The Blue Jackets continue to pass every test sent their way
The Buffalo Sabres have gotten most of the attention as this season’s surprise story, as they’ve vaulted themselves to first place in the Atlantic Division after a sluggish start. The Columbus Blue Jackets, though, need to be recognized for their impressive run under head coach Rick Bowness.
Since the Blue Jackets ousted Dean Evason and replaced him with Bowness on January 12th, they are tied for having the best points percentage in the NHL. With Tuesday’s 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus has jumped into second place in the Metropolitan Division. While they still have to work to do to make the playoffs in the tightly contested Eastern Conference, the Blue Jackets are eyeing their first postseason berth since 2020.
On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed the Blue Jackets’ strong play under Bowness.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Columbus leapfrogged Pittsburgh for second place in the Metro, Hutts. Rick Bowness, I said coaching was going to be a theme of this show. What can you say about the job he’s done there? I know we touched on it a bit last week, but this run just isn’t stopping. Whenever you kind of look to a point in their schedule where you’re like “Maybe this is going to be a tough week for them,” they just keep passing these tests.
Carter Hutton: You want to give Don Waddell credit for making that coaching change with Dean Evason moving out, and knowing that might be the difference maker, and it was. They’ve been unbelievable. This isn’t some miracle run either. I want to pair them with the Buffalo Sabres’ run as well in the fact that this is good hockey. This isn’t just a team that is flaky and getting by on maybe luck or good goaltending. It’s a complete package and I think some of the pieces that they held on to, as we talked earlier in the year with Boone Jenner and Charlie Coyle and some guys that we potentially thought were moving out, they were like “No, stick to the script here.” It just goes to show that having a coach come in that understands players, and understands how to get the most out of them in a day and age where sometimes players need to be coddled a bit more, Rick Bowness has been that.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Wednesday’s episode here…