Kalman: Sweeney Must Give Julien A Fair Chance To Right Bruins' Ship
BOSTON (CBS) -- Claude Julien is a coach, not a magician.
It'll be incumbent on general manager Don Sweeney to remember that this summer, in the fall and during the course of the 2015-16 season.
All the tweaks to the system that Sweeney encourages the coaching staff to make and the coaches put into place aren't going to make much of a difference toward getting the Bruins into the top eight in the Eastern Conference by the end of next season if Sweeney doesn't provide the proper personnel and the Bruins' best players don't stay healthy.
And, regardless of the personnel changes, if the system alterations aren't catalysts for a turnaround and a playoff berth in 2016, there will be only one man to blame: Sweeney.
Sweeney made official Friday what everyone reported on Thursday. Julien, who signed an extension with the Bruins last fall, will be back along with his entire staff of assistants for next season, Sweeney told the media at the NHL Combine in Buffalo.
No one can blame Sweeney for taking his time in making this decision. Although it felt like two months, it only took two weeks. But with all the rumblings from Sweeney and published reports about how the Bruins want to change their style of play, and emphasize a more attacking approach, one had to wonder if Julien was really the man the Bruins wanted to hire. Julien has a certain style he likes to play. With the exception of the season that just passed, we know what that system can lead to when Julien has to right amount of talent to execute the game plan properly.
Nonetheless, Sweeney came to the conclusion that Julien and his staff would be able to change the Bruins' style to the GM's liking without sacrificing a lot of what made the Bruins a perennial contender, and 2011 Stanley Cup champions.
"He's got a great accountability structure, he's had a lot of success, he's a veteran coach that I'm going to look forward to learning from as I stay in my new role," Sweeney said. "And he communicated to me that he had already been thinking of some of the changes that I had spoken about and he was looking forward to attacking that. Clearly that's going to revolve around some roster decisions as well."
It had been a lot of years since the Bruins struggled to score like they did in 2014-15. The Bruins finished second in scoring in 2010-11, sixth in 2011-12, third in 2013 and second in 2013-14. During those seasons, some of the names that led the way on the score sheet were Nathan Horton, Jarome Iginla, Tyler Seguin and Rich Peverley. In 2014-15, the Bruins started the season without Iginla and then lost David Krejci for all but 47 games. Rookie David Pastrnak was relegated to playing a few months with Providence of the AHL and then playing for the Czech Republic in the World Junior Championship before the Bruins added his much-needed skill to their lineup on a regular basis. Reilly Smith and Chris Kelly regressed. Until Ryan Spooner had his come-to-Jesus moment, the Bruins got almost nothing from their reinforcements from Providence. Even Zdeno Chara's injury affected the offense, especially on the power play.
Coaching and Julien's system and style were not the issue.
That being said, the seven-game loss to Montreal in 2014 and the Bruins' poor play when mostly healthy during the 2014-15 season proved some changes needed to be made. Hockey's not different than any other business. The choice is between innovation and extinction. Julien and his coaches have made necessary improvements over the years. The Bruins used to get nothing on the attack from their defensemen, and then Dougie Hamilton and Torey Krug came along. Now sometimes you'd wish the Bruins' defense would stop pinching. The power play went from the bottom of the league to the top and back down again the past three seasons. Julien coaches to his personnel.
Sweeney's going to need time to rework the Bruins roster. Salary-cap restrictions, other contract burdens and a thin prospect pool to deal from will make Sweeney's pursuit of a roster that perfectly fits his vision into a multi-season process. There's even a chance he'll change his mind about a coaching staff. By not committing to Julien right off the bat, Sweeney created the perception the coach will be on a short leash. That's not necessarily a bad thing, according to the GM.
"I don't think anybody accepts a job in this business without feeling some level of uncomfortable and uneasiness in terms of the result," Sweeney said. "It's a performance-based industry and we all have to understand that. You have to understand that as a player and you certainly have to understand that as a management group."
The change in style will have to be gradual, and Sweeney's going to have to be patient with both the coaches learning how to teach the new-look system and with the incumbent players learning it after years of playing a different way. If Sweeney pulls the plug on Julien and some of his assistants after a month or two just to bring in a replacement with a lesser track record than Julien, you might as well put a tent over TD Garden and cue the calliope music.
There's no need for drastic change, and hopefully Sweeney's retention of Julien is a sign the GM understands that. It's easy to watch the Stanley Cup Final and fall in love with the Chicago Blackhawks and the Tampa Bay Lightning because of all their skill and speed, and their ability to score. But they can make dynamic things happen because they have Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Steven Stamkos and Tyler Johnson healthy and in the prime of their careers.
There's more to those teams, though, than scoring. They also defend well and back-check like mad. They have toughness and physicality, especially on their bottom two lines. They have depth and mobility on defense. Two years ago when the Bruins had a line of Milan Lucic and Iginla flanking Krejci, Patrice Bergeron was a 30-goal scorer, Carl Soderberg was blossoming and Loui Eriksson was returning to his pre-concussion form, they were a sight to be seen as well and there were teams that wished they could play like the Bruins.
Maybe getting back into Stanley Cup contention will take a few years of Sweeney scouring the league for the right personnel and Julien finding ways to make all the pieces fit into the revamped plan. If just getting back into the playoffs is the mandate, however, the Bruins aren't that far off, as long as Sweeney provides Julien with the right pieces and doesn't expect a coaching miracle.
Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.
