluejackets","11":"tag-columbus","12":"tag-columbus-blue-jackets","13":"tag-columbus-blue-jackets-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-29","14":"tag-columbusbluejackets","15":"tag-hockey","16":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115990149185259222","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438069","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=438069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}