Kalman: Before Firing Julien, Bruins Should Consider Leadership Lacking From Their Core
BOSTON (CBS) -- Those hockey gods smiled upon the Bruins on Saturday, but by the time the final horn sounded on the Detroit Red Wings' 3-2 loss to the New York Rangers the Bruins had already spit in those idols' faces by letting the mathematically eliminated Ottawa Senators run roughshod over them in the second period at TD Garden.
The Senators erased a 1-0 deficit by scoring four times in the second period and then closed out the Bruins 6-1. When Philadelphia defeated Pittsburgh 3-1 a few hours later, the Bruins were officially eliminated from postseason contention for the second straight season. The Bruins needed just one point against Ottawa once Detroit lost, and instead Boston was thumped.
Even in building a 1-0 lead in the first period, the Bruins were outshot 17-10 and they were outplayed for the first 40 minutes before turning it on in the third, when it would have taken a miracle of 2013 proportions to get them even. Of course even in putting pressure on the Senators, the Bruins couldn't shake the inability to finish on golden scoring chances that hounded them over the final six weeks of the season.
Had they played all 60 minutes like they did the last 20, they might've had a puncher's chance to earn the point they needed to finish third in the Atlantic Division instead of Detroit.
"It's tough. I mean, again, this is the game of hockey and things like that happen," forward Brad Marchand. "I've said it before, just because you want to win a game 5-0 doesn't mean it's going to happen, and sometimes it doesn't."
Any failure requires response and it seems like coach Claude Julien might be the one who takes the hit. This would be a mistake, but it would be Bruins president Cam Neely and general manager Don Sweeney's prerogative, as long as they understand the coaching change has to be only the first step in a culture change that still might not prevent another failure in 2017.
One year ago the Bruins were in a similar situation and didn't get the win they needed in the last week of the season to extend their playoff streak to eight seasons. They boasted that their 96 points were the most ever by a team that didn't make the playoffs, but that didn't stop them from making changes. They jettisoned general manager Peter Chiarelli, who as expected was hired by another team in no time flat, and replaced him with his Sweeney. They traded heart-and-soul player Milan Lucic and future foundational defenseman Dougie Hamilton.
With a stripped-down defense corps and a top-heavy forward corps, the Bruins still managed to get as many points as and win one more game than the Red Wings. The difference between eighth and ninth place on a tie-breaker shouldn't be enough to get a coach fired, but it probably will. And that will be a shame when there are so many other addressable problems with the Bruins and the coach wasn't the cause of any of them.
However, Neely has always wanted to make a coaching change, often complimenting the Cup-winning coach through his gritted teeth, and this is the perfect opportunity. It took Sweeney a couple weeks last spring to decide to keep the coach. If Julien was the right coach last season, he should be the right coach now. Nothing has changed except the Bruins are as thin on defense as they've been in the Zdeno Chara era and are us thin up front as they've been since Marc Savard had his career short-circuited.
Maybe Sweeney and Neely should look to the guys on the bench rather than the one standing behind it before deciding who's to blame. Although it's difficult to blame the Bruins' core players, many of whom produced at a career-best level this season, you can't overlook the leaders' inability to fire up the team when necessary. To say this is solely Julien's responsibility is false. It should also be pointed out that Julien's messages can't be considered stale when the players who've played for him the longest are the ones who still play the hardest.
But with a new mix of players comes new technique to use to fire up the troops. And when Julien's out of the room, the Bruins lack anyone able to light that fire. Chara, David Krejci and even the infallible Patrice Bergeron are the same leader-by-example types. Marchand tried to take a more vocal role this season, but there's just so much weight one can put into a rat's words regardless of how many goals he scores.
The Bruins' core needs a change in personnel or personality. It might not need something as drastic as trading Chara or Krejci (or heaven's forbid Bergeron), but there has to be an adjustment.
Should one of the Bruins' letter wearers find a larger voice, it might come off as disingenuous. But it still may pay off. The rest of the Bruins' roster is only going to get younger going forward and those players are going to need a general to follow. Players like Torey Krug can speak up but it'll always be difficult to be a leader when there are older, letter-wearing ones already in the room. If none of the core three leaders can get outside of his comfort zone and be an effective source of fire in addition to being a productive player, Sweeney is going to have to consider breaking up the band.
It'll be tough for the Bruins, already at a talent deficit, to value leadership over skill at this point. But the fact is they can finish outside of the playoffs and in the bottom third of the League in goals against without an elite defenseman. They can miss the playoffs as easily without two elite centers as they can with both Bergeron and Krejci in the second half of their prime.
This is not a message urging Sweeney to tear down his roster and go into full rebuild mold or to make a rash decision and get a Seguin-trade-level package for one of the Bruins' best players. This is just a warning that thinking a coaching change is going to cure what ails the Bruins and get them back in the playoffs next season is a huge mistake.
Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.
