The Boston Bruins have fired their Stanley Cup winning coach Claude Julien in a bit of surprising news. For the past few years the conversations began to grow louder and louder for his removal. The consensus among many in the media was there wasn’t a good replacement for the long time coach. He has long been considered one of the best in the league.
#NHLBruins relieve Claude Julien of coaching duties: https://t.co/t6zczxyE0X
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) February 7, 2017
The Bruins have only a handful of games left over the next couple of weeks, meaning they have some time to readjust their lineup and strategy if need be. Was that ever really the issue?
Anyone can look at this team and point out where the issues are in regard to personnel. They still have slow and plodding defensemen in an era where you need puck movers. They’ve been able to get by with only a couple but have been burned as of late.
They also rely entirely too much on Tuukka Rask as a result of their aging and slow defense. Brandon Carlo and Torey Krug can only cover up so much. Too many times over the past few years they have placed a player on an island and have asked them to do too much. It isn’t the best strategy.
Does that blame come down on Julien? Not entirely. The Bruins’ front office needs to join the 21st century and make trades based on numbers rather than heart. There is an almost zero percent chance that any other coach on the market is better than Julien. Would they really fire Julien to make way for the recently fired Ken Hitchcock? Who is going to take over this team and improve it?
Too many questions and not enough answers.
The Bruins’ possession numbers are among the best in the league and it looks like they don’t know how to properly evaluate them. When you have a team-wide shooting percentage of 6%, that isn’t going to last forever. It’s going to bounce back and get in line with the other metrics.
Short sighted decision making can sink a franchise. The Bruins still have the tools to make this a viable, winning team. Now they are going to wade their way into the unknown. Multiple other franchises are going to be happy that they did.