{"id":518820,"date":"2026-03-23T17:40:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T17:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/518820\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T17:40:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T17:40:27","slug":"columbus-blue-jackets-basking-in-mid-season-turnaround-under-rick-bowness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/518820\/","title":{"rendered":"Columbus Blue Jackets basking in mid-season turnaround under Rick Bowness"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2025-26 NHL season was not going the Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a>\u2019 way entering the new calendar year.<\/p>\n

Columbus entered this season on a positive note, barely missing the playoffs last year after two consecutive last-place finishes in the Metropolitan Division. However, they found themselves in last place in the Eastern Conference with a 19-19-7 record through the first 45 games of this season.<\/p>\n

The drop off led to the team firing head coach Dean Evason<\/a> on Jan. 12 and hiring Rick Bowness out of retirement to take the reins behind the bench.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jackets have been rolling since Bowness took over, going 19-3-4 and finding themselves in a playoff position with a 37-22-11 record entering Monday\u2019s action.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d be lying if said I was anticipating this,\u201d Blue Jackets president and general manager Don Waddell told TSN\u2019s First Up on Monday. \u201cWhat I said to ownership when we made the change was that I just didn\u2019t like the direction we were heading.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said our young players weren\u2019t getting the development they needed, and we need our young players to grow each year. I couldn\u2019t guarantee how many wins we were going to get [after firing Evason], but I knew that the team would be a better team for younger players moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowness is a coach who has been through every situation the NHL has to offer through his 44 years of coaching professional hockey, including taking over a floundering team mid-season for a playoff push.<\/p>\n

The 71-year-old took over the Dallas Stars<\/a> in December of the 2019-20 campaign and led the team to the Stanley Cup Final that same year.<\/p>\n

Waddell credits Bowness\u2019 ability to communicate with the team not just on the ice, but on an individual level as the reason for his success.<\/p>\n

\u201cRick\u2019s a great communicator,\u201d said Waddell. \u201cWhat I can point to is that though he treats these hockey players as athletes, as he should, he [also] treats them as people. I just felt that his communication skills [are great] not only as a group, but individually. He can tell them what he expects out of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayers needed this and wanted this, and we\u2019ve gotten the results. The players are having fun again, they want to be at the rink, and they enjoy playing for Rick.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the team excelled in the New Year, Waddell and his management group had to decide which direction the team was going to go as the NHL trade deadline approached.<\/p>\n

Columbus has five players who are scheduled to become unrestricted free agents at the end of the season, including key pieces like captain Boone Jenner<\/a> and forwards Mason Marchment<\/a> and Charlie Coyle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jackets elected to keep their pending UFAs and also added forward Conor Garland<\/a> from the Vancouver Canucks<\/a> as the team makes a push for the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Garland had seven goals and 26 points in 50 games with the Canucks prior to the trade and was attractive to the Blue Jackets because he has a six-year, $36 million extension kicking in at the start of the 2026-27 campaign.<\/p>\n

The 5-foot-10 winger has five goals and six points in nine games since joining the Blue Jackets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we went to the trade deadline, I told our staff that we\u2019d like to add to our team, but we don\u2019t want to give up assets for another UFA,\u201d said Waddel. As the cap moves forward, cost certainty is going to be important, especially for our franchise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a great history with [Garland], I\u2019ve seen him play for the United States at the World Championships, [Zach] Werenski played with him there, and we\u2019ve obviously seen him in the NHL. We had a good book on him, not just as a player, but as a person.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the regular season comes down to the stretch drive, Waddell stresses that his team should only be worried about their play on the ice and not to focus on the teams around them in the standings.<\/p>\n

They are coming off a tough 1-0 loss to the New York Islanders<\/a> on Sunday and have 12 games remaining to cement their position for the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur focus is to win games. If we don\u2019t, we can scoreboard watch all we want but it\u2019s not going to help,\u201d said Waddell. \u201cIf we take care of our business and do what we know we can do, that\u2019s going to help.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025-26 NHL season was not going the Columbus Blue Jackets\u2019 way entering the new calendar year. Columbus…\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-518820","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\/116279720529606219","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518820","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=518820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518820\/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=518820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}