Get Well, Coach: Rick Bowness Misses a Second Straight Blue Jackets Game With a Health Issue as Don Granato Runs the Bench

There was an empty spot behind the Columbus bench again Saturday night. Blue Jackets head coach Rick Bowness missed his second straight game with an undisclosed health issue, and assistant Don Granato ran the bench for the game against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Bowness also missed Thursday's loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. General manager Don Waddell said the coach is doing okay and will go through more testing on Monday, and that the club will have a clearer picture once those results are in. The team has not said what the problem is.

The Blue Jackets entered Saturday at 7-10-0. They open a four-game road trip Tuesday against the New York Islanders, and Bowness is not expected to be with the team when it starts. He has not been ruled out for the trip, though, and the club said he will rejoin the team as soon as he is cleared.

Bowness has been one of hockey's most durable figures. Columbus hired him on Jan. 12, 2026, when Waddell fired Dean Evason in the middle of the season. Before Columbus, he coached the Winnipeg Jets from 2022 to 2024, and he guided the Dallas Stars to the Stanley Cup Final in 2020 after taking over that club on an interim basis.

He made an immediate difference in Columbus. The Blue Jackets went 21-11-5 after he took over, and the club rewarded him with a one-year extension in the spring. ESPN reported at the time that he would return despite a blunt end-of-season assessment of his team, and that he would be the NHL's oldest head coach at 71 when this season began.

Health has been part of his story before. During his time in Winnipeg, Bowness stepped away from the team twice as he and his wife dealt with health problems. When Columbus called him back to the bench in January, The Canadian Press described a coach who was healthy and rested and eager for the challenge.

The man filling in is no stranger to the job. Granato, who was fired as head coach of the Buffalo Sabres in 2024 after parts of four seasons, joined Bowness's staff this summer. Yahoo Sports reported that Granato has stayed in constant contact with Bowness while running the team.

That matters for a club trying to dig out of a hole. A 7-10 start leaves Columbus chasing in the standings, and a four-game trip is a hard place to find answers without the head coach in the room.

The standings can wait. A man in his seventies who has given most of his life to this game is going through medical tests, and the first response from everyone in hockey ought to be simple: we hope he is all right, and we are praying for him and his family.

Bowness has always been an old-school coach in the best sense. He demands effort, he says what he thinks, and he does not hide behind slogans. That is why his players have usually responded to him, and it is why Columbus turned to him when its season was slipping away last winter.

Waddell's words that Bowness is doing okay are encouraging, and the team deserves credit for keeping the details private until there is something to say. A coach's health is his family's business first. What fans can do is give the club room, and give Granato and the players a little patience while they hold the fort.

The key date is Monday, when Bowness is scheduled for more testing. If he is cleared, he could join the team at some point on the road swing that begins Tuesday on Long Island. Until then, Granato will keep running the bench and keep the coach in the loop.

The Blue Jackets have plenty of hockey left to turn their season around. The more important outcome this week is a good report from the doctors, and a familiar face back behind the bench where he belongs.