Columbus Blue Jackets' losing culture is becoming major problem

He eventually said the team is lucky the season is over and that there is no more time for practice this season, while also adding that if he is back behind the bench next season, he is changing the culture. 

Hearing that from a coach at the end of another disappointing season is bad enough.

What makes it worse is that this is not the first time this exact same thing has been said about this Blue Jackets core. 

Shortly after forward Patrik Laine was traded to the Montreal Canadiens in 2024, he delivered some critical comments, saying some players in the locker room were a little too comfortable with losing. It was pretty much the exact same message that Bowness delivered on Tuesday.

Adding to the concern is the case of forward Egor Chinakhov. Chinakhov came up through the Blue Jackets organization as a wildly talented prospect who had shown flashes of stardom early in his career. But this season, he found himself buried on the depth chart, was in-and-out of the lineup and was described by long-time Blue Jackets beat writer Aaron Portzline as a "lost soul" in Columbus at the time of his trade to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Immediately upon arriving in Pittsburgh, a team with championship players and strong organizational leadership, everything clicked for him, and he started to play like the star Columbus hoped he would be. Not just as a goal-scorer (he has 18 goals and 36 total points in 43 games with the Penguins; a 34-goal, 68-point pace over 82 games), but as a complete, all-around player. He made an obvious impact in every regular-season game, both with and without the puck on his stick.

Multiple people calling out the culture over a two-year stretch. A star player is developing with a new team immediately after getting out. An absolutely awful finish to the regular season with a potential playoff spot within reach. These are all bad signs.

Bowness was hired on an interim basis this season, replacing Dean Evason. He briefly got through to the team and helped them get back into a playoff position for much of the second half. But the same old Blue Jackets showed themselves down the stretch. If Bowness is back next season, he is going to have his hands full in fixing this. It might require more than just a change in mindset. It might require a lot of new players as well.