Blue Jacket coach Rick Bowness preaches urgency after crushing collapse vs. Bruins

The Columbus Blue Jackets are looking to make the playoffs for the first time since the 2019-20 season. Still, they have lost three straight, and the Jackets are coming off a bad loss to the Boston Bruins.

After a rough stretch of play, but with the playoffs in reach, head coach Rick Bowness sent a message to his team, according to Jeff Svoboda of BlueJackets.com.

“We gotta understand where we are, what's ahead of us, right? We don't get the job done, two weeks from tonight we're going home. And does anyone want to do that? Absolutely not,” Bowness said of the stretch run coming for the team.

It was a crushing collapse for the Jackets against the Bruins. They took a 3-0 lead in the first period and are fighting with Boston for a playoff spot. After a scoreless second period, the Bruins fought back. They tied the game with just 11 seconds left on a Pavel Zacha powerplay goal. This would lead to overtime, where the Bruins won the game.

The Blue Jackets do not have a long history of success. They did not make the playoffs for their first seven years of existence. After making it in 2008-09 and being swept by the Detroit Red Wings, the Jackets did not return to the playoffs until 2013-14. They had their most success from the 2016-17 season through 2019-20, making it to the playoffs each year, and making it to the second round once.

Since then, they have not seen the playoffs, although they just missed last year after finishing fourth in the Metropolitan Division.

Since the team fired Dean Evason to hire Rick Bowness, they have gone from one of the worst teams in the Eastern Conference, according to the standings, to sitting fourth in the Metropolitan Division.

The Blue Jackets are 38-24-12 on the season, currently holding the final wild card spot in the East. They are two points in front of the Ottawa Senators, but just one point behind the New York Islanders for third in the division, and two behind the second-placed Pittsburgh Penguins. The Jackets have a major test Tuesday night as they host the Metropolitan-leading Carolina Hurricanes.