Blue Jackets bring back Rick Bowness after tirade against his team

UPDATE: The Columbus Blue Jackets have extended head coach Rick Bowness' contract for the 2026-27 following Tuesday's night's tirade against his players.

“Rick has done an outstanding job since his arrival and it was obvious to all of us that he is the right person to lead our club as head coach,” said GM Don Waddell in a prepared statement. “Rick developed strong relationships with our players who will continue to benefit greatly from his leadership as we look to learn from the hard lessons of this season and work towards our goal of competing for a Stanley Cup.”

“I have really enjoyed my time with this organization and absolutely love being part of it and working with these players,” said Bowness in the same statement. “We’re all very disappointed by how our season ended and we have a lot of work to do, but we will do what’s necessary to be the type of team we want to be and that our great fans expect us to be. I’m excited about continuing the work we started here, and I appreciate the confidence in me shown by Don, (CBJ President) Mike Priest and our ownership group led by the McConnell family.”

Read below for Tuesday's report on Bowness' post-game press availability.

The Columbus Blue Jackets wrapped up their 2025-26 season this evening and interim head coach Rick Bowness tore an absolute strip off his players before they break for the summer.

After finishing the season 2-8-1, the frustration was evident in the entire organization and this evening Bowness laid it bare for all to see.

Check out this all-timer of a post-game tirade:

Some highlights:

"I don't know if I'm back, but if I'm back I'm changing the culture. These guys... they don't care. Losing is not important enough to them, it doesn't bother them. How can you go out and play like that? This is why we are where we are... this is why we're out of the playoffs."

"Some of those guys are SO lucky the season's over and that there's no practice tomorrow. If they're not embarrassed by that... they're on the wrong team."

"The players were told tonight that if I'm back, we're changing this freaking culture."

Wow... tell us how you really feel, Bonsie!

In all seriousness, I personally love to see this kind of emotion especially from a guy like Bowness who has seen more and done more in the NHL than literally anyone else ever. I hope for the Blue Jackets' sake that he is indeed back behind the CBJ bench next season.