{"id":567014,"date":"2026-05-04T23:48:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T23:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/567014\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T23:48:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T23:48:25","slug":"rick-bowness-explains-his-columbus-blue-jackets-postgame-rant-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/567014\/","title":{"rendered":"Rick Bowness explains his Columbus Blue Jackets postgame rant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness <\/a>returned as a TNT studio analyst May 3 and shed a little more light on his viral postgame rant<\/a> following a lackluster season finale.<\/p>\n

More: Columbus Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness rips team after finale, cites culture<\/a><\/p>\n

Rejoining the broadcast crew he worked with prior to accepting his Columbus coaching role Jan. 12<\/a>, Bowness said his meltdown was a necessary start to the Jackets\u2019 offseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs the room as bad as I made it sound to be?\u201d he said. \u201cNo, the culture\u2019s not as bad as I made it sound to be. Is it where it needs to be? Absolutely not. We\u2019re not going to leave that season and say, \u2018OK, we got better this year. We (had) some good signs.\u2019 I wanted them to go home and be uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the way the TNT broadcast led into the discussion was a barometer, there\u2019s a good chance the Blue Jackets got the message. Former NHL forward Paul Bissonnette, a co-analyst, sat up straight and made sure his sport coat was buttoned.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just going to make sure I\u2019m ready to go today,\u201d Bissonnette said, smirking. \u201cI\u2019m ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Blue Jackets forward Anson Carter, another analyst, said Bissonnette had nothing to be worried about.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re off tomorrow, so you don\u2019t have to worry about getting skated,\u201d Carter said, referring to one of Bowness\u2019 most popular lines during his rant.<\/p>\n

\"Columbus<\/p>\n

Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Rick Bowness reacts to a goal by Washington Capitals right wing Anthony Beauvillier during the second period of the NHL hockey game at Nationwide Arena in Columbus on April 14, 2026.<\/p>\n

Host Liam McHugh added his thoughts, as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that press conference near the end of the year, if I\u2019m a Blue Jackets fan, I was fired up after it,\u201d McHugh said. \u201cIf I was a team that was looking for a head coach, I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s exactly \u2026 that\u2019s what I want. I want that passion.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowness made sure to put himself under the spotlight too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first person I go after when we play badly, and I tell the players this all the time, is me,\u201d Bowness said. \u201cI\u2019m the head coach. It\u2019s my responsibility to make sure they\u2019re ready to go. But it\u2019s also their responsibility. They signed the contracts. They\u2019re players. They\u2019ve got to go out and compete.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Columbus<\/p>\n

Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Rick Bowness watches from behind the bench during the second period of the NHL hockey game against the Boston Bruins at Nationwide Arena on March 29, 2026.<\/p>\n

Bowness wants the Jackets to use the sting of missing out on the postseason as summer motivation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want them going home, all of us, me included, and being comfortable because we had a good stretch, or we made some improvements from the last year,\u201d Bowness said. \u201cI think if we\u2019re going to get that culture to where it needs to be, you have to spend the summer uncomfortable, and you have to bring that into training camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowness finished his thoughts by saying the Jackets heard the wakeup call, loud and clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe end of the year meetings with the players all went great,\u201d he said. \u201cThey got the message. We have to be better. I have to be better. My staff has to be better. Everyone does. It starts with me.\u201d<\/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 says Columbus Blue Jackets must be ‘uncomfortable’<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness returned as a TNT studio analyst May 3 and shed a little more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5108],"tags":[11276,3644,5180,897,230,5179,5,4,1291,12090],"class_list":["post-567014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-columbus-blue-jackets","tag-anson-carter","tag-blue-jackets","tag-bluejackets","tag-columbus","tag-columbus-blue-jackets","tag-columbusbluejackets","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-paul-bissonnette","tag-rick-bowness"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116518985119063998","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567014","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=567014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}