Blue Jackets announce Rick Bowness will return as full-time head coach again next season

It did not take long for the Blue Jackets to get an answer to their biggest off-season question: would be behind the bench next season? Today, they emphatically answered that question by making the obvious move. Rick Bowness will return as head coach. Elliotte Friedman called it this morning:

In their live press conference this afternoon, Don Waddell confirmed the news: Bowness is back next year.

In my opinion, this is the correct move by Waddell. He's smart to bring Bones back, and he's smart to get the deal done quickly. But in all reality, Bowness left him no choice. He had to hire him as this team's full-time head coach.

The Blue Jackets had to run it back.

The emotional presser from Bowness after the team slept through a 2-1 loss in their final game of the season on Tuesday night, forced the organization's hand. After seeing the passion and hearing the words come out of Rick's mouth, it was obvious that there was no other coach for this job.

Bowness bashed the team's culture and promised to change it if he was brought back. We have seen a lot of reactions from around the league, speculating over him responding emotionally. But, I'm not as sure that this was an impulse reaction. I think this was a calculated move.

Just look at the facts here. Rick Bowness has been a coach in the NHL for more than 40 years. With that much experience, and having only been here for three months, I have a hard time seeing him being drawn to near-tears over this team missing the playoffs.

This feels like a shrewd move to me. It's the kind of reaction that does a couple of things. One, it guaranteed him a chance to come back and coach next season. And two, it set the tone for this team as they head into the offseason.

The players had better be ready.

By getting this deal done so quickly, Waddell and Bowness have sent a message to this team: just being good is not good enough. They now have almost five months to whip themselves into shape and better prepare for next season.

The bar is getting raised again, and they are telling every player in the organization that if they want to be a part of the story moving forward, they'd better jump on board. That's changing the culture.

That is why Rick Bowness was so emotional in that post-game press conference. It was his way of digging deep down and telling this team that they can be so much better. If you watched the players in their exit interviews yesterday, it seems like that is how it was received.

I'm excited to see the team get this figured out early in the offseason. Everybody knows the task at hand now, so lets hope for a big improvement across the board next year.

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