Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Rick Bowness will miss his second straight game with a health issue.
Assistant coach Don Granato will be behind the bench on Saturday at home against the Philadelphia Flyers and will remain there on Monday when the team goes on the road to take on the New York Islanders.
Bowness, 71, already missed the team’s 3-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday and is scheduled for more testing on Monday.
“Rick will not be coaching tonight and he’s doing more testing on Monday,” general manager Don Waddell told reporters on Saturday. “After we know more, he’s listed like a player as day-to-day. I talked to him a lot and he’s doing okay. He’s just got something that are affecting him that we need to figure out, the doctors need to figure out.”
The Blue Jackets are sitting last in the Metropolitan Division with a 7-10-0 record and are 10 points behind the Florida Panthers for the second wild-card position.
Bowness is in his first full season as head coach of the Blue Jackets after joining the team in January last season.
The Moncton, N.B., native has a 28-21-5 record with the Blue Jackets and has an all-time coaching record of 338-429-42 with 48 ties split between the Winnipeg Jets, Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, New York Islanders, Arizona Coyotes, Dallas Stars, Winnipeg Jets, and Blue Jackets.