Kalman: Bruins Coaches, Players Continue Search For Answers - While GM Does Nothing
By Matt Kalman, CBS Boston
The Bruins hit the ice 50 minutes later than scheduled for practice at Warrior Ice Arena on Monday.
Coach Claude Julien and his staff kept the players in the video room for extra work and then ran them through a 45-minute practice.
After practice the players and their moms, who were subjected to watching the Bruins lose 5-1 at Pittsburgh on Sunday, headed off to a pizza-making class.
If the moms were wise and wanted to back up Julien and the coaches, they didn't let the players eat those pizzas and instead held onto them as rewards for applying what they worked on during practice against the Detroit Red Wings at TD Garden on Tuesday.
The extra video work might've been the last bullet the coaching staff has to fire in its attempt to get the players to play the right way and play hard. They've gotten away from the things that made them one of the best of the worst teams in the Eastern Conference for the first couple months of the season.
Over the course of this trying season, Julien has tried all the coaching tools. He's juggled his lines, he's sat out players (namely Jimmy Hayes, Ryan Spooner and Austin Czarnik), he's made the Bruins practice hard and given them time off.
Although the Bruins regularly have video sessions, this one sounded like it was a remedial course in how to play the sport.
"Sometimes you got to go back to the drawing board," Julien said. "You've seen enough of different things and we decided that maybe a little eye-opening moment could be what we need. So I liked our practice today. As much as it's not a lot of fun these days, I liked our practice today and I hope the guys can bring that kind of energy and determination tomorrow."
All the basic hockey planning in the world won't make a difference if only a handful of Bruins players take the ice with the type of desperation that's necessary now that the teams with the games in hand on Boston are playing them and winning (or accumulating points) while the Bruins are in an 0-3-1 funk.
Not one prone to hyperbole, or saying much publicly that he believes should be kept private, captain Zdeno Chara expressed his displeasure with the work ethic in recent games.
"That's commitment. That's for sure that we need to have everybody doing that and we shouldn't be, at this level, at this time of the season, asking guys to work hard. We've got to make sure that everybody's working hard, everybody's paying his dues to be in the lineup and earning a spot," Chara said. "That's the No. 1 priority. You have to compete, you have to work hard. Usually when you do those things, good things happen. And we've got to get back to those little things and hard work and commitment and righting the ship."
Chara's description makes one wonder if too many Bruins players are comfortable in their jobs. All the lineup changes and ice-time cuts by the coaches and rallying speeches from leadership could go for naught if there isn't also a threat from management to make major changes. And so far this season general manager Don Sweeney has been missing in action.
Sweeney hasn't made a trade in 11 months. One would think in the name of doing something he could at least swap a spare part for another team's spare part. He hasn't utilized the waiver wire to import help and also hasn't used it to shake up his roster by dangling a player of consequence in front of the other 29. No veteran has been waived or shipped to Providence. Danton Heinen, Sean Kuraly and Noel Acciari have all been given their shots to make a difference, but it's been a while since the Bruins injected new life into their lineup. While Peter Cehlarik and Jake DeBrusk flourish in Providence, the Bruins roll Czarnik and Riley Nash over the boards every night despite the fact that they're mostly useless in any situation that's not penalty killing.
Even if Cehlarik or DeBrusk or any of the prospects having fine seasons in the AHL aren't ready to come up and be the savior, maybe they'd light a short fire under some of the cozy veterans. Not too long ago, the Bruins didn't see fit to have Torey Krug in the NHL until half their defense corps was injured in the playoffs. The trip to the 2013 Stanley Cup final wouldn't have happened without Krug's production. Maybe even just a three-game appearance of a hungry kid could jolt the Bruins in time to fend off the teams ready to pass them in the standings.
But for now the Bruins' roster is status quo. Julien and his assistants are left trying to squeeze more performances out of the players that might not be capable of doing what it takes to make the Bruins a playoff team. Chara and the leadership is left to motivate players that either can't make up for their talent deficiency with hard work or aren't prone to working hard until their backs are way up against the wall.
Meanwhile, the general manager fiddles his tune about building the organization the "right way" without doing anything that could make a positive impact and salvage the season before he's forced to do something rash or isn't given a chance to act by his bosses.
Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @MattKalman.
