COLUMBUS, Ohio — A major topic across the hockey world over the past few days has been the continued simmering of Columbus Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness.

From Bowness’ old mates on the “NHL on TNT” hockey panel to national outlets Sportsnet and TSN, commentators and former players alike wondered how much longer Bowness can flame his roster after tough losses without “losing” key players in the dressing room.

Bowness has called out his players after all three losses this season, including a brutal 7-3 loss to the Florida Panthers on Tuesday, when, among other things, he said the Blue Jackets should have been “embarrassed” by the result.

This comes, of course, after Bowness ended last season with a legendary tirade, saying Blue Jackets players didn’t hate losing enough and questioning their commitment. He also vowed to change the culture in Columbus if he was brought back as coach.

Well, if you thought the last two days of rhetoric might have been enough for Bowness to dial it back, you would have been mistaken.

The 71-year-old coach was uncharacteristically brief with the media during the first two questions of his post-practice chat Friday, as if there was something else he wanted to talk about.

And there was.

“I just look at our team … we’re 30th in the league in goals against,” Bowness said. “Thirtieth. I’ve never coached a team that was 30th in the league.

“I’m mad. I’m mad where we’re sitting. I’m mad at myself. I hate seeing that, 30th in goals against. That bothers me. We gotta fix it. We need games, yep. We need better practices, yep. We

Read the rest for free here: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7693783/2026/10/17/blue-jackets-coach-rick-bowness-comments/?unlocked_article_code=1.JVE.ULtN.yutZSHBn7_NG&source=emp_shared_article&smid=url-share-ta

Just for everyone complaining about the cost of our streaming options vs everyone else’s, this guy is doing all the teams.

Why does the schedule work this way? What mechanism causes every other team to play 7-9 games in the time that we've only played 5? I dont feel like our lack of games has really helped us in figuring out our early season woes lol

The Randomizer has spoken. Today’s selection is Francois Beauchemin.

Being placed on waivers by the Montreal Canadiens in 2004, Francois Beauchemin was an absolute gem of a find for the Blue Jackets. However, his time here would be brief. After only 11 games he was packaged to Anaheim in November 2005 for Sergei Fedorov. Beauchemin had an excellent career, playing over 900 games and winning the Stanley Cup with Anaheim in 2007. A great career for an undrafted player.

Silver linings and all that

The Blue Jackets are off to a 2-3-0 start, and a 7-3 loss to the Panthers has sparked familiar concerns in Columbus. After six seasons outside the playoffs, fans want a team that gives them a reason to believe something has changed.

“Same old Blue Jackets”? Read for free.

The Randomizer has spoken. Today’s selection is Rostislav Klesla.

Drafted 4th overall in 2000, Rostislav Klesla was the first player drafted in Blue Jackets history. He would cement himself as a reliable defender for the first 10 years of the team while also recording 133 points. Klesla’s defensive game was especially notable once Ken Hitchcock became the coach, like in 2007-2008 when he played all 82 games with a +7. We loved Rusty, but unfortunately he would be traded to Phoenix in February 2011 for Sami Lepisto and Scottie Upshall.

Wow. Accountability from pretty much everyone they interviewed. Fantilli says they should be embarrassed and fully agreed with Bones. I am cautiously optimistic for Saturday. Talk is talk, though. Let's hope they can cash the checks they're writing.

I started writing this as a response to this comment in the PGT, but it got way too long and I figured I'd just post it as it's own submission.

TL;DR Culture is built over years and takes years of effort to fix.

The coaching carousel, weak leadership from veterans, CBJ becoming being a veteran retirement home, Johnny dying, and more over the years have done significant, long-lasting damage to the team. Said this after game 2, "It's going to take a loooooong time for Bowness to beat the bad habits out of these guys."

Culture can't change in an offseason when you're away from everyone then you get together two weeks before the season starts. You can't take years of bad habits away that quickly. When things are going well, you can see how electric this team looks. We saw it under Evason, and we've seen it under Bones. But the moment there's some adversity, there are a good portion of players that either panic or give up. Out of position, taking bad penalties, trying to play hero puck, giving up on plays, dogging shifts.

Offseason set the stage for culture change. Weak, lame-duck captain who should've been stripped of the C for standing up for Babcock, gone. Marchenko the malcontent gone, shame he wanted out, but if you can't communicate your issues to the team to try and work things out you've gotta go. Elvis finally gone, I've got no hate for him but Matiss dying to save his pregnant wife genuinely destroyed his mental here. Players like KJ who've been regularly criticized for their conditioning came in looking stronger, healthier, and fitter. Fantilli's making strides at C by crushing faceoffs and doing better at being a play enabler instead of playing hero puck all the time (I mean he still does it but much less). But all of those bad habits that have been ingrained over the years are still there, under the surface. It takes a lot for it to go away.

Bones has his work cut out for him. He's trying to build a whole new foundation for Vogelhuber to put the house on in a couple years, because the old foundation is completely broken. His comments last night were really telling, "You have to hope... that performance tonight will embarrass them enough to stop this, right? Because if they're not embarrassed by that, we don't want them on the team." "I'm not a babysitter... you're a professional athlete. Prepare yourself to play properly. Prepare to play with some discipline." "Oli's the least of our problems. I know that was an unnecessary penalty, he's man enough to own up to it. You won't see it again, that I know." "[Watching who responds to adversity] is part of evaluation... who is handling it well, and who caves in? That's what we're watching."

The comment on Olivier is the most interesting one to me. He made a huge mistake that took the team from a bad situation to an unwinnable one. But Bones considers him the least of their problems? What exactly is Bones seeing day in and day out from the players that we don't? Combined with the other comments he made in this presser, that's rather damning for the team.

Culture doesn't change in a moment, because it's built over years. This one is broken. Bowness said as much at the end of last season. I think we're taking steps in the right direction with the culture. Bones isn't Torts, but I'm glad that we once again have a strong, honest voice in charge trying to drag this team in the right direction. It's just not going to get there quickly, and it'll probably be too late to prevent a total step 1 rebuild again. But when that step 1 rebuild comes, hopefully our younger players like Sillinger, KJ, and Fantilli have been instilled with responsibility and accountability and can be the force that leads that new culture.

Olivier jammed his stick between Balinskis’ legs from behind, sending the Panthers forward to the ice in pain. Olivier was assessed a major penalty for slashing and a game misconduct, ending his evening.

“Hope he’s all right,” Olivier said. “That’s not an area you need to attack at all.”

You might say Olivier was lucky to leave early, but he didn’t see it that way.

“I don’t even have an explanation for it,” Olivier said. “It looked bad. It was bad, and that’s on me. I can sit here and try to tell you I was trying to get a reaction out of him, but at the end of the day, I can’t even explain it.

“I apologized to my teammates for putting them in that spot, and it’s happened a couple of times this season. It’s not usually what I do. But it’s been happening, so I need to look in the mirror and figure it out.”

The Randomizer has spoken. Today’s selection is Ben Simon.

Ohio-born Ben Simon saw NHL action with the Atlanta Thrashers before signing with the Blue Jackets as a free agent in 2005. He would play 13 games with Columbus in 2005-2006, the final NHL games of his career.

Made no sense to trade for him, and still doesn't. Vancouver should be sending Waddell thank you cards every week

Obviously this game was atrocious but Kent looks good through 3 games. Is He back?

Hi! I'm a fan from Canada!

I am looking to buy a Blue Jackets official jersey with the #7 and the name Kuraly in the back. Since he has been traded, I can't find the jersey anywhere :(

Size: Men L or XL.

It can be any style (white, blue, stadium).

I'll be in Columbus in early Nov.

Let me know 🤘

Wednesday, October 07 - Tuesday, October 13, 2026

Top highlights

Top videos

Top Remaining Posts

Game thread comments