Excellent blog Matt , best on the net!! Informative and well thought out your comments, (and to all the followers… an intelligent response from B fans.)
I think PC is a very smart man but cautious. Up here in the great white north of hockeyland, I have watched over years most of the CDN teams and with it Ottawa, PC’s original organization where he learned a few things about building a dead team to a near champion some time ago with the Sens. He wasn’t manager but he did tutor under the management and if memory recalls, the Sens were close for a few years but in the final series of their last chance some time ago, they sure looked outclassed by the Ducks. (BTW funny how the GM on the Ducks was a man named Burke.) I know it wasn’t his team but they didn’t bring the final pieces to get them over the top. Not sure if he is enough of a gambling man with making bold moves like his former bosses in Ottawa. Kelly’s alright but champions need at least 1 great goalie, 1 great D man and 1 great forward. We got maybe 2/3 but as much as I like the forwards they are not the clutch players that drag a team into another round. (Bergy and Recchi are close but Recchi I don’t think will be back next year, sad.) I hate seeing guys go but as you said you don’t have to love all of them, and even with the future guys, none except Sequin qualify as franchise players.
Here’s hoping something high on the richter scale hits Beantown this year. Every team has only a short window and the B’s window is narrow. So close but oh so far at the same time.
Great Blog, hope you get some more advertisers to keep you going!

Great job matt! I check here everyday for my b’s news.

Robbie in response to who is the guy! Kevin Dineen from the Portland Pirates..

it wasn’t too late in the season for the Devils to fire Claude

With a team like the Oilers had, I would agree with the coaching comments but look at what Lemaire has done with the Devils.

The more I think about it, the more willing I would be to move Krejci. I question his intangibles. You wouldn’t see an Yzerman or Sakic complain publicly about their sticks when going through a drought. He just doesn’t bring it every night like Patrice does and what you would want from your number 1 center. Chiarelli needs to be bold here. He has the assets to do so and this city is dying for the Bruins to win. Only players that I wouldn’t be willing to deal would be 33, 37, the goalies and Seguin or the TOR pick

Unless you’re Pierre McGuire you would know that coaching is highly overrated. You could play the game without coaches and the best teams would still win. If two teams are completely equal than maybe the coach could help with matchups. It’s your core players that win championships not coaches. There’s a list of coaches on the cup but it doesn’t mean they were all great. Glen Sather was a great coach? No he opened the gate and got out of the way. That’s a great coach.

brent burns now? where did this assumption that every all star defenseman under 25 is available come from?

i hear wheeler for doughty straight up is in the works.

“Where’s he been the past decade? Oh, that’s right… bringing an underachieving team to a Stanley Cup in 2006 and then turning the Flyers into the beasts of the East.”

The sarcasm wasn’t really necessary. It’s a perfectly legitimate question which, again, hasn’t really been addressed by the people calling for Claude’s head and obviously won’t be answered by talking about a guy who’s unattainable.

Too bad there weren’t any good coaches on underperforming teams available on the trading block.

Bylsma and Boudreau were also mid year coaching changes. Just a thought. As a player, you just get sick of listing to the same crap all over from your coach, a new enthusastic voice in the room could get the B’s going. There is something to be said about how flat the Bruins can come out during games. It seems like they have to fight to really get into it early. That speaks to coaches preparing them and leadership in the room. Chara and Bergy are great leaders on the ice but do they have that voice in the locker room? Krejci and Ryder are way too relaxed out there. Would love to see someone come in with grit and compete level with the skill to match like a Dustin Brown, Kesler or Ryan Callahan. Pipe dreams but we need someone with that mentality and skill

It’s kinda late to change the coach. He will be fired if he doesn’t win the conference. I do have a guy in mind for next year. Dale Hunter. The guy is much more progressive than you would think. He’s in touch with younger players and his record in the ‘O’ is impressive. I think some of the guys have tuned Claude out. I don’t know. I do know you have to change the messenger sometimes. If the players think the coach is a lame duck then the ship is sinking.

If we can get Richards without trading the Toronto pick by including Krejci, then it has to be done. Period. Richards can be signed long term. He is simply better than Krejci and always will be

On the flip side…okay, assume Julien gets fired. Who exactly is this great savior coach who is currently unemployed who is going to come in to replace him? Plenty of people have been jumping on Julien on talk radio, at least, and everyone certainly have a right to that opinion, but I haven’t heard any names thrown around. I for one don’t want some random interim person from the minors to be plugged into the coach’s spot just for the sake of making a change. Those moves rarely work beyond a short term jolt in the arm. So who is the guy?

I’ll start this off by saying: Matt, your blog is awesome, I’m on here at least 10 times a day to read your insights, as well as the plethora of comments that readers leave. This is a more refined and (usually) more intelligent source of fan feedback. NESN.com has become a zoo.

You make a fantastic point about how the arrival of a legitimate #3 center in Kelly makes a guy like Krejci expendable in order to get another center. Krejci has never been the most physical, and at times holds the puck for too long. He did perform well in the playoffs last year… but it remains to be seen if he can take his finesse and his ice-vision to the level of a Brad Richards-type playmaker. My feeling is that he just needs someone speedy and reliable to develop chemistry with. I’d love to see the B’s go get Stephen Weiss and transition him to a wing role with Krejci… maybe have Horton play with a more defensively-sound veteran like Kelly who can help create chances off the forecheck. I’m just dreaming, obviously… but to restate the obvious, Chia has all the necessesary pieces to make the moves that solidify this club as a contender. Two first-rounders, a second-rounder, a dearth of prospects in the AHL and CHL, and young roster role-players that other teams could build upon… get it done, Chia.

i would like to see burns in a bruins sweater, younger and you bring up a good point that the minnesota boys could go home, plus burns is used to defending the faster paced western conf. teams.. maybe he could help teach some of the current bruins d corp. and of course.. fire julien, matt if you read this can you give your opinion on why no one is talking about replacing julien.. too late in the season or is everyone on board with his style.. i cant stand it. and no one else is talking about it, ill stop commenting about it if i im getting repetitve.. which i am, but so far no one has seemed to care

I’d prefer Pitkanen over Kaberle but I don’t expect a blockbuster as allot of Bruins fans expect from Chiarelli.

I would be happy with Hedjuk or Weiss but would be flippin over joyed with Richards but the price for this pending UFA would be to steep if Dallas didn’t let Chiarelli negotiate an extension.

Three depth moves is what I expect from with Kaberle or Brewer and Hedjuk or Weiss being the next two moves it would make the Bruins better than they are now. PC would only over pay a little versus way overpaying for Richards or Bogosian.