Blue Jackets hope to learn harsh lessons from falling short

In the end, maybe the Blue Jackets didn’t know what they didn’t know. 

And head coach Rick Bowness knew it all along. 

Before his passionate comments after the team’s season-ending 2-1 loss to Washington on Tuesday, Bowness spent the last few weeks of the season repeatedly telling his team and the media that things were only going to get tougher and tougher in the final games. 

The Blue Jackets were the best team in the NHL in his first 26 games, going 19-3-4 from mid-January to mid-March and rising from a tie for last place in the Eastern Conference into a playoff spot. But a coach who has spent more time behind an NHL bench than anyone in the league’s history insisted that the team had to be prepared for the season’s final days, when postseason spots were hotly contested and teams played with a level of unmatched desperation. 

And in the end, Columbus couldn’t get to that level, finishing 2-8-1 in its last 11 games and being eliminated from playoff contention the night before the finale against the Capitals. Bowness’ biggest frustration was that for whatever reason, the Blue Jackets couldn't heed his call and ramp up their games when it mattered most. 

There was adversity to be sure, including a hectic 26 games in the last 48 days after the Olympic break; injuries to what proved to be indispensable players Mathieu Olivier, Damon Severson and Dmitri Voronkov; and maybe some good old-fashioned bad puck luck as they struggled to score goals in key games. And maybe you have to go through the pressure cooker once or twice before you truly understand what it’s like.  

But if you are what your record says you are, the Blue Jackets didn’t get it done in the final stretch, prompting Bowness' comments Tuesday night. From a player perspective, the message was that the head coach wants to win, and he's someone who can help Columbus do just that. 

“I think we need to learn how to win, and I definitely think (Bowness) can help us with that," Zach Werenski said. "He’s been around for so long and been to finals and he’s been to the playoffs a bunch, and I think his knowledge of how to get into the playoffs and how we have to play this time of year, we do need to learn that. But I don’t think it’s right to say that we don’t hate to lose or we don’t care.  

"All of us have to look in the mirror and reflect on what we can do better, what went wrong, but I don't think it's fair to say we don't care and we don't hate to lose. I think we just need to learn how to win. We haven’t done that enough. It’s obvious. It’s clear. We haven’t been to the playoffs in six years. We do need to learn that as a group. If that’s the message, then yeah, I do think we need to learn that.”

It is often one of the biggest questions a team must answer as it tries to rise up the ranks and become a consistent contender, especially one with as many young players in key roles as the Blue Jackets have. Teams in similar situations like Ottawa and Montreal have solved the puzzle with young teams in recent seasons, while a franchise like Buffalo went through a number of fits and starts before winning the Atlantic Division this year. 

The upcoming offseason will be a pivotal one for the Blue Jackets, who checked off the first order of business Thursday with the announced return of Bowness, who was originally hired in January to try to jumpstart what had been a frustrating campaign. He certainly did so at the start, but his comments underscore what he saw in his team as things reached a crescendo down the stretch. 

It’s a harsh message but one the head coach clearly felt his team needed to hear.  

“It is a message for sure, and it’s a strong message,” Werenski said. “I think we all have to respond to it. It clearly wasn’t good enough down the stretch. If we’re gonna sit here and say part of what he said isn’t the truth, then we’re wrong. We have to be better and we do have to learn. This organization and this fan base does deserve more from us, and they deserve winning hockey.” 

For his part, Bowness said Thursday that he still believes in what he has in Columbus, noting that while he didn't regret his press conference, he knows the Blue Jackets have a locker room filled with good players and good people. The biggest thing he'll attack when the team returns in the fall is instilling more of the attitude it needs to have in crunch time. 

"I probably made it sound like there was a bigger issue than it really is," Bowness said. "You've gotta learn how to hate to lose. You have to learn how to win, so you hate to lose. That's what we're gonna be working on from the first day of training camp and teaching them, reminding them of, 'This is what it takes to win. This is the stuff that hurts you, and that's how you lose.'"

There was plenty of devastation in the players' eyes and their voices as they spoke to reporters Wednesday, but the challenge starting in the offseason and continuing into next year is figuring out what it takes to get to the next step in 2026-27. 

They believed they had the right mix this season, but the final 11 games were a reminder of just how difficult it is to reach that level. Young center Adam Fantilli believes, though, that learning how to win can be fueled by this experience of losing.  

“I think it takes being in the position that we’re in and getting fed up with it and realizing what we’re doing to ourselves,” Fantilli said. “We’re shooting ourselves in the foot sometimes, and we’re devastating our fans and they’re coming out and supporting us as much as possible. I think it takes the position that we’ve been in for a little bit and we have been. I said at the beginning of the year this season was going to be a failure if we didn’t make the playoffs, and that’s exactly what it is.” 

Indeed, the feeling of cleaning out lockers and saying goodbyes on Wednesday instead of getting ready for postseason hockey is one that will sit with the team throughout the summer. The Blue Jackets had what they feel is a close locker room filled with players who were capable of getting the team back in the postseason for the first time since 2020. 

“There’s no one that is a part of the organization that is just satisfied with rolling over and just being like, ‘All right, this is where we’re at,’” Cole Sillinger said. “I believe that everyone in there and everyone that’s a part of it is not happy with where we’re at. Our fans deserve better.” 

It was in their grasp, and then it was gone. That might be the most frustrating part of it all, but it can also be inspiration going forward.  

“This is the worst I’ve ever felt leaving a season, and I’m gonna do everything I can the next few weeks and over the summer to reflect on it and become a better hockey player and a better leader, better person, and hopefully try not to let stuff like this happen again,” Werenski said.