BOSTON – Claude Julien will “absolutely” return to the Boston Bruins for his 10th season coaching the NHL hockey club in Boston after a full endorsement by Bruins GM Don Sweeney, who said it was his decision alone.
The press conference ended five days of speculation and organizational silence after the Bruins missed the Stanley Cup playoffs for the second straight season, and then took five days to come out from under the rubble publicly.
“I emphatically believe that Claude is a coach that can take us through what I’ve described as a bumpy transition period this year. We’ve got work to do. I have work to do,” said Sweeney, describing the longtime coach that won the B’s a Cup in 2011 and qualified for the playoffs in seven straight seasons leading up to the past two DNQ’s for the postseason. “There’s no question we have areas that we want to address, and I’ve already started to assess that. We’ve tried to address some of those things [during the year] and we’re going to continue to address them.”
Julien said he was hungry to once again start building this Original Six organization up again, and sounded many of the same notes when he was at the dais explaining the late season collapse two years ago as well. One has to hope that there’s a different result at the end of next season, or it will feel like the Bruins are just doing the same thing over and over again.
“I did a self-evaluation: do I still have the ear of the dressing room? Are they still listening? All of that stuff that you go through after being here for nine years," Julien said. "Everything that came out of if after my evaluation with Don [Sweeney] on Sunday morning was that I wanted to be here, I want to bring this team back to where we once had it and I know that there’s some bumps along the way. I’m going to be honest with you. Would it have been easier to go somewhere else and get off to a fresh start? That’s not what I want. To me this organization has been has been good to me, and loyal to me. I love this city and I love these fans. I love the environment here.
“You want to be somewhere where people are really passionate about the game. There are a lot of people here, including the players, that have helped me become the coach that I am. I don’t want to be the guy that bails just because all of a sudden you hit a bump in the road. I want to be the guy that perseveres. It’s okay to be remembered for being the winningest coach in Bruins history, I’d rather be remembered as the guy that had enough character to go back in the trenches, dig my heels in and help turn this organization around.”
One area where the Bruins coaching staff will have changes: longtime assistant coach Doug Houda was fired after working primarily with the Bruins defensemen over the years, and the other assistants – aside from goalie coach Bob Essensa, who is under contract – have their contracts up for renewal amid discussions between Julien and Sweeney. So it’s a possibility that Doug Jarvis and/or Joe Sacco might not be retained as assistant coaches as well as Julien and Sweeney began building up toward their second full year of working together.