<p type="text" content="The Boston Bruins and GM Don Sweeney finally pulled the trigger on coach Claude Julien on Tuesday morning, ending one of the most successful runs of any active coach in the NHL.” class=”canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm” data-type=”text” data-reactid=”10″>The Boston Bruins and GM Don Sweeney finally pulled the trigger on coach Claude Julien on Tuesday morning, ending one of the most successful runs of any active coach in the NHL.
(So they don’t do it Monday, with everyone in the Tom Brady afterglow. They do it Tuesday, the day of the Patriots’ parade. That’s, um, spectacular timing for bad news.)
But the Bruins’ success had become middling (though not necessarily due to the coach), Julien didn’t have enough advocates in management left, and now he’s going to be someone else’s coach. Like, check your watch, it may have already happened.
Assistant coach Bruce Cassidy takes over on an interim basis.
Julien has led the team to a 26-23-6 record (58 points) through 55 games this season. That puts them one point out of the wild card, but they’ve played the most games in the Eastern Conference.
He was in his 10th season with the Bruins, and was the longest tenured active head coach in the NHL. Julien is Boston’s all-time coaching wins leader with 419 career victories, compiling a 419-246-94 record and .614 winning percentage in 759 games with the club. He coached them to the Stanley Cup in 2011, brought them back to the Cup Final in 2013 and won the President’s Trophy in 2014. He won the Jack Adams in 2009.
And now he’s turfed. Despite not being the one that signed David Backes. Or let the blue line slip into disrepair before the younger players are ready to fill in. Or turned the Bruins into a one-line team, and then asked the coach to change his style in the hopes that he could generate goals despite only having two players with more than 15 on the season.
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<p type="text" content="There’s been a cottage industry of “IT WOULD BE TO WRONG TO FIRE CLAUDE JULIEN!” stories this season. Lambert had one. Here’s one from Pete Blackburn. Here’s another from Travis Yost. Fluto Shinzawa was saying it, too. But maybe Don Sweeney’s Internet is out.” class=”canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm” data-type=”text” data-reactid=”18″>There’s been a cottage industry of “IT WOULD BE TO WRONG TO FIRE CLAUDE JULIEN!” stories this season. Lambert had one. Here’s one from Pete Blackburn. Here’s another from Travis Yost. Fluto Shinzawa was saying it, too. But maybe Don Sweeney’s Internet is out.
<p type="text" content="The fact is that Julien had survived the chopping block so many times before – if the Bruins hadn’t won in 2011, he might have been fired that season – that we assumed he’d figure his way out of the latest death trap, like Adam West’s Batman. Get the Bruins into the postseason. Hang around until the young defenseman ripen and the Bruins cycle back to being a legit contender. Give them another reason not to fire one of the best coach’s in hockey.” class=”canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm” data-type=”text” data-reactid=”19″>The fact is that Julien had survived the chopping block so many times before – if the Bruins hadn’t won in 2011, he might have been fired that season – that we assumed he’d figure his way out of the latest death trap, like Adam West’s Batman. Get the Bruins into the postseason. Hang around until the young defenseman ripen and the Bruins cycle back to being a legit contender. Give them another reason not to fire one of the best coach’s in hockey.
But Boston’s PDO – it’s shooting percentage plus save percentage – remained the lowest in the League (96.68). That’s indication of really, really bad luck, in terms of performances and execution. But it’s usually elastic, and it never snapped back.
“You’d like to think everything will regress back to the mean and bear out,” Sweeney told Shinzawa a few weeks ago. “You stick with that process and the conviction of that process. We do have a lot of things people would point to and say, ‘Would this would be a dangerous team if they got hot in terms of a playoff environment, because they have structure?’ Yes. But the bottom line is if you don’t get in, it doesn’t matter. You have to find a way.”
In his mind, that way wasn’t through Julien.
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So Cassidy takes over, with chance to write quite a redemption story. He’s in his first season with the Bruins, after having successful coached the Providence Bruins for five years. He was the head coach of the Washington Capitals from 2002-04, where he was completely overmatched and not ready for primetime. The fact that he hasn’t gotten another NHL head coaching gig should tell you all you need to know about how disastrous that tenure was.
But he’s older, wiser and now he’s tasked with doing something the Bruins weren’t sure one of the best coaches in the world could do this season: Make Boston a playoff team.
<p type="text" content="Good luck with that.
—” class=”canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm” data-type=”text” data-reactid=”26″>Good luck with that.
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<p type="text" content="Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.” class=”canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm” data-type=”text” data-reactid=”27″>Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
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