When Rick Bowness stepped to the podium on January 13 as the new head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets, he didn’t need a deep dive into analytics to know what was broken. The Jackets were leaking goals-especially in the third period-and if there was going to be any hope of salvaging their season, that had to change fast.
“We have to tighten this thing up,” Bowness said that day. And he meant it.
Less than 24 hours earlier, he was on a boat in Florida. Now, he was steering a team that had lost its defensive identity. The mission was clear: fix the back end, slow the game down, and find a way to close out games.
And that’s exactly what Columbus has started to do.
Since Bowness took over, the Blue Jackets have embraced a low-event style of hockey. It’s not flashy, but it’s effective. They’re scoring when it matters, and more importantly, they’re locking it down defensively-especially in the third period, where they were previously one of the worst teams in the league.
Let’s rewind a bit. Through the first 45 games of the season, Columbus was a third-period disaster.
They gave up a league-high 63 goals in the final frame and posted a brutal minus-24 goal differential. Only three teams had scored fewer third-period goals than the Jackets during that stretch.
Simply put, they were collapsing when games were on the line.
But since the coaching change, that script has flipped.
Over the last 11 games, Columbus has outscored opponents 14-7 in the third period. That plus-seven differential ranks fourth-best in the NHL during that span, trailing only Vegas (plus-13), Utah (plus-nine), and Carolina (plus-nine). Defensively, those seven goals allowed in the third are tied with the Hurricanes and just one off the league-best mark held by Tampa Bay.
This isn’t just about numbers-it’s about execution. The Blue Jackets are finally finishing games.
They’ve gone 10-1-0 under Bowness, and perhaps most tellingly, they’ve only gone to overtime once in that stretch: a shootout win in Pittsburgh on January 17, Bowness’ third game behind the bench. Compare that to the 15 games that went beyond regulation under previous head coach Dean Evason, and you start to see the difference in how Columbus is managing the final 20 minutes.
Yes, 11 games is a small sample size. But it’s part of a larger trend.
On January 12, the Blue Jackets had a minus-18 goal differential. Now, they’re in the black at plus-two.
That kind of swing doesn’t happen by accident.
From day one, Bowness has hammered home the importance of limiting chances against, tightening up special teams, and sweating the small details that add up to wins. He’s not shy about making the numbers real for his players, either. On the January 14 episode of Behind the Battle, Bowness pointed to the team’s defensive metrics and made it clear: this is what’s keeping us out of the playoffs.
“Your job as a teammate is to work hard on these,” he told the team. “And getting those numbers down are going to get us into the playoffs. It’s a process, and we’re going to be working on that every day.”
It’s not all fixed yet. The Jackets still have ground to make up in the standings, and the real test will be whether they can maintain this momentum after the Olympic break.
Their next game? A crucial matchup against the Boston Bruins on February 26-a team they’re chasing in the Eastern Conference wild-card race, currently four points ahead.
But for the first time in a while, Columbus looks like a team that knows how to close. And in the NHL, that’s everything.