Kalman: In Search of Improvement, Julien Gives Post-Practice Lessons On Defense
By Matt Kalman, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Formal practice was over, the center-ice stretch was complete and most of the Bruins forwards made their way for the exit Thursday at Ristuccia Arena.
Eight defensemen and two goaltenders, though, stayed on the ice and made a half circle in front of coach Claude Julien. The Bruins' assistant coaches loitered behind the players as Julien went through a lengthy speech full of gesticulations and spittle. Julien wasn't heated; the former NHL defenseman looked more like a passionate professor of defense.
"Just trying to get better," Julien explained after he was asked about the powwow. "And you talk as a group. You try and explain different areas that you want them to get better at. I do that every year at some point, sometimes in the room, sometimes on the ice. I wouldn't read too much into it."
When Julien tells you not to read into something or that something isn't a story, that means it's significant. And with the Bruins coming off a 5-4 overtime loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday and with their defense ranking 29th in the NHL at 4.33 goals allowed per game, there definitely was something special about this master class in preventing scoring.
Shortly after Julien was done, assistant coach Doug Houda huddled up with the four active veterans – Zdeno Chara, Adam McQuaid, Torey Krug and Kevan Miller – for further discussion of what's been wrong with the Bruins' defense.
If what the players always say about every point in the standings, at every time of year being crucial is true, then these are desperate times for the Bruins. They can't expect to continue to score enough to be second in the league any more than they can expect to make the playoffs with one of the league's worst goals-against averages.
Krug believes the Bruins just need to fine tune what they're doing.
"Well it happens, I think. The game is just a game of mistakes," he said. "So it's one team wanting to capitalize on another team's mistakes. I think with a young team, a lot of guys learning new systems, it's definitely going to happen naturally. But at the same time, a lot of the mistakes that we've made have been easily correctable. So it's just about making sure when we go into games, we can break it down into periods or shifts and making sure we really focus on doing our job."
It was important for the Bruins' veteran defensemen to get as much post-practice enrichment as the younger newcomers. Because for every Tommy Cross giveaway that's led to a goal there have been at least one, or more, Kevan Miller giveaways or McQuaid lost coverages around the net. There's plenty of blame to go around.
Goaltenders always bear the brunt of criticism when a team's defense is in the doldrums. Tuukka Rask deserves much of the blame he's getting right now. While alluding to the mistakes going on in front of him and the lack of communication between him and the defensemen, Rask stressed that the most important thing for him is to improve his game. He's been watching the video and honing his approach to the game.
"I think you look at not necessarily the goals but some saves you made and the way you made them – were you off angle, were you square, what you could've done differently. So those kind of things," said Rask, who has allowed 22 goals in five games. "Lately I've noticed I've been off square a little bit, so that's something I have to work on being, being square to the puck and being square to the shooter."
Although Rask often comes off as cocky, there's a humbleness that often comes out of him when he's not at his best. He understands that he needs to be better, and the way he expresses that is what makes him part of the team. The Bruins don't seem lacking in confidence of their goaltender. It's more like they feel like they're letting him down.
If Julien's impromptu tutorial from Thursday doesn't pay off against the New York Islanders on Friday or in the near future, there will be more of those sessions, more video studies and more locker room debate about how to return the Bruins' defensive game to prominence in the NHL.
It's not time to panic yet, but it's time to take serious steps to rectify this situation. Julien knew that and that's why reading into his actions Thursday was worthwhile.
Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.
