Victorious Bruins benefit from Julien doing things ‘My Way’
For Claude Julien patience has paid off. He lives to see another day. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that had the Bruins failed to advance beyond the first round, Julien would’ve been forced to take his patient philosophy to another venue.
Instead, Julien gets another shot to coach against Philadelphia in a second-round series and Kelly, Horton, Ryder, Peverley and Thomas might as well make up the Bruins’ Mt. Rushmore of clutch play right now.
Anything can happen over the next several weeks. The Bruins might be out of the playoffs before Cinco de Mayo. Julien still might find a pink slip on his office chair. But none of that matters now.
The Bruins are in the second round and Julien has had the last laugh. Like his players, Julien’s scheduled for day off Thursday before getting back to work Friday.
While he’s hanging with his wife and daughter, and maybe doing a little housework, Julien can belt out a tune Frank Sinatra style.
“I planned each charted course. Each careful step along the byway. And more, much more than this. I did it my way.”
The Chairman of the Board would be proud.
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he is not out of the woods yet, IMO they have to win this series or at least force game 7 and keep in mind that 0-19 on the PP is not sitting well with PC or Neely.
One more thing. Doug McLean mentioned it. He couldn’t believe how many passes we missed and how many times we went offside. I really noticed the offsides on the PP. Who coaches the offsides. Maybe go over it like I used to have to every few games with my mites years ago.
If Seidenberg doesn’t get his blade on a puck going into the net that he booted. I agree that a one goal overtime game doesn’t mean a thing if they lose to the Flyers. Laviolette got the upper hand last year. Now Claude has a second chance to out coach him.
One bad bounce and you guys would be calling for his head. I’d say you won the series in spite of Claude Julien.
“Somebody call 911, because Montreal is DONE!!!” Need a new t-shirt.
Matt, I can’t find a series recap, but I have to believe the B’s outscored the Habs 5 on 5, and much if not most of the floppers goals came on the PP
Good observations Matt, CJ deserves the credit.
More often than not success comes to those with a plan and the discipline to stick with that plan. In my opinion, more often than not I have seen Bruins teams that do not have the discipline and patience that CJ has demonstrated. The result was the players could never play through the ups and downs and
consequently could never develop confidence in their game.
Set your course before you set sail, and stay the course when the storms strike. Tactical adjustments are OK, fundamental changes are a sign of weakness.
Nice post MK. They’ve won nothing yet, but this is a great first step.
I’ve gone on record here a few times stating how much I hated this match-up and I’ll eat my words now. But man, that really could have gone either way. That Hab team is going to be very good for a very long time and IMO, are the prototype for success in the future, where speed is going to trump brawn.
I like the match-up with Philly. Call me crazy, what with last year and all, but I like the how the B’s match up with the Flyers a lot better then how they did with the Habs. Should be a great series.
All these kudos for a coach who wins a first round playoff series. Put him on Mnt. Rushmore next to obammy. This coach is overated.
I don’t know if he is the right man based upon which Bruins team you get night in and out but players have to burden some of that as well. Claude is definalty a straight forward in the box shooter who will not change stratagies, Some times it frustrates me abd I could rant on about the special teams but we have hit “rock” bottom and up is the only way from here.
Nice to see some kudos thrown Claude’s way for a change. I know I’m in the minority in thinking Julien’s the right coach for this team and liking him for his even-keeled approach, but I think as a Bruins fan it would have been hard not to get at least a little bit of enjoyment out of seeing a rare real smile on his face just after the game winner. Yes, things could still go south as they have so many times before, and I’ve been following professional hockey long enough to accept that musical coaches is, for better or worse, part of pro sports, but I really like that this team has found some stability after so many bad years, and Claude is undeniably a part of that.
This is an awesome column. Loved it.
BRUINS would be fools to let CJ go.
GO BRUINS GO!!! ALL OF EM.