More Blue Jackets players respond and it says everything about what’s going on
Photo credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
Zach Werenski and Rick Bowness are suddenly at the center of a Blue Jackets fight that did not stay inside the room.
Bowness set it off when he questioned the group's relationship with losing. The line that really hit was the idea that “they don't care.”
That was always going to get a response. It did not take long for Columbus players to start pushing back.
Aaron Portzline reported that Werenski, Ivan Provorov, and Sean Monahan all disagreed with Bowness' impassioned observation. In their minds, the comment crossed the line on fairness.
That matters because players can live with being called sloppy, passive, or soft on details. Saying they do not care is different.
It cuts right at pride. It hits the part of a locker room that players defend hardest, especially after a season that already left everyone raw.
Portzline's follow-up sharpened the divide even more. Players are drawing a distinction between “not hating to lose” and what they believe is more about “learning how to win.”
So far, theme among #CBJ players - Zach Werenski, Ivan Provorov, and Sean Monahan, with more to come - is that they disagree with coach Rick Bowness’ impassioned “they don’t care” observation. In fairness. Bowness did soften that stance later in his comments.
More Blue Jackets players respond and it says everything about the situation
That is the key angle now. The room is not saying everything was fine. The room is saying Bowness got the emotional read wrong.
Werenski already made that plain when he said he did not think it was right to suggest the team did not hate losing or did not care. That sounded like a leader protecting the group's core.
Boone Jenner added another layer, according to Portzline, by questioning the “they don't care” narrative too. Once the captain starts leaning that way, this stops looking like one offended player.
Players are drawing a distinction between Bowness’ “not hating to lose” and, what they feel is more “learning how to win.”
Captain Boone Jenner taking questions now, also taking issue w the “they don’t care” narrative,
This, of course, may only strengthen Bowness’ contention.
Captain Boone Jenner taking questions now, also taking issue w the “they don’t care” narrative,
This, of course, may only strengthen Bowness’ contention.
It starts looking like a room-wide objection. And that is where this gets dangerous for a coach, even one trying to light a fire.
Because now the debate is not only about results. It is about whether the bench and the room still see the same team.
Some fans will side with Bowness and say the players should shut up and prove it on the ice. One reply making the rounds said exactly that.
Fair enough. But the season is already over, and now the fight has shifted to accountability, messaging, and trust.
That is why this story keeps moving. Rick Bowness tried to call out a losing culture, and his players answered by saying the issue is not that they do not care.
The issue, in their eyes, is that they still have not learned how to win enough. That is a big difference, and Columbus just dragged it into the open.
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