Julien won’t comment on Seguin/WJC report
Seguin
There were reports from a couple media outlets last night that the Bruins are considering allowing Tyler Seguin to play for Team Canada at the end of this month at the World Junior Championship.
Today in his pregame media briefing in Philadelphia, head coach Claude Julien declined to comment on that report because he hasn’t “heard it from the horse’s mouth” — meaning general manager Peter Chiarelli. One would think that if the Bruins are seriously considering such a move, the coach would be included in those discussions.
However, I’d have to believe the Bruins will give the opportunity to have Seguin skate on such a large stage and receive major minutes some extra-close consideration over the next week or so.
Especially after Marc Savard returns, the Bruins aren’t going to have many worthwhile minutes to give Seguin, who has yet to blossom into the offensive wunderkind the team projects him to be. I’d rather have him playing top-line minutes in all situations for Team Canada for 10 days than playing on the power play and centering Brad Marchand and Shawn Thornton or some other bottom-six wingers in Boston over that time.
We’ll see how this develops in the next week because Team Canada will want to be settled as far as personnel by the middle of this month.
Well said MCK. The kid is ready to break out, he just needs a few more minutes. Nothing crazy, just a boost. We seem to forget that he is going into these games thinking “defense first”. Just wait until thinking defense becomes innate and he begins to focus on creating and exposing the opposition?!?!
When I watch a 19 year 0ld beat guys to the net embarrassingly like last night, or even more so vs Alfie against Ottawa, I begin to drool.
Letting him go play in that tourney is really dumb I think. Put him in a position to limit his mistakes, ie, not center. Put him on a line with Savard and then tell me his minutes should be trimmed. Great pass by Ryder last night, but they need to get him away from Seguin. Seguin is a pure scorer. If he was a little bit more lucky, he would have about 8 goals right now. He got robbed 3-4 times last week.
It doesn’t make sense to me that his minutes would go down when Savard returns. To me, when Savard returns, all is right with the world and Seguin can play wing for a couple of seasons like Bergeron did. All he has to do then is play his wing, use his speed and shoot, shoot shoot…oh and keep your stick on the ice for the Savard tape-to-tape lazer passes
Sure there will be bad nights and bumps along the way, but even the vets on this team play like garbage in stretches (Horton right now, for example). Don’t bury the kid because he made a mistake. Put him in situations to succeed and shorten the bench at the end of games. Simple to me. Putting him on a line with Thornton does nothing for him. Mind as well scratch him for the game.
Ya I know it’s big, and I didn’t really mean it like I said it. We pay this kid good money tho so having him sidelined in a game that doesn’t help the club is unacceptable.
@Rommel… I agree that there is too much risk involved in lending Seguin to the national team, but try explaining to anyone in Canada that the Jr. Tourney doesn’t matter haha… I think up here we look more forward to the Boxing Day game than Christmas. The bars will be rammed to watch teenagers play hockey. It’s quite the sight to behold.
I don’t think anyone here is saying he should just be handed minutes. Certainly not. This is the NHL and you have to earn every ounce of ice you get.
What I think everyone is starting to tire of is what I saw in Atlanta. Seguin was playing with some great jump and certainly was not a reason for any of Atlanta’s goals. He set up Horton for a great chance (about the only time I noticed Horton during the game) and had the shift where he created 3 scoring chances virtually by himself. We go down 3-0, Krecji is out with the flu and still, no love for TS. Explain to me the hurt in giving him a couple of shifts with a some better wingers?! He makes a bad pass or blows his coverage and ATL goes up 4-0?! Big deal. He learns another lesson. It’s a 19 year old kid, adjusting to a defense-first system. Something he’s never seen in his hockey life. Are they afraid he may disrupt that Julien environment by lighting it up?!
I just don’t want to see a replay of Burns vs. Thornton. That’s all…
Well said Digger. You have to earn the minutes and he has not. He’s just a kid. I think Boston is doing the right thing bringing him in slowly.
I can see giving the kid extra minutes in a situation like Atlanta but for the most part he is still prone to high risk plays and turn overs. This ain’t junior hockey. Eventually I’d like to see him on a line similar to the LKH and play the role of sniper like Horton.
Hall is on a young team with low expectations which is a lot different than Boston.
He’s a Bruin. Give the kid the minutes he deserves. Hell, throw him on the first line for all I care right now. Not like Lucic and Horton have done anything of note over the past 5 games.
Fowler and Hall seem to be handling their minutes just fine. Time to give him some real minutes in the NHL. What happens if he gets a Savard type concussion playing in the WJC? We’ve let our future get hurt playing in a series that doesn’t matter.
Exactly Brendan. How can we say he hasn’t “blossomed into the offensive wunderkind the team projects him to be” when we haven’t allotted him the minutes an offensive wunderkind should see?!
I’m really disappointed with the way that Julien has handled Seguin. Especially in the recent loss to Thrashers, with the team down by that score I was hoping to see him get much more valuable minutes in the third.
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Could be. But with Lucic, Horton, Wheeler, Ryder, and Claude coaching, might get give the kid a sniff in the top 6
I would think just the opposite, that when Savard returns, they’ll put Seguin on his wing and give him MORE minutes, not less. Why would they keep him at center with Savard, Krejci, Bergeron and Campbell already there?