agreed to a one-year contract<\/a> through next season.<\/p>\n\u201cHe\u2019s done great things for our team, our dressing room, our systems,\u201d Blue Jackets center Adam Fantilli said. \u201cIn terms of having to fix anything (with the players after his comments)? Nah. We\u2019re all men. We\u2019re gonna work past it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like he said anything too ridiculous. He was upset. He was pissed. We had a terrible home record (0-5-1) the last six games. He has a right to be upset. We have to be just as upset. It\u2019s embarrassing to have that happen at home when we\u2019re in the position we were in. I love Bones. He\u2019s done a lot for me, and I appreciate that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Blue Jackets went 21-11-5 (.635 points percentage) under Bowness, including an initial 19-3-4 run after he was hired on Jan. 12. It was the 2-8-1 faceplant in the final three weeks of the season that knocked the Jackets out of the playoffs and sent Bowness\u2019 blood pressure spiking.<\/p>\n
He did say early in his comments, \u201cthey don\u2019t care,\u201d when referring to his players. As he continued to vent, he cooled a bit, eventually saying, \u201cWe\u2019ve got a good team, and they do care. So I\u2019m mad right now, yeah. They do care, but they gotta show it on the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Otherwise, Bowness has not backed down.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter a game like that, and after the stretch we had (to end the season), I\u2019m not going to come in here and say, \u2018Oh, we were close tonight,\u2019 or \u2018We battled hard.\u2019 I\u2019m not going to do that,\u201d Bowness said during a Thursday news conference to announce his new contract.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople aren\u2019t stupid. They\u2019re watching. They see what I see, man, and the players see it, too. You know me now. Sometimes my passion gets in my way. But that\u2019s why I\u2019m sitting here, the passion and love of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t an easy critique for players to hear \u2014 it wasn\u2019t meant to be, of course \u2014 but most players cited Bowness\u2019 passion as one of his strengths. The other top-of-the-r\u00e9sum\u00e9 trait is his communication.<\/p>\n
Bowness is always out early for off-day practices or game-day skates, giving him time to saddle up next to players for a chat. It\u2019s the same way in the dressing room, where conversations are just as likely in the middle of the room as in his office.<\/p>\n
\u201cI respect the hell out of Bones,\u201d Blue Jackets winger Mason Marchment said. \u201cHe\u2019s a hell of a coach. He\u2019s been around. He knows the game. He knows how to talk to players. He\u2019s really personable.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can be honest and upfront with him, and he\u2019ll take that and do what he wants with it. I have nothing but respect for him. I think he\u2019s an excellent coach, and he put a really good structure around this team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defenseman Damon Severson went a step further. He\u2019s had nine different head coaches during his 12-year NHL career (if you count Mike Babcock in Columbus) with New Jersey and Columbus. They\u2019ve run the gamut, Severson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBones is the best coach I\u2019ve personally ever had,\u201d Severson said. \u201cI\u2019ve had a couple of really good coaches. I\u2019ve had some really not good coaches. But Bones has been the best one so far. We\u2019re all big fans of Bones.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe let the organization down and the fans down by not being in the playoffs, but Rick Bowness is not the issue at all. He\u2019s going to be part of the solution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Players were still stopping by Nationwide Arena on Thursday, some for exit interviews and others to grab personal belongings for another long offseason. The Blue Jackets\u2019 six-year playoff drought is the second-longest in history, exceeded only by the franchise\u2019s first seven seasons.<\/p>\n
Bowness has vowed to change the culture in the dressing room, and he\u2019s signaled to the players that he\u2019ll be a different coach in 2026-27.<\/p>\n
There wasn\u2019t much to complain about during a 19-3-4 run that pushed the Blue Jackets to fifth overall in the Eastern Conference and second place in the Metropolitan Division.<\/p>\n
The 2-8-1 free fall happened quickly, too, but Bowness said he wishes he\u2019d acted earlier when he saw bad habits and bad tendencies creep into some players\u2019 games. That\u2019s what he meant on Tuesday when he warned, \u201cMan, oh man, some of those guys are so lucky the season is over, and there\u2019s no practice tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bowness can now devise an offseason program. He can advise general manager Don Waddell on which of their free agents he\u2019d like back, which free agents he\u2019d like to pursue and what kind of players he feels the Blue Jackets should add this season. He can coach this team through training camp and throughout a full season.<\/p>\n
And now, when he tells the players that the early and midseason points are just as important as March and April points, they\u2019ll know. And when he tells them how much tougher the league gets in the final month of the season, they\u2019ll get it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe love playing for Bones,\u201d Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski said. \u201cHe\u2019s a great coach. I have nothing but respect for him. It\u2019s a message \u2026 it\u2019s a strong message, and we all have to respond to it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLUMBUS, Ohio \u2014 Coach Rick Bowness has vowed to change the culture within the Columbus Blue Jackets. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5108],"tags":[3644,5180,897,230,5179,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-555071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-columbus-blue-jackets","8":"tag-blue-jackets","9":"tag-bluejackets","10":"tag-columbus","11":"tag-columbus-blue-jackets","12":"tag-columbusbluejackets","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116424407399874580","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555071","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=555071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}