Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Rick Bowness didn’t mince words describing his team’s performance following a 7-3 rout at home by the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night.
“You have to hope, you got to believe that performance tonight will embarrass them enough to stop this, right? Because if they’re not embarrassed by that, we don’t want them on the team. It’s as simple as that,” said Bowness.
With the loss the Blue Jackets are now 2-3 on the season.
Bowness went on to say a lot of the problems during Tuesday’s loss were “self-inflicted” and seemed hopeful they could be fixed.
“We can fix them. We can. I know it looks bad. I believe in what we’re doing, I believe in them and I believe we can fix the problems,” explained Bowness. “That all being said, if that doesn’t get their attention then they’re on the wrong team. It’s a simple as that.”
Columbus allowed four goals in the second period, including a natural hat trick from Brady Tkachuk. Matthew Tkachuk also recorded five assists on the night.
Blue Jackets forward Mathieu Olivier received a five-minute major and game misconduct in the second period for slashing Panthers defenceman Uvis Balinskis between the legs.
Olivier, 29, took accountability for the penalty and said he apologized to his teammates.
“I can sit here and try to rationalize it all I want with you. I don’t even have an explanation for it. It looked bad. It was bad and that’s on me,” he said.
“I apologize to my teammates for putting them in that spot and it’s happened a couple times this year. It’s usually not what I do, but it’s been happening, so I need to look in the mirror and figure it out. That’s all on me.”
Bowness, who signed a one-year extension for the 2026-27 campaign, also ripped his team following the final game of the last season.
“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? I should have done this a month ago. But this is why we are where we are,” Bowness said at the time. “This is why we’re out of the playoffs. That kind of effort. You have to hate losing. I don’t care if it’s a meaningless game. I don’t care. Show up and compete.”
The 71-year-old native of Moncton, N.B. came out of retirement last season, leading the Jackets to a 21-11-5 record over the final 37 games.