Rick Bowness Opens Up About 'The Rant'—And Doubles Down

Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Rick Bowness went viral last week for his now-infamous rant in which he tore his team to shreds for their performance down the stretch. But after re-upping for another go-round with the Jackets, he will be back.

Bowness appeared on The Fan Hockey Show on Tuesday to discuss not only his return behind the bench in Columbus, but yes, also to reveal what went into his Rant — and to essentially double-down on it. For some players, anyway. 

There's nothing wrong with everyone going home a little uncomfortable... The culture's not as bad as I made it sound, but does it have to be better? 100% it has to be better...

They know who I was directing that at, so it was certainly not directed at the whole team, but when I say there are some guys that are lucky there is no game tomorrow, probably most of the room knows who the hell I'm talking about.

Bowness also provided more details of what really set him off. 

"If you look at the end of the season, we lost six straight home games. That's devastating. Six straight at home! So that really, really upset me... We were playing Boston in a huge game, and they sat out a few of their star players and we lost 3-2 late in the game. That was upsetting."

The 71-year-old head coach added that he's always the first to blame himself.

"Listen, this whole thing starts with me. I'm the head coach... Every time we lose, I'm the first guy I look at and criticize everything I do."

'There are some guys that were lucky there is no game tomorrow': Bowness recaps his Rant

In the end, while putting certain unnamed players on blast, Bowness offered a bit of a softening of his stance for his rant, and said everyone knew where he was coming from. 

"We had great meetings with the players after all that. They understand, and they know my passion gets in my own way sometimes, and I do get carried away, and I get that. But you gotta be yourself, man. You gotta be true to yourself. 

"Did I go overboard a bit? Yeah. But, were there some things that had to be said? Yup."