The axe has finally fallen. It had been rumored for the past two years.
When the Bruins gave up six goals in a gutting loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Hockey Night In Canada, I knew the end was here.
The Boston Bruins have finally fired coach Claude Julien.
Bruins management and Julien have been at odds philosophically for the past few years.
Julien's assistant coach Bruce Cassidy has been named the interim coach.
How greasy is it to fire Julien on a the same day that the New England Patriots are having their Super Bowl victory parade in Beantown?
Bruins ownership and senior management should be ashamed of themselves for the way they left Julien twisting in the wind. Julien played the players he was handed on the flawed roster. The Bruins blue line is soft, injury and error prone. The top six forwards are so so. The goaltending has been awful at times. Is that Julien's responsibility?
The damning indictment against Julien is that his team has started games slowly this season and have had to rely on playing catch up on most nights. Ultimately, it's the head coach's responsibility to prepare his team for nightly battles.
Julien was the longest active NHL head coach with one team. Now that distinction belongs to Chicago Blackhawks bench boss Joel Quenneville.
The Bruins (58 points) have lost two games in a row and six of nine. Boston has fallen out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
My question:
Why wait until February 7 to fire Julien? Why didn't Boston Management fire Julien before the Bruins fell out of the wild card berth they once held onto?
The Bruins have played more games (55) than any other team in the Eastern Conference.
The Bruins are 4-6-1 in their last 10 games and will be playing six games in 23 days with the advent of their NHL mandated bye week coming up. Several Eastern teams-- NYI, FLA, CAR, BUF, DET--- are below the Bruins in the standings and have several games in hand in the Bruins and will be leap frogging the Bruins soon enough.
Julien was the longest tenured NHL coach and in his 10th season as the Bruins coach.
Julien is the fourth NHL coach to be fired this season.
If I'm Las Vegas Knights GM George McPhee, I'm texting Don Sweeney and Cam Neely immediately to get official permission to speak with Julien.
More to come....