“I’m Out of Patience With It”: Rick Bowness Warns Blue Jackets on Ice Time

The Columbus Blue Jackets appeared to have all the ingredients Tuesday night to win a big game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. They wanted to win for Matthew Knies. They wanted to deal a loss to Kirill Marchenko.

Instead, the Blue Jackets fell flat. Before they realized what hit them, the Maple Leafs scored five unanswered goals and easily secured a 6-2 win.

Too many easy goals were scored against the Blue Jackets. The Maple Leafs’ best players had little difficulty finding space to operate.

The Blue Jackets can’t score enough. They haven’t scored a power-play goal since Game 1 of the season, an 0 for 20 stretch over their last seven games.

Head coach Rick Bowness has had enough. On Wednesday after practice, he said there will be consequences if the same mistakes keep happening.

Out of Patience

The Blue Jackets are dealing with several issues at the same time that have resulted in this poor start. They average over 11 penalty minutes per game. Most of the penalties are stick infractions and completely unnecessary.

If the Blue Jackets aren’t taking penalties, they aren’t executing their game plan. Too many plays breakdown due to ongoing mistakes.

Bowness has a strong message for the players if the mistakes keep happening.

“If you decide to make those plays, make it, right?” Bowness said. “So don’t go there, oh, I can make that play and then not make it. If you’re going to say I can make this play, then you better damn well make it. And what’s happening is we’re not making them instead of making the right decision. It’s the responsibility of the puck carrier to make the right decision for not him, but all his linemates. It’s not fair to the other four guys on the ice.”

The Blue Jackets’ best game in this recent stretch was their 1-0 overtime win over the New York Rangers. Bowness sees that game as the blue print that he’d like his team to follow.

“You go back to the Ranger game, we didn’t turn the puck over,” Bowness said. “Then the first – look at all the turnovers. If it continues, people are going to start losing ice time. I’m going to have to bench some guys. If they keep taking those penalties, I’m going to have to bench them. They’re bringing that on themselves.”

“I’m out of patience with it. You want to keep saying I can make that play and then not make it and we end up playing a three-quarter ice game, then expect to lose some ice time.”

Bowness said that there will be changes on both the lines and on the power play.

“It’s still not going in,” Bowness said about scoring on the power play. “So we got to change something up.”

Player Reaction

Both Zach Werenski and Cole Sillinger spoke after practice on Wednesday. In their own words, they each expressed disappointment not only in how the Maple Leafs’ game went, but the season as a whole.

As for what Bowness has said, Werenski has no issue with that.

“It doesn’t affect our room,” Werenski said. “At the end of the day, he believes in us and we believe in what we’re doing. It’s just going out there and executing it.”

Sillinger sees this as an opportunity to connect even if what’s being said is difficult to hear.

“We all got thick skin,” Sillinger said. “It’s a business. We’re all professionals. I think if anything, conversation and communication allow us to be more connected. I think it’s a healthy thing.”

Werenski was seen after Easton Cowan’s shorthanded goal giving it to the Blue Jackets’ bench. His frustration was evident because in his mind, they thought they could still find a way to win.

“I really thought we were going to win that game going into it,” Werenski said. “Them coming off a back-to-back … I felt like we were ready to go. I felt good. I felt like I was skating and trying to create. You get down one, you get down two, you’re still in it. You’re down three and then it’s the fourth one. It never felt out of reach. I felt like we were still pushing. We make it 5-2. If we could have made it 5-3 with 4-5 minutes left, you never know.”

“But it was just so frustrating to me that I still felt like when we were down two or three goals, we were still in the game. But then we gave up another one and another one. Next thing you know, it’s a pretty steep hill to climb back from. That was frustrating to me for sure. I felt like that was a game, the last couple of years we win.”

Sillinger says the team needs to all find another level in their game. He also wants to rediscover some joy that is missing these days.

“Everyone in there knows that they’re not playing hard enough,” Sillinger said. “We’re not playing with enough passion. We’re not playing with enough commitment to what we’re doing. And it’s showing. You’re going to get inconsistent results when that’s the case.”

“Our team needs to just maybe be less tense and just enjoy it more, play with a little bit more passion. Good things happen when you’re just kind of loving what you do and you’re trusting it. I think it’s a good foundation. We know who we are. We know the brand of style that we want to play with and we know that we believe in each other. We just have to reset and move forward and learn to take that step.”

Bowness’ message is loud and clear. Continued mistakes and penalties will cost players ice time. Werenski and Sillinger each admitted they believe in the direction and in the coach’s words.

But the results will have to start coming soon. Each passing game will tell us if the message is being taken to heart or if patience has already worn off on everyone.