Is Rick Bowness being too harsh on Blue Jackets too early?

With the Columbus Blue Jackets struggling at the beginning of the 2026-27 season, their bench boss isn’t too pleased with the effort his team has given thus far…but is he taking it a step too far?

Just eight games into the campaign, the Blue Jackets are 3-5-0, holding the fewest points in the Eastern Conference. While there’s still plenty of hockey to be played in the expanded 84-game schedule, head coach Rick Bowness is already calling out his team for early-season miscues and the series of disappointing results.

This comes after Bowness laid into his team after failing to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs last year, despite the Blue Jackets rallying in the second half of the season to even have a shot at a Wild Card spot.

On Thursday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton discuss whether Bowness is being a little too harsh on his players this early in the year.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I’m sitting here, I’m going like, ‘Man, you’re only eight games into the year. The season’s not lost for you to be kind of going and pulling that lever as much as Bowness is. Like, you’re gonna lose that room fast, aren’t you?

Carter Hutton: 100% right? This is like I always felt like in my own hockey experiences…you’re talking about guys that are making millions of dollars that have leverage to get moved and do whatever. It starts to fall on deaf ears. Like, you can’t just go beating the drum. I think you have to play your cards correctly. It feels like, right now, Bones is just doing it way too often for me.

I’ve had coaches that would do this every period. I had a general manager. I remember I was in the American League. I’m sitting on the bus eating cold pizza. We just got our asses kicked, and he’s yelling at you every single time, and we won the night before…you got to pick your spots, man. I feel like right now it feels like it’s just piling and piling on, and it’s a good way to kind of lose the core that you have.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…