Todd Cordell
I think Claude Julien is an excellent coach and should be retained in Boston.
Over the last two years the Bruins lost two top-four defensemen in Dougie Hamilton and Johnny Boychuk and never came close to adequately replacing them.
Despite a highly mediocre blue line the Bruins still managed to come within a point of making the playoffs.
The Bruins were also the only team among the 14 that missed the playoffs to finish with a positive goal differential.
I think you'd be hard pressed to find more than a couple coaches who could get more out of this team than Julien did.
Peter Tessier Is Julien the problem or is he a symptom?
That's what I would want to understand and confirm first if I were a Bruins fan or part of the upper management. If I look a Boston there seems to be a series of roster mistakes going back for a few years and then an odd draft last year. Is Julien responsible for that or managing the fall out?
While he may be responsible for what his team does on the ice he's not responsible for who he is provided. Now all coaches have a shelf life and there seems to be some concern that his shelf life is at it's best before date right now, at least with some vets on the team. That's a precarious point for management as who do you want to cater to? No one ideally but by firing him you may give vets some empowerment and by not you may be creating discord within the room. Not a pretty place to be and it's why ensuring the problem is well identified and understood by all is paramount to whether he is fired or not.
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