Julien gave his first interview to a Boston media member since being fired and then taking the Montreal job.
Of note his family has decided to stay in Boston because of school concerns.
https://www.bostonsportsjournal.com...en-reflects-boston-looks-ahead-facing-bruins/
Of note his family has decided to stay in Boston because of school concerns.
https://www.bostonsportsjournal.com...en-reflects-boston-looks-ahead-facing-bruins/
McDonald: After your tenure ended in Boston, and you quickly landed a job back with the Canadiens, what was it like for you the way it played out?
Julien: The most important thing is I want to work with somebody I thought I could work well with, and I worked with Marc Bergevin (for Team Canada) at the World Cup and we had good chemistry there, so that’s an important part for a coach to work with a general manager that seems to be on the same page and work well together. You’re not necessarily on the same page and agree on everything, but you have the same philosophy.
McDonald: With your time in Boston in the rear view mirror and you’re focused on the Canadiens, what’s your outlook on the team going into training camp?
Julien: Well, there’s obviously been a lot of changes. Signing (Carey) Price was a big signing for us to keep our solid goaltending. The acquisition of (Jonathan) Drouin, who is a young and upcoming player, and we had to give up a good defenseman (Mikhail Sergachev) but we had to make some of those moves, and we lost (Alexander) Radulov and (Andrei) Markov has gone back to the KHL, but at the same time, we have to break the young guys in and mold our team to what we’d like it to be. There are going to be some challenges, but there’s going to be some good, young blood coming into the organization that we hope will help us take the leap in the right direction.
McDonald: You mentioned Drouin, you’ve helped develop numerous young players in the Bruins organization, including Marchand, Lucic and Krejci, so how does that experience help as you prepare to coach Drouin?
Julien: When Jonathan was in Tampa, they had (Steven) Stamkos and Tyler Johnson, just to name a few guys, real top-notch players. In Montreal, there’s no doubt Drouin will be playing on the top two lines. With our needs, he’s going to be utilized probably more than he was in Tampa. He’s going to flourish under the amount of ice time he’s going to get and he’s going to flourish under the challenges we’re going to give him. He’s excited to be here. He’s a young player with tons and tons of potential, so we’re hoping to benefit from that potential. He’s excited to be here and we’re excited to have him and we’re off to a good start.