Julien on B's: ‘We're not crumbling here'

Share

WILMINGTON – While a three-game losing streak in California has narrowed the playoff gap for the Boston Bruins, they aren’t taking a trip to panic city after getting handed tough losses from bigger, stronger and deeper teams in San Jose, Anaheim and Los Angeles.

The Bruins enter Tuesday with a three-point lead over the Detroit Red Wings for the final wild card spot, and hold a four-point cushion from falling out of the playoff picture completely. The Black and Gold have scored just nine goals in their last six games, and the once-vaunted power play continues to produce in fits and starts with two PP goals over that time span.

So while some might start pulling the Chicken Little routine with the Bruins after the way they folded down the stretch last season, Claude Julien doesn’t see it that way with a B’s team that now has the toughest part of their schedule in the rear view mirror with nine games left.

“I’m not pleased with where we are because we’ve lost three in a row, but it’s not like we’re like, I guess, crumbling here," Julien said. "We’ve just got to fix a few little things here, and give up little less as far as scoring chances if we want to be a little better. Also we need to bury the [chances] that we do have.

“I think the biggest thing from that road trip was our inability to bury the chances we had. When that happens, you need to credit the goaltender sometimes on the other side. I didn’t pay attention to it, but I’m sure [Frederik] Andersen got first star in Anaheim, and [Jonathan] Quick I’m sure was one of the stars there [in LA] as well. When you have goaltenders that are playing that well, it makes it hard to score.”

With the torturous road swing through Cali behind them, it should be back to business for a B's team that's a pretty solid 5-3-2 in the 10 games since the trade deadline. 

The Bruins face an important game against the New York Rangers on Wednesday night, and an even bigger game at home against the Florida Panthers on Thursday in a back-to-back situation with plenty of playoff ramifications. That will give Julien and the Bruins plenty of chances to prove that this year is indeed a different animal than last season when the wheels fell off the Black and Gold bus right around this time of the season.

Contact Us