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Boston Bruins Blogger •
After watching yet another sub-par display of effort from his troops, Bruins' Head Coach Claude Julien decided he'd kept his lips zipped long enough. The B's bench boss, in his third season with the organization, spoke his mind after Boston's lackluster 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders.
"Tonight is one of those games that you can take a look at the stats and almost throw them in the garbage. We were 70% on draws and we out shot them, big deal." Julien said. "They were still the better team because they were the team that wanted it more. They wanted it more than we did. It is as simple as that."
Fueled by two goals from Matt Moulson, the Islanders outworked the B's throughout majority of the contest. After a disheartening loss in Pittsburgh on Saturday night, one might have expected the Bruins to come out of the gate hungry, determined. Instead they played, for most of the 60 minutes, as flat as a pancake.
"I don’t know what the deal with tonight was. You know, it was like we were just flat. We didn’t have that jump that we needed. If we are back and we are sharp those don’t go in." defenseman Derek Morris said of the Bruins sloppy, lifeless play. "We were just flat and lost battles."
While Julien can prepare the squad to the best of his abilities, tediously strategizing and game-planning, the coach was quick to point out that there's only so much he can do.
"When you coach a team you’re in a partnership situation. A coach can guide you and help you, but also players have to do their share too, so you ask me what do I do, so no it’s what do we do and that’s what we have to accomplish here is find whatever – a little bit more emotion in our game perhaps, anybody who follows our team saw that it was there at one point." Julien explained during his postgame press conference.
"Whether it was last year or the year before and right now we seem to, whether it’s the number of new faces, whether it’s the way things started, I don’t know exactly. I can’t tell you because if I had the answer I think it would have been solved by now, but there’s a bunch of things that have to maybe improve on our team. The thing that I believe in is that we have it. We have it in there, we just have to get it out of them."
Julien was openly critical of Tuukka Rask's mishandling of the puck behind his own net, which led directly to the Isles' (and Moulson's) second goal of the night. It was the second straight game that a puck handling gaffe by a Bruin goaltender turned into the opposition's winning tally.
"Tuukka [Rask], again, it’s a mistake that a young goaltender made and certainly not going to, these are mistakes from a guy like him that you hope that he will learn from because we don’t go back out the strong side. That was actually the other coach’s philosophy so sometimes those are habits right and we had a guy behind him that was wide open that yelled at him and he didn’t hear him, so it’s a mistake. So I’m not going to start blaming every D because the goaltender made a bad decision."
Tim Thomas' costlier error (in OT on Saturday) wasn't going to net him any of Julien's sympathy either.
"Timmy was the same thing. He can say whatever he wants, our D’s have peeled off and if he moved in it’s over, so those are mistakes that individuals are making right now and we have to correct those and a lot of that stuff is what’s costing us games right now."
As the Bruins battle to stay afloat sans Marc Savard and Milan Lucic, a boost in effort and focus might be expected to compensate for the missing production. If you're trying to determine why such characteristics keep vanishing, don't ask Claude.
"You know guys, I wish you would ask them those questions. I don’t know why I have to answer for them." Julien proclaimed. "You ask them why they came out flat because they were well aware of everything, they were well aware of what was on the line, they were well aware that this team only lost two games in regulation in the last 12, they were aware of all of that stuff."
"So I know I’m the coach and I got to stand up here, but I don’t have to answer questions that they should answer. Why did they come out flat? I think that’s the biggest problem right now with our team is that we have to find that identity, that excitement, that emotion, that made us successful in the past."
As perplexed as Julien may have been, he still managed to mix in a hint of optimism, hopeful the team can find their form and turn things around.
"That is something that we at one point we didn’t accept, and we did something about it." Claude said of his team's refusal to be outworked in a game in previous seasons. "Hopefully in the very, very near future, we are going to turn that around."
The sooner, the better.
JC
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"Tonight is one of those games that you can take a look at the stats and almost throw them in the garbage. We were 70% on draws and we out shot them, big deal." Julien said. "They were still the better team because they were the team that wanted it more. They wanted it more than we did. It is as simple as that."
Fueled by two goals from Matt Moulson, the Islanders outworked the B's throughout majority of the contest. After a disheartening loss in Pittsburgh on Saturday night, one might have expected the Bruins to come out of the gate hungry, determined. Instead they played, for most of the 60 minutes, as flat as a pancake.
"I don’t know what the deal with tonight was. You know, it was like we were just flat. We didn’t have that jump that we needed. If we are back and we are sharp those don’t go in." defenseman Derek Morris said of the Bruins sloppy, lifeless play. "We were just flat and lost battles."
While Julien can prepare the squad to the best of his abilities, tediously strategizing and game-planning, the coach was quick to point out that there's only so much he can do.
"When you coach a team you’re in a partnership situation. A coach can guide you and help you, but also players have to do their share too, so you ask me what do I do, so no it’s what do we do and that’s what we have to accomplish here is find whatever – a little bit more emotion in our game perhaps, anybody who follows our team saw that it was there at one point." Julien explained during his postgame press conference.
"Whether it was last year or the year before and right now we seem to, whether it’s the number of new faces, whether it’s the way things started, I don’t know exactly. I can’t tell you because if I had the answer I think it would have been solved by now, but there’s a bunch of things that have to maybe improve on our team. The thing that I believe in is that we have it. We have it in there, we just have to get it out of them."
Julien was openly critical of Tuukka Rask's mishandling of the puck behind his own net, which led directly to the Isles' (and Moulson's) second goal of the night. It was the second straight game that a puck handling gaffe by a Bruin goaltender turned into the opposition's winning tally.
"Tuukka [Rask], again, it’s a mistake that a young goaltender made and certainly not going to, these are mistakes from a guy like him that you hope that he will learn from because we don’t go back out the strong side. That was actually the other coach’s philosophy so sometimes those are habits right and we had a guy behind him that was wide open that yelled at him and he didn’t hear him, so it’s a mistake. So I’m not going to start blaming every D because the goaltender made a bad decision."
Tim Thomas' costlier error (in OT on Saturday) wasn't going to net him any of Julien's sympathy either.
"Timmy was the same thing. He can say whatever he wants, our D’s have peeled off and if he moved in it’s over, so those are mistakes that individuals are making right now and we have to correct those and a lot of that stuff is what’s costing us games right now."
As the Bruins battle to stay afloat sans Marc Savard and Milan Lucic, a boost in effort and focus might be expected to compensate for the missing production. If you're trying to determine why such characteristics keep vanishing, don't ask Claude.
"You know guys, I wish you would ask them those questions. I don’t know why I have to answer for them." Julien proclaimed. "You ask them why they came out flat because they were well aware of everything, they were well aware of what was on the line, they were well aware that this team only lost two games in regulation in the last 12, they were aware of all of that stuff."
"So I know I’m the coach and I got to stand up here, but I don’t have to answer questions that they should answer. Why did they come out flat? I think that’s the biggest problem right now with our team is that we have to find that identity, that excitement, that emotion, that made us successful in the past."
As perplexed as Julien may have been, he still managed to mix in a hint of optimism, hopeful the team can find their form and turn things around.
"That is something that we at one point we didn’t accept, and we did something about it." Claude said of his team's refusal to be outworked in a game in previous seasons. "Hopefully in the very, very near future, we are going to turn that around."
The sooner, the better.
JC
BE A FRIEND: JC's New Facebook Page
ROCK THE VOTE: Fan Poll Friday: The Best Hockey Gift You've Ever Received
QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS?: Email HockeybuzzBruins
ARCHIVE FOOTAGE: The HockeybuzzBruins Youtube Channel
FOLLOW ME TO FREEDOM: JC's Tweets
BOOKWORM: The Details of JC's New England Hockey Book in the Works
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