On Savard, Horton Bruins’ Julien says it’s all about production
Savard/By S. Bradley
Unbelievably, Bruins head coach Claude Julien wasn’t asked about the benching of Marc Savard and Nathan Horton for the bulk of the third Tuesday after the game.
Today, on a day off for his players, Julien addressed the matter.
“Right now, it seems that five-on-five, they’ve had some chances, but they’re not producing,” Julien was quoted on Boston.com. “You’re relying on that line to help you score some big goals. That’s the challenge right now that we have. You hate to break up the [David] Krejci line. Our fourth line has been pretty steady and reliable for the most part. You’re looking to find the pieces.
“You hope you can get that line going instead of trying to tweak it. But last night, we cut our bench down a little bit there late in the third. You have to do what you’ve got to do. Sometimes it’s a mindset. I think right now, [Milan Lucic] hasn’t scored in a while, but Horts has been even longer. With Nathan, he’s got to start having more confidence in his mind that he’s capable of scoring again.”
No surprise about his reasoning, but maybe there’s a little bit of surprise about when Julien decided to send a message to two of his most important offensive weapons — a tie game on the road in the third period.
Nonetheless, the ploy worked as the Bruins pulled out the win. You can be sure you’ll see Savard and Horton logging their usual amount of minutes tomorrow night in Atlanta. Julien has never had much of a doghouse, and as long as those two players get their level of play back where it needs to be they’ll have a chance to redeem themselves.
at least marchand is up on bergy’s line.
Unfortunately, IMO….this organization was not able to keep Sturm in the mix. Likely, because they were unable to make a different move in order to keep him. I believe Sturm is a great teammate, a leader and a point producer….others would have fed off his energy and heart and made a positive difference to this team.
I am optomistic Savy’s game will return as the season progresses….making everyone around him better. Tough injury to bounce back from…period.
Horton’s slump will test the “attitude” we heard about in Flordia…we should find out the type of player he really is. I believe he will work his way out of it, like many other quality players have done throughout their careers.
Lastly Krejci will pick up his game in the 2nd half of the season as he has done in the past 2 seasons. He looked unstoppable at the end of last season.(and prior season) Although he has played well thusfar, I believe we will see a much better player as the playoffs loom.
This team is poised to make a run, my concern….can this coach motivate to get everything out of his players needed, to seriously contend for the cup? It seems likely we will find out.
The way I see it is that you reward effort – and the Merlot line brings that 100% every game, so they seem to get rewarded with a decent amount of ice time. I’m not a huge Wheeler fan, but lately it seems as though he has been putting in the effort in all three zones. He may not be producing a huge amount (directly on the score sheet), but he is accountable and playing the way he needs to – and making me more of a believer. I really like Horton, but lately is seems like the effort hasn’t been there 100%, aside from some emotion that he showed in the ‘fight’ against Kane against the Thrashers last week… if he can keep up that type of energy and momentum, hopefully he can build off of it and the puck will start to find its way to the net. As long as the guys are putting in the effort, I think things will turn around quickly. My $0.02
“…but maybe there’s a little bit of surprise about when Julien decided to send a message to two of his most important offensive weapons — a tie game on the road in the third period.”
See, I wasn’t surprised at all by the timing as I looked at it more from a defensive perspective. I mean, they weren’t producing offensively anyway, so why not bench your two/three biggest defensive risks when the Bolts are in full attack mode?
Yikes, Paul, I think you’re reading waaay too much into this. Julien shortened his bench with a few minutes left in the game. It’s not that huge a deal; hockey coaches do it all the time. As for Horton, like any good coach, Julien treats each player as an individual, and tailors his approach appropriately. Seguin had less ice time in that situation because he’s a rookie and the tempo was intense. And Savard – if I hear one more unfounded rumor about him in the locker room I’m going to put my fist through my monitor. He’s coming back from a concussion and still isn’t functioning at peak efficiency, and it wasn’t the right time for him to be out there.
They won the game. Julien’s players are supporting him, as seen by their play in the past few games. Relax and enjoy the ride.
I just dont get this guy (Julien). Obviously, I’m not there, my fat ass is sitting on my couch, and only so much comes across on TV during the games and through the media. But Julien seems to be so inconsistent. Did he learn a lesson about how to deal with certain players by the Kessel thing? is that why he is all “positive” with Horton? Is this more of a team atmosphere thing? What I mean is, Julien was hard on Kessel for not being Recchi/Bergeron. But by all accounts a guy like Seguin tries his best to work hard off ice, learn the positional game etc, but he continually benches him. And this is not the first time issues wth Savard have been brought out or hinted at, usually not from the coach but more from a lockerroom perspective. Look, sure savard and horton have struggled on the ice, but they aren’t the only ones. You cant bench a whole team, but seeingly nothing happens when Lucic blows a game a few weeks ago with a stupid penalty. Bergeron, for all he does throughout the ice, hasnt produced much over the last 2 years. Concussion recovery or not, he still gets rewarded with point play on the PP? and gets victimized a few times each year for shorthanded goals? if you reward guys for the intangibles, systems play, being a company man, fitting in, etc, call a spade a spade and say that in the media. Dont say its because they haven’t scored in a while when others havent either. I don’t know, I’m rambling and not really sure where my point is, it just seems like a terrible high school foootball coach who plays his favorites regardless of what the outcomes are, and then blames it all on those who arent his favorites, even when they are only a small part of the problem. I’ll never claim to be a Julien fan, even if they win a cup, and I don’t know if he has to go, and the team is doing relatively well, but i just always ahve the feeling that something has to change with this team. doing ok in the playoffs is not good enough anymore, i want a cup. go out and buy the damn thing if you have to. but win it dammit!