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I’d like to tell you that the Boston Bruins are keeping
Claude Julien behind the B’s bench for the upcoming season. But that hasn’t been announced yet. And it’s actually getting all sorts of silly. Newly appointed general manager
Don Sweeney said at his introductory press conference that Julien was the coach ‘as of today’, and ‘today’ is now almost two weeks old. Nothing has been said since.
Over that time, almost every vacant head coaching job has been filled. The New Jersey Devils, a team that once fired Claude Julien just days before the playoffs began, remain in the hunt for a new coach. Besides that, it’s slim pickings, and will likely remain that way unless one of the final four NHL teams feel like they need it to make a change behind the bench. Or, as I like to say, it’s remaining that way.
If the Bruins were to relieve Julien of his duties
now, without a real viable opening elsewhere, it’d probably be the most disrespectful thing a team could do to a coach that’s led them to the playoffs (and two Stanley Cup Final appearances) in all but one of his eight years behind the Boston bench.
So, yeah, conventional wisdom/basic human thinking seems to indicate that Julien will be back for a ninth season with an office on the third-floor of Boston’s TD Garden.
But how long his leash, however, seems to be a different story.
From
the Boston Globe:
Chatter around the league favors the Bruins retaining Claude Julien. However, management will keep Julien under watch. If things go sideways early next season, Julien will be out. Bruce Cassidy and Mike Milbury will be considered as replacements.
Woof.
Listen, I can hear/tolerate/accept some of the complains from the seemingly growing Anti-Julien crowd. He’s been stubborn when it comes to integrating some of the younger players into the NHL mix on a regular basis. He makes bizarre decisions at times -- I still haven’t for the life of me figured out why you change up your forward lines in the middle of a winning streak with your season on the line -- and he’s become kinda famous for the “I don’t wanna complain about this, but (complains about thing).”
That said, he’s still a damn good coach. I’d without question put him in the Top-10 in this league, maybe even Top-5 when he has a roster that’s, y’know, not devastated with cap woes and rookies.
But if you’re honestly telling me that a slow start to the season leads to his exodus and a
Mike Milbury or
Bruce Cassidy behind the Boston bench then… I just… I just don’t know.
(That scene from 2001’s movie ‘Super Troopers’ where Thorny just goes, “
Mother of God” was probably closer to my in real life reaction. That or when Farva leaps over the counter and attacks a child.)
Hey speaking of that, a refresher on Mike Milbury? He’s been out of the head coaching game for over a decade and a half, and has been out of a job in a hockey front office for almost 10. You know him best as the American version of Don Cherry on NHL on NBC broadcasts, where he often attacks the character of players based on what they do after 20, sometimes even 40 minutes of hockey on that particular night. And during his last stint behind the bench, back in 1998-99, his team won 13 of 45 games.
Sure, Milbury coached both Sweeney and team president Cam Neely during his tenure with the B’s, so there’s familiarity with his style and tendencies as a motivator, but that was literally 24 years ago now.
Considering this guy for literally anything involving a pro hockey team in 2015 is just insane.
He’s just too much of a loose cannon with his mouth (and rarely held back as a coach, too), he’s too hot and cold with his beliefs, he’s vaguely xenophobic, and would absolutely drive his players nuts.
(
We’ve been over this, too. But, terrifying enough and much like Milbury on TV, it won’t go away.)
So, if Julien’s out and Milbury’s sticking to TV, Cassidy becomes the go-to? I’ll say it again: Woof.
Cassidy has been the head coach of the Providence Bruins, the Black and Gold’s AHL affiliate, since 2011, so again, there’s familiarity for both the Bruins and Sweeney (who oversaw Providence’s day to day happenings during his tenure as assistant general manager). But Cassidy has yet to take the P-Bruins beyond the second-round of the AHL playoffs, and most recently coached the club to a first-round Game 5 choke against the Hartford Wolf Pack this past spring. But fear not.
Cassidy has NHL experience as a head coach, too. A whole 47 wins in 107 games of it, too.
His lone NHL head coaching gig came with a year-plus tenure with the Washington Capitals, but it all came crashing down early in the 2003-04 season following an insane tirade Cassidy went on following a loss before then-GM George McPhee fired Cassidy with the Caps posting a 8-16-1 into early December.
Considering either one of these guys as legitimate replacements for Julien is just mindblowing, really.
But if this is their plan… Mother of God.
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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