{"id":585294,"date":"2026-04-15T07:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T07:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/585294\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T07:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T07:46:08","slug":"blue-jackets-head-coach-rick-bowness-blasts-teams-terrible-culture-after-season-finale-loss-to-capitals-these-guys-they-dont-care-losing-is-not-important-enough-to-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/585294\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jackets head coach Rick Bowness blasts team\u2019s terrible culture after season-finale loss to Capitals: \u2018These guys, they don\u2019t care. Losing is not important enough to them.\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the Washington Capitals<\/a>\u2018 locker room wasn\u2019t exactly electric and full of life after their season-ending victory on Wednesday, it definitely wasn\u2019t the warzone that the Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a>\u2018 locker room sounds like it must have been.<\/p>\n

After his team dropped a 2-1 decision to the Capitals, their ninth loss in their last 11 games, Columbus head coach Rick Bowness lit into his team during his postgame press conference. The team was second in the Metropolitan Division on March 25, but their late-season collapse kept them out of the playoffs for a sixth straight year.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what? All you got to do is just look at the stat sheet,\u201d Bowness said. \u201cThree hits, 23 giveaways. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m back, but if I\u2019m back, I\u2019m changing this culture. These guys, they don\u2019t care. Losing is not important enough to them. It doesn\u2019t bother them. How can you go out and play like that? Should have done this about a month ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this is why we are where we are. This is why we\u2019re out of the playoffs. That kind of effort. You have to hate losing. I don\u2019t care if it\u2019s a meaningless game. I don\u2019t care. Show up and compete. Three hits. 23 giveaways. What else do you want to know?\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowness replaced Dean Evason as head coach on January 12, with the Blue Jackets at 19-19-7, last in the Eastern Conference. The 71-year-old bench boss came out of retirement for the job and led them to the second-best record in the NHL, 19-3-4, from January 12 to March 25.<\/p>\n

When asked what changed with the club that led them to falter so dramatically, Bowness went on another emotional tirade.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause it got tough,\u201d Bowness said. \u201cBecause it got hard. Like we talked about after the Olympic break. It\u2019s going to get harder. So everything is good as long as it\u2019s going their way. And now it gets tough, we don\u2019t want to battle back. And that\u2019s what\u2019s happened over the last little week, a couple weeks. That\u2019s all that\u2019s happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to change that if I\u2019m back. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m back. Don (general manager Don Waddell) and I will talk. We\u2019ll get to that. But man, oh man, some of those guys are so lucky the season\u2019s over, and there\u2019s no practice tomorrow, and there\u2019s no more games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, the Blue Jackets didn\u2019t have a particularly bad game against the Capitals, controlling the majority of five-on-five shot attempts (43-35) and expected goals (2.63-1.86). Still, the loss seems to have caused an already boiling pot to spill over the edge.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jackets have made the playoffs just six times in their 26 years of existence. Contributing to that failure this year was their play on home ice, as they lost six in a row at Nationwide Arena to end the campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s terrible,\u201d Bowness said. \u201cInexcusable. If they\u2019re not embarrassed by it, not only tonight, they\u2019re on the wrong team. They are. They\u2019ve got to be embarrassed with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Bowness referenced multiple times that he doesn\u2019t yet have a contract for next season, he sounded interested in returning for the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe scratched the itch,\u201d Bowness said. \u201cI\u2019m going to talk to Don. The players were told tonight, if I\u2019m back, we\u2019re changing this freaking culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of 2026, Bowness is the last active NHL coach who also served as a head coach for an NHL team in the 1980s. His 2,762 games as an NHL head or assistant coach are the most by anyone in league history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the Washington Capitals\u2018 locker room wasn\u2019t exactly electric and full of life after their season-ending victory on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-585294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}