As the news sunk in around the NHL that Claude Julien was relieved of his duties, many have weighed in around the league. The general consensus from many is that Julien’s firing was done at the absolute wrong time, and seemed to be a way to soften the blow of the dismissal. Here are some thoughts from writers around the hockey world.
- The Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy used a number of descriptors to label the firing: cowardly, disrespectful, disgraceful, and embarrassing. While Shaughnessy realizes that Julien’s time was up in Boston, it’s how they fired the coach that irritates him. He openly challenges Boston management, wondering if they believe backers and reporters are stupid when choosing to fire him during the Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots’ parade.
- Puck Daddy’s Greg Wyshynski reports that Boston management was “roasted” by reporters for its decision to sack Julien during the parade. Though Wyshynski writes that general manager Don Sweeney defended his decision to fire Julien, it was met with skepticism and noted that the timing was specific to “dull” the firing. He also lists Sweeney’s litany of excuses for the firing, while picking apart several of those very reasons.
- Boston.com’s Eric Wilbur believes it was time for Julien to go, but like other writers, felt the timing was horribly planned. Wilbur also adds his own adjectives much like Shaughnessy, saying that Julien leaves a franchise just as dysfunctional as when he arrived. Specifically, Wilbur calls them gutless, disrespectful, and exploitable. Wilbur does concede, however, that it was time for Julien to go. He adds that it now remains to be seen if those who defend Julien will be vindicated for their belief that the bench boss was hampered by a weakened roster. Should the bottom fall out, Sweeney will probably find himself on the bread line next.
As a lifelong diehard Bruins fan, this really sucks. The Bruins have always been known as classless, but this takes the cake. Until Sweeney and Neely go, I am DONE with the Bruins. Best of luck Claude, you deserve better
I think it shows their problems are upstairs When you look at the Hamilton/sequin trades and the 2015 draft where they reached on 3 straight first round picks
Julien is the victim of inept management. It starts with Cam Neely & trickles down to Don Sweeney. The decisions this front office has made personnel wise has been disastrous. The team has lacked a quality backup goalie for 3 seasons. The front office has had the opportunity to bring in a good backup & has elected no to do so. As a result, Rask gets overplayed and wears down. How a management group can make the same mistake three years running is mind-boggling. There are other moves as well. The Loui Eriksson situation is one. Sweeney knew Eriksson’s market value. He knew he would get $6 million a season on the open market. Sweeney needed to make a decision at last year’s trade deadline. He needed to either pay Eriksson his market value or trade him for some sort of asset. He did neither & the Bruins got nothing when Eriksson left via free agency. The trade for Jimmy Hayes hasn’t worked out & Sweeney signed him to an extension. The signing of Matt Belesky hasn’t worked out. David Backes is a great locker room guy. He is a great leader & has a lot of intangibles. However, he scored 45 points last season. The Bruins’ front office paid him $6 million a season for 45 points. That’s a lot of extra cash to pay for intangibles. Management has $5.25 million invested in Adam McQuaid & Kevan Miller. The team doesn’t need both players. They are similar players and both aren’t very fleet of foot. As a result, Julien was left with a team with a lot of issues. Not surprisingly, the team hasn’t been consistent. Now, Julien gets fire because of the mistakes made by Cam Neely & Don Sweeney.
So the consensus is that he should have been fired, just not today. So if he was fired Wednesday instead of Tuesday that would be ok? I watched the press conference, and to me it came off as a bunch of reporters mad that they couldn’t go celebrate at the parade because they had to cover their own beat. For what it’s worth, I think he should have been fired at the all star break. I doubt the firing will change much–I don’t expect the Bruins to make the playoffs anyway.
I have an issue with firing Julien period at this point because the person they named to replace him isn’t a quality coach. Bruce Cassidy isn’t going to change anything. He wasn’t very good in his first go round as a NHL head coach & he isn’t going to be good this time. He doesn’t bring any structure defensively & with the Bruins’ defense, that will be a problem. He didn’t handle being a NHL head coach very well in Washington. I would have rather have had the Bruins fire Julien in the off-season. Then, they could’ve hired a real coach to replace him. Although with Sweeney & Neely calling the shots, they probably would’ve screwed the hire up anyway
Wasn’t it just last week they made the stupid announcement that they were going to make an announcement the following day about Julien? They didn’t fire him them, so why now? Since winning the cup the mismanagement at the top has been pathetic. First Chiarelli and now Sweeney plus whatever Neely has had to do with it. The trades they have made got them NO NHL young talent except Colin Miller. Tell me Boychuck, and Hamilton couldn’t have gotten some good young scorer? Islanders had plenty of possibles that easily could have come back in the Johnny B. deal. Reilly Smith was the only real offensive player received and they flipped him for Hayes who has been useless. Everybody and their mother knew Jones was going to be a good goalie so why flip him to SJ for a low 1st and a marginal prospect when SJ obviously wanted Jones bad and had plenty of young guns? Same with Hamilton, Calgary had good young talent and they take only draft picks. For me the only untouchables right now are Bergy, Marchy, Rask, and Carlo, but I dread what Sweeney et al would accept back, probably have a roster full of 2nd round and lower picks from the next three drafts.
Let’s face it. This was 3 years in the making. Sweeney is in Providence as the GM and who was his head coach? Butch Cassidy. Chiarelli is fired for crappy trades and signings….then they replace him with Sweeney. Then magically, through all of this, Julien gets fired and now Butch Cassidy is the coach.
So basically, three years ago the Bruins new they wanted to trend in this direction but instead of refreshing the roster and trading away dead weight (Chara, Krecji, etc.), they hung on and hoped they could be competitive.
The smartest thing they could do now is change everything from top to bottom. Leave Bergeron, Marchand, Rask, Krug, Carlo, and Colin Miller (maybe Vatrano too) on the Roster and get rid of everything else.