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Columbus Blue Jackets (Official Thread)
- By ScriptOhio
- Other OSU and Professional Sports
- 12042 Replies
Just sayin': The Blue jackets played a strong 3rd period and beat the Flames 5-3. New head coach Rick Bowness is 1-0.
www.cleveland.com
Why Rick Bowness came out of retirement to coach the Blue Jackets mid-season
Head coach Rick Bowness will make his debut behind the Blue Jackets bench on Tuesday night vs. the Flames.
Sometimes the biggest career decisions happen in the most unexpected places. For Rick Bowness, his return to NHL coaching was sealed while on his boat in Florida, bringing a sudden end to his brief retirement.
Blue Jackets president and general manager Don Waddell revealed the remarkably swift timeline of how the coaching change unfolded.
“It was almost 11 o’ clock yesterday morning and caught Rick out on his boat with his wife and asked him how he’s doing and asked him if he was interested in coaching our team. It took him about five seconds to say, ‘I’m in. Let me just run by my wife,’” Waddell said in a Tuesday press conference.
The speed of Bowness’s decision might surprise some, but the veteran coach explained that while he wasn’t actively looking for a job, the Columbus opportunity was special. “Was I out looking for a job? Absolutely not. I wasn’t. I was quite content with what we were doing,” Bowness explained during the press conference. “But there’s only a few teams that I would have come out of retirement to coach, and this is certainly one of them.”
For Bowness and his wife Judy—both of whom faced health challenges that led to his stepping down from his previous role with Winnipeg after the 2023-24 season—the decision brought an immediate sense of rightness.
“So we pretty well accepted the job on the boat ride back,” Bowness recalled with a smile. “We kind of looked at each other and I said to her, you feel okay? Oh, yeah. She was thrilled. Do you feel okay? I said, absolutely. Like right away, we knew we made the right decision, so we felt relieved. We did, right?”
The quick turnaround—from fishing on a boat to preparing to coach an NHL game in barely 24 hours—might seem overwhelming, but Bowness described the transition as surprisingly “relaxed.” The coach explained that his wife actually “misses this a lot more than I do,” joking that “she loves it” when asked about returning to the coaching lifestyle.
Waddell and the Blue Jackets brass had already decided a change was needed following a string of disappointing performances, particularly the team’s tendency to collapse in third periods. “It’s a critical point of our season with 12 games, I believe, before we go into the Olympic break, I think eight at home. That’s why we felt that if we’re going to do something, now is the time to do it,” Waddell explained.
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continued
Why Rick Bowness came out of retirement to coach the Blue Jackets mid-season
Rick Bowness explained why he decided to unretire to take over as the Blue Jackets new head coach.
www.cleveland.com
Head coach Rick Bowness will make his debut behind the Blue Jackets bench on Tuesday night vs. the Flames.
Sometimes the biggest career decisions happen in the most unexpected places. For Rick Bowness, his return to NHL coaching was sealed while on his boat in Florida, bringing a sudden end to his brief retirement.
Blue Jackets president and general manager Don Waddell revealed the remarkably swift timeline of how the coaching change unfolded.
“It was almost 11 o’ clock yesterday morning and caught Rick out on his boat with his wife and asked him how he’s doing and asked him if he was interested in coaching our team. It took him about five seconds to say, ‘I’m in. Let me just run by my wife,’” Waddell said in a Tuesday press conference.
The speed of Bowness’s decision might surprise some, but the veteran coach explained that while he wasn’t actively looking for a job, the Columbus opportunity was special. “Was I out looking for a job? Absolutely not. I wasn’t. I was quite content with what we were doing,” Bowness explained during the press conference. “But there’s only a few teams that I would have come out of retirement to coach, and this is certainly one of them.”
For Bowness and his wife Judy—both of whom faced health challenges that led to his stepping down from his previous role with Winnipeg after the 2023-24 season—the decision brought an immediate sense of rightness.
“So we pretty well accepted the job on the boat ride back,” Bowness recalled with a smile. “We kind of looked at each other and I said to her, you feel okay? Oh, yeah. She was thrilled. Do you feel okay? I said, absolutely. Like right away, we knew we made the right decision, so we felt relieved. We did, right?”
The quick turnaround—from fishing on a boat to preparing to coach an NHL game in barely 24 hours—might seem overwhelming, but Bowness described the transition as surprisingly “relaxed.” The coach explained that his wife actually “misses this a lot more than I do,” joking that “she loves it” when asked about returning to the coaching lifestyle.
Waddell and the Blue Jackets brass had already decided a change was needed following a string of disappointing performances, particularly the team’s tendency to collapse in third periods. “It’s a critical point of our season with 12 games, I believe, before we go into the Olympic break, I think eight at home. That’s why we felt that if we’re going to do something, now is the time to do it,” Waddell explained.
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