In an alternate universe, Jeremy Jacobs has fired Cam Neely and hired his arch-nemesis as Bruins President. Figuring that no one can do a worse job than bring a team in 2015 back to 1980, he hired eight bloggers who have been critical, negative and at most time down-right nasty regarding the Bruins. He figured that this criticism was built out of love.
So Days of Y’Orr plays Bruins’ President. Unfortunately, only four and a half (the half being me) showed up for the job.
Who do you hire as GM and why?
Bree: Don Sweeney. Next question.
Okay, okay, I wouldn’t really go with Sweeney, but that appears to be what’s likely going to happen.
I’m team BriseBois though. BriseBois would be a nice change from what we’ve had before and he’s been flourishing under Yzerman in Tampa Bay. I’d simply be looking for someone who can see where the team needs to go and draft, sign and trade accordingly and I think that he could be that guy. Another upside to BriseBois is that he comes from a legal background. Let’s take a look at some things that he currently does for Tampa Bay and apply that to the Bruins needs, shall we?
– Handles arbitration, negotiations and the CBA legal side of things: Well yes. Yes, that is a good thing to have. These NTC’s in particular are killing the Bruins and I’d have to think that BriseBois wouldn’t be as likely to hand them out like they’re freaking ecstasy at a rave. (I just pictured Carl Soderberg at a rave on E and now I can’t stop giggling.)(“I don’t rave like Bergy, I rave like Carl.” *sits quietly in the corner muttering to himself in Swedish while watching the ceiling melt away*)(I’m literally dying over here.)
– Analytics: Yes, please.
– Manages the salary cap: HAHA. YES. PLEASE.
Literally everything I’ve heard about the guy makes me covet him as the GM for the Bruins.
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Marshall: To throw another name into the hat, I’ll add Jeff Gorton, assistant GM of the Rangers. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because Gorton was the interim GM of the Bruins after Mike O’Connell got the axe. His reign lasted fewer than four months, and in that short time, he was responsible for drafting Phil Kessel, Milan Lucic, and Brad Marchand. And he also orchestrated the trade that sent Andrew Raycroft to Toronto in exchange for Tuukka Rask.
From many accounts, he has been the GM in all but name for one of the East’s most dominant teams in New York for the past few years, basically running the day to day operations, salary cap structure, and is heavily involved with the scouting process. He has a sharp eye for drafting and development, something that’s been sorely lacking in Boston of late. The problem lies in prying him away from Madison Square. He is essentially the GM-in-waiting, ready to take the perch as soon as Glen Sather steps down. It would take a hell of a price tag to bring him in, but it would be money well spent.
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Chip: The easy thing to do is say myself…since I have both an inflated ego and the need for a great job that would actually allow me to move to Boston without having to live in a refrigerator box in the process. Alas, most ‘professional hockey types’ don’t share the same excitement that I do for Stanley Cups won…on the PS3. While I may have the stones to take risks and become a true hockey iconoclast, most see a thirty eight year old too into video games.
With that being said, this job is Don Sweeney’s to lose. Cam is old school when it comes to the Bruins, and his former teammate has been being groomed for this role for a while now. This can be advantageous in two ways. First, Sweeney obviously knows the personnel both in Boston and in Providence. Secondly, as a former Bruins defenseman who relied on speed and smarts to overcome his own size deficiency, he might actually start to move the team towards the greater reliance on speed and skill currently in vogue in today’s NHL. Or, he could just wind up being Cam’s yes man. Chances are we’ll get to find out sooner rather than later.
If I’m looking outside of the organization, Jeff Gorton is who I’d pursue. Boston fans obviously know him for his short but eventful tenure in keeping the GM seat warm before the hiring of Chiarelli, and his time with the Rangers has only solidified his reputation as a great hockey mind. The Rangers have built a fast, well rounded team by using any means at their disposal, whether it be finding impact players via the draft, free agency, or trade. He’s the heir apparent to Glen Sather in New York, and the outcome of these playoffs would likely determine his willingness to leave them and rejoin the Bruins in an increased capacity.
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Jon: Not Ray Shero like most Bruins fans seem to want. I too used to be fooled but what appeared to be a great GM. Shero had some success making trades, sure, but when you look at the Penguins draft record under Shero you start see just more of the same of what Chiarelli brought to the table.
Greg has me on the Julien BriseBois hype train. BriseBois has been working under/with Steve Yzerman and their drafts/trades/etc under BriseBois and Yzerman have been overall fantastic. BriseBois would provide a much needed fresh view to the organization and maybe under him the Bruins could actually put together a string of successful drafts.
And don’t say “screw you Jon, Chiarelli drafted Pastrnak and Subban!”
– Subban will, in all likelihood, never be the Bruins starter or even back up. Especially if that glove hand doesn’t get better.
– Drafting Pastrnak does not excuse the large amount of draft blunders Chiarelli and Co. committed before that.
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Pez: Julien BriseBois from Tampa Bay. I pretty much got everyone on the hype train. Bree spelled it out perfectly.
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Instead of letting your GM decide the fate of Claude Julien, you decide his fate. Do you keep him or fire him? If you fire him, who is his replacement?
Bree: Sadly, it’s time for Claude Julien to go. I was so frustrated with him this year when it came to decisions made and I just can’t see the reason for him to stay. While I will never take away his accomplishments as the Bruins head coach, they need a change. Claude’s system has been steadily becoming a failure over the course of the past few years and this past season was just a nightmare.
In addition to the systems nightmare, why would you be Gregory Campbelling when you could be David Pastrnaking? Why do the Max Talbot thing when you have the opportunity to do the Ryan Spooner thing? Claude Julien appears to have a high distrust and disregard for youth and it’s bothersome. I get that the team should be partially focused on what has worked in the past because past success dictates future success but past failure dictates future failure and I don’t think Claude 100% gets that. Letting the talented kids have more time on ice would be beneficial over some of the other options. Not every young player on the P-Bruins roster is going to cut it, but not allowing those who have the skills have a chance is irritating to me because some of Claude’s old standbys just can’t handle the amount of ice time he’s pushing on them. I could write a novel on this topic, but I only have limited space.
(Calling out Ryan Spooner and only Ryan Spooner was a bitchy move. There’s at least 4 other people on the bench wasting space and allowing players to speed past them to score goals.)
(It was bitchy.)
(No, you shut up.)
Who I would want though is the hard question. For shits and giggles, I’d say Tortorella but that’s illogical, Captain. Todd McLellan has been discussed by my colleagues here and I’ll throw my hat into that ring as well. Why not? He’s a decent coach and he appears to be willing to play youth and give them chances and that’s one of my biggest bitches with Julien.
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Marshall: Todd McLellan. Todd McLellan. Todd McLellan.
Honestly, the Bruins are already fucking themselves by sitting on their hands. By the time they get around to firing Claude, McLellan will probably already have a home in Philadelphia or Toronto. Letting such a talented coach slip away without even dipping their toe in the water would be a huge mistake.
In his time as an assistant in Detroit, and as head coach in San Jose, McLellan’s teams boasted great offensive numbers. Again, an aspect that may seem foreign to Bruins fans. The thought of McLellan letting a power play unit of Krejci, Pastrnak, Spooner, Krug, and Hamilton run wild has already ruined three pairs of my finest pajama pants. The trust that he’s put in young players like Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl over the years would be a nice change of pace from seeing young talent on the ninth floor for making honest mistakes.
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Chip: This will piss off plenty of people, but Julien stays. However, it would be with some important caveats attached to his continued employment.
Julien is a good coach. While sometimes as entertaining as watching paint dry, his teams win. I mean, it’s not as if we’re talking about a coach whose team fell flat on their faces on they way to an 80 point season. None of your favorite trashboys at DOY were predicting the Bruins to win the division – let alone come close to duplicating the efforts that won them the President’s Trophy last season. Tampa had gotten better, and Montreal and Detroit are fast teams that always provide a tough matchup for Boston. Factoring in the injuries to David Krejci and Zdeno Chara, along with subpar seasons from Milan Lucic, Reilly Smith, and others, a 96 point season isn’t exactly the end of the world.
However, there are some things that became painfully clear throughout the 2014-15 season. The first is Julien’s failure to adapt. In any sport, the systems that are successful are eventually figured out. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results in the process. Too often, Julien’s Bruins were focused solely on playing their game, rather than changing their approach depending on whatever their opponents were doing. Granted, not all of the blame can be placed at Julien’s feet, as the entire franchise suffered a bit of an identity crisis this past season. It’s tough to adapt when your own team is unsure of its own identity.
In addition, Julien needs to be more open minded in regards to personnel. Too often he counted on the guys who’ve brought success in the past – no matter how poorly they may have been playing. Meanwhile, youngsters had a hard time cracking the lineup on a regular basis due to Julien’s apparent aversion to trusting unproven NHLers with anything more than 5-7 minutes a night. Ryan Spooner’s play alone over the last few months of the season makes one wonder why he wasn’t seeing bigger minutes earlier in the campaign. If he stays, Julien is going to have to learn to take more calculated risks with his lineup.
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Jon: I fire Julien.
People keep throwing this idiotic notion at me that the Bruins should keep him because he led the Bruins to a Cup in 2011. Okay, that’s great and fine. In 2011. Hockey, and sports in general, change year to year. The NHL as a league has changed drastically since 2011 in terms of what style it takes to win in this league and Julien seems lost. He has the complete inability to adjust, to properly use youth and speed, etc, etc,. His stubbornness and his penchant for clinging to the past has hurt this team way more than helped it the past couple seasons. The Bruins need new blood not just on the ice but on the bench.
In 2011, the Bruins were at the height of Julien’s system. Teams had trouble figuring out a way to beat them while getting mentally and physically blasted for 60 minutes by the Bruins. Then 2013 rolled around, the Blackhawks exposed the Bruins and a light went on in 28 other NHL teams’ heads and suddenly Julien’s “system” was done. Everyone figured out the best way to beat the Bruins. The bigger problem, however, is that the Bruins either didn’t realize this or refused to admit it. There were no tweaks. Nothing. The Bruins just kept going with a game plan that just wasn’t working anymore.
He’s terrible at developing youth too. Everyone but Julien saw that guys like Spooner and Pastrnak deserved more ice time than Campbell and Paille yet there was Julien and his dumb veteran loyalty system rolling out a terrible fourth line late in games when the Bruins needed a goal. A coach who “gets” the NHL doesn’t do that. The NHL has passed Julien by. Sure, maybe he can learn to roll with change but if that happens it should be somewhere else.
Did Julien’s system help bring the Bruins a Cup? Sure. Let’s call it 90% Tim Thomas having a monster post season and then Julien’s system gets some of that 10% credit. But his system is done. Over. All this talk about getting back to “Bruins hockey” is silly because that’s not the NHL anymore. The Big Bad Bruins mentally is suddenly archaic. Fast, speedy, skilled teams make the Big Bad Bruins look silly.
The Bruins need a bench GENERAL who can make in game adjustments to better combat opposing strategies. Julien either can’t do that or doesn’t know how or won’t. Whatever the reason, he needs to go. Thank you for your time here buddy and thanks for what you’ve done, but it’s time to move on. Saying the Bruins need to keep him because of past success is like saying you need to keep your dying car with 200,000 miles because it worked great when it only had 20,000 miles on it. Things change. Bye Julien.
To quote Rise Against, “Like Christmas lights left up ’till mid-July, we kept alive something that should have died. And every day another light burns out ’till on this street we are the darkest house.” A lot of Bruins fans that have commented to us seem to want Dan Bylsma and NO to that. Shero and Bylsma were fired for essentially doing what Chiarelli and Julien were doing wrong, so why use them as replacements?
The comedy fan in me wants John Tortorella just because. Seriously, I have no logic for that. Nor is there any good logic. It’d just be hilarious.
But if we’re being serious… I’m not really sure. The Bruins are a team that can still be a contender with the right coach and a few new parts so going off the board to select some really young coach or a coach without much experience but with potential doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.
This probably won’t be popular, but I liked Paul Maclean. Just looked what he did with some really average/below average Senators teams before he was fired. He had an 114-90-35 record with teams that should’ve been A LOT worse.
The biggest knock on him seems to be that he was the anti-Julien in that while Julien would keep a line together for way too long even if it didn’t work, Maclean has been criticized for mixing up lines too much. I’d rather the Bruins keep trying new things than keeping terrible lines together.
Yes, I know Julien eventually put together that great Lucic-Spooner-Pastrnak line but that was due to injuries and not him actually wanting to give it a shot initially.
Check in tomorrow for Part II where our Presidents talk about roster moves, the 2015 free agent class and the 2015 NHL Draft.
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