In many ways, though, it\u2019s that passion and honesty that helped endear\u00a0Bowness to his players almost immediately upon arrival. While CBJ players might not have agreed with the exact phrasing of some of his postgame comments, they knew it came from a good place and a deep-seated desire to win, and Bowness received extensive support from CBJ players in the days after the season.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d\u00a0love for\u00a0him to be back, and I know my teammates feel the same way,\u201d\u00a0forward Mathieu\u00a0Olivier said\u00a0earlier Thursday. \u201cI just love the passion and energy that he brings every day,\u00a0the communication\u00a0with everyone.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0been\u00a0really good\u00a0to have him around and\u00a0working\u00a0with him.\u00a0We\u2019ve started to build a really good relationship with him and the coaching staff and everyone here.\u00a0I\u2019d\u00a0be really excited for him to be back.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Comments like that caught the eye of president of hockey operations and general manager Don Waddell, who made the bold move to bring Bowness \u2013 the longest-tenured head or assistant coach in NHL history \u2013 out of retirement in January to lead the squad.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The two agreed at that time that Bowness could coach the rest of this season, then discuss\u00a0future plans, and\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0exactly what they did Wednesday morming. By the time Waddell had that meeting and chatted with his players, the decision was made that Bowness would continue to be the right man to lead the way.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always interesting when you do make changes how players are going to respond,\u201d Waddell said. \u201cThrough all the exit meetings that have happened so far, every player to a man said they love playing for Rick, they respect Rick, and they were all hoping he\u2019d come back for another year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, the next step will be to take a team that was eliminated from postseason contention the night before its 82nd game for the second year in a row and return it to the playoffs for the first time since 2020.\u00a0Bowness seemed well on his way to doing so when the Blue Jackets were the best team in the NHL in his first 26 games, posting a 19-3-4 record, but a 2-8-1 ending to the season left the team six points short of the postseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A myriad of factors went into the struggles at the end of the year \u2013 injuries to a couple of key players, a condensed schedule, the inability to finish scoring chances and some inexperience at handling the pressure of the season\u2019s final push \u2013 but Bowness said that all will give the team a reference point to grow from next season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He also said he was excited to pick up where the Blue Jackets left off this year, and the familiarity the team and coach built with one another over the last three months should pay dividends going forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI know them a little bit better now,\u201d Bowness said. \u201cThey know me a little bit better now. They know I yell a lot, they know I talk a lot. But we\u2019re a family. We are. We\u2019re a family here, and families disagree sometimes, but then you love each other and you hug each other and you move on. That\u2019s what\u00a0we’re\u00a0gonna\u00a0do.\u00a0We\u2019re\u00a0gonna\u00a0be a family and\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0gonna keep working and\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0gonna keep pushing … but\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0gonna get the job done.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That direct honesty and open communication \u2013 the ability to hold his players to a high standard while also encouraging them as well \u2013 were consistently pointed to as reasons why the Blue Jackets\u00a0immediately\u00a0took to his coaching style.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While he was never afraid to tell his where they needed to be better and always wanted them to know where they stood, his open-door policy and the way he sought them out on a near daily basis to build relationships also showed how much he cared and built a two-way street of respect.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s the best coach I\u2019ve personally ever had,\u201d defenseman Damon Severson said Thursday morning. \u201cHe\u2019s gonna be part of the solution here. I\u2019m a big fan of his. I\u2019d be ecstatic if he\u2019s back. I hope that works out. I think we can do some damage with him at the helm next year.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u00a0tell\u00a0he\u00a0cares.\u00a0You can just\u00a0tell\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0a good human being.\u00a0The communication\u00a0is awesome. I think\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0been a mainstay comment from a lot of players and people around\u00a0the organization. He just communicates well, and the other thing\u00a0is\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0a good human being. … I have nothing but good things to say about him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Blue Jackets have improved in points percentage each of the past three seasons, but they\u2019ve fallen short of bringing playoff hockey back to Columbus. For Bowness, that\u2019s the stated goal when he returns this fall.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t come back if I didn\u2019t think we could get this team in the playoffs,\u201d Bowness said.\u00a0\u201cI\u00a0want to win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In many ways, though, it\u2019s that passion and honesty that helped endear\u00a0Bowness to his players almost immediately upon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555275,"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-555274","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\/116425929766130030","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555274","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=555274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}