GDT: Sweeney /Julien News Conference 4/14 10AM

[BruinDust]

He had a great first season. The Bruins had an awful team coming out of the lockout. It was obviously his first NHL job, but management certainly failed him.

Management did, coming out of the lock-out.

He had a very good team in 2004 and was clearly out-coached by Julien and out-played by an inferior Habs team in that years playoffs.

Not a terrible coach, but not a great one at the time either. There is a reason it took him 10 years to get another head coaching job.

 

[incidental otter]

My takeaways from the press conference were...

1) Sweeney really does believe in Claude, and has all along. CJ was never on a "short leash." Sweeney knows he's a good coach and an asset to the organization. End of story.

2) Julien thinks it would be easier to go start fresh somewhere else and recognized he'd have no shortage of enticing offers but he wants to be a character guy and help this team get back on top. He wants to repay the loyalty shown him. He loves it here. He did in 08 and thinks he can do it again.

3) Julien was frustrated by the team's lack of consistency. That they can execute so well against Detroit and then so poorly against Ottawa was infuriating to him.

4) Sweeney felt that a lot the inconsistency was due to 6 skaters playing their first years in the league, along with a lot of new players being integrated into the lineup. Sweeney took responsibility for that and tried to help with the additions but they lost Liles at a critical time and that didn't help. Goaltending was a concern as well.

5) Sweeney felt like this past year was a transition year. And that next year will be a year in transition as well.

6) Sweeney thinks Julien does a "great job" of developing kids. He cited examples like Pasta, Spooner, McQuaid all the way back to Marchand and Krejci. He thinks the organization needs to continue "patiently developing" young players to get where they want to go. I thought the patient part was interesting because it flies in the face of all the people who want to drop these kids into the deep end to let them sink/swim on their own. It reaffirms my belief that they believe integrating young players is a process that should take years, not weeks or months. Years spent in the minors, spent getting short tastes of the NHL, spent watching from the press box, until you are ready to come in and have an impact.

7) Sweeney called out Tuukka Rask. He was tiptoeing but my impression was that A) they missed the playoffs by the slightest of margins and the biggest reason for that was B) Tuukka wasn't good enough. C) The rest of the young core had career years and D) NO, Tuukka is not an untouchable trade asset.

Good summary.

I'd add to your point 4 that Sweeney repeatedly referred to the lack of depth. He said players were forced into situations for which they were not prepared, and that hurt the team.

To his credit, he took responsibility for the dearth of NHL-quality players.

 

[Absurdity]

So let me get this straight, the source of all the problems ailing the Boston Bruins, is not the head coach and his puzzling decisions like benching your 37 goal scorer in the shootout which has playoff implications, in favor of Torey Krug who has a whopping 4 goals in 81 games.

No its not those type decisions, instead , its Doug Houda who is the cause of the Bruins problems

Give me a break, Claude is an out of touch coach who cannot motivate a team, especially a team that has tuned him out. we are toast.....RIP 2016-17 season.

No, Doug Houda is not the cause of the Bruins problems. I've been ragging on Claude all week, calling him out in games against St. Louis and Ottawa specifically. To me, this is Claude's last chance to adopt Sweeney's ideal system which is what we've seen a few times this season like our 2nd to last game against Detroit.

You do realize that the assistant coaches were merely carrying Julien's water, right? It's not like they dictated to him the style play that they wanted. He told them and they executed on it.

Yes you are right, but the way I'm seeing things, the only reason Sweeney and company decided to keep Claude was because he has been, overall, successful in Boston, and the core guys in the locker room like Bergeron like him. Sweeney got rid of the assistant coaches that support his D to D, neutral zone trap play-style, he is going to potentially get rid of Claude's binkies currently on the roster (not re-signing FAs etc.), and he's hopefully going to shake up this roster into the way he visions how this team should play.

Sweeney and co. believe he's a good coach, and now Claude will have the chance to prove it to them. There will be no more excuses for Claude. No one to fall back on. No more binkies to trust over other players. It's just going to be Claude as the coach with the main goal to coach his team to the playoffs next season with an improved roster (we'll see in the offseason) and hopefully become competitors again in the upcoming years. If Claude fails next season, they'll probably fire him. It'll also be interesting to see who they fill in the vacant coaching positions with.

 

[PlayMakers]

Do you think it is possible to even move Seidenberg? I think it will be extremely difficult.

In that case you have a lot of money tied up on your 3rd pairing. Not to mention Colin Miller deserves a full season next year. Joe Morrow I'm already set to give up on.

No, I don't think they can trade Seidenberg. I believe they can buy him out and Sweeney said they'd look at all options including buyouts so that's an option that would save you $3m next year.

If they wanted to hold off on buying out DS44 for one more year, they could look at him as an expensive mentor in the third pair next to Colin Miller. I'd be okay with that for one year, even though it would be costly.

Trade for Kevin Shattenkirk. Maybe Senyshyn + Colin Miller gets it done? I like Senyshyn, but to get an elite 27 year old defenseman you need to pay up.

Yeah, he's the ideal solution there. Another guy that's a step down from Shattenkir but still very interesting to me because he's a UFA, is Jason Demers. I think my third choice would be to ask Yandle to play his off-side with Chara but he might end up being the only one of the three you could get.

Why?

Why does every puck-mover need to be augmented on their pairing with a stay-at-homer? Are puck-movers dumb enough that if one puck-movers decides to rush the puck, the other puck mover is going to join the rush with him and not hang back?

Sure ideally you'd like to augment Krug with someone a bit bigger and probably a bit better defensively. But that doesn't mean his partner needs to be a big slow unskilled stay-at-home type.

Fair point, but I think the kind of D you're describing is extremely rare. Someone big and strong and mobile, who's good defensively and good offensively... You're describing defensemen with #1 potential and they're so hard to find. Most defenses are made up of imperfect pieces. Krug is highly skilled but small and less effective in the corners. Miller is unskilled but strong and highly effective at winning puck battles. In lieu of icing the perfect defense, I like to see balance.

I think teams need guys who are big and strong and win corner battles, but too many of them and you get no transition or breakout game. I think teams need guys who are skilled and creative puck movers but I think if you have too many of them they lose their effectiveness because they get outworked and outmuscled along the walls and spend the game hemmed in their own zone.

 

[BruinDust]

My takeaways from the press conference were...

1) Sweeney really does believe in Claude, and has all along. CJ was never on a "short leash." Sweeney knows he's a good coach and an asset to the organization. End of story.

2) Julien thinks it would be easier to go start fresh somewhere else and recognized he'd have no shortage of enticing offers but he wants to be a character guy and help this team get back on top. He wants to repay the loyalty shown him. He loves it here. He did in 08 and thinks he can do it again.

3) Julien was frustrated by the team's lack of consistency. That they can execute so well against Detroit and then so poorly against Ottawa was infuriating to him.

4) Sweeney felt that a lot the inconsistency was due to 6 skaters playing their first years in the league, along with a lot of new players being integrated into the lineup. Sweeney took responsibility for that and tried to help with the additions but they lost Liles at a critical time and that didn't help. Goaltending was a concern as well.

5) Sweeney felt like this past year was a transition year. And that next year will be a year in transition as well.

6) Sweeney thinks Julien does a "great job" of developing kids. He cited examples like Pasta, Spooner, McQuaid all the way back to Marchand and Krejci. He thinks the organization needs to continue "patiently developing" young players to get where they want to go. I thought the patient part was interesting because it flies in the face of all the people who want to drop these kids into the deep end to let them sink/swim on their own. It reaffirms my belief that they believe integrating young players is a process that should take years, not weeks or months. Years spent in the minors, spent getting short tastes of the NHL, spent watching from the press box, until you are ready to come in and have an impact.

7) Sweeney called out Tuukka Rask. He was tiptoeing but my impression was that A) they missed the playoffs by the slightest of margins and the biggest reason for that was B) Tuukka wasn't good enough. C) The rest of the young core had career years and D) NO, Tuukka is not an untouchable trade asset.

Your right about it being a process, it takes time. You can't just integrate 8 or 9 rookies into your everyday line-up year after year.

I'll give Julien and Sweeney credit. They did an good job integrating young forwards into their line-up this season. When you look and say Vatrano, Pasta, Spooner, Acciari, Ferraro, Connolly, Randell, all made some sort of mark on the big club and that's a lot of young forwards to have on your team at one time. A far cry from the previous year when the young guys were given very little chance with Campbell, Gagne, Kelly and Campbell occupying 1/3 your forward line-up.

Kudos on Sweeney as well for removing Rinaldo, Kemppainen, and Talbot from this roster at the deadline.

Now if he could only find away to do the same with the D.

 

[jrbz88]

Good summary.

I'd add to your point 4 that Sweeney repeatedly referred to the lack of depth. He said players were forced into situations for which they were not prepared, and that hurt the team.

To his credit, he took responsibility for the dearth of NHL-quality players.

I thought the assessment was somewhat bizarre, ex. that Julien wants to go somewhere else but he's a character guy and wants to stick it out and stay here in Boston because he wants to show Boston what a great dedicated Coach he is.

Ummm huh, you were able to gather all that insight from that press conference??

I think we might have been watching differrent pres conferences.

 

[bruinmann77]

Now that why he add rinaldo? for depth

 

[BMC]

Good summary.

I'd add to your point 4 that Sweeney repeatedly referred to the lack of depth. He said players were forced into situations for which they were not prepared, and that hurt the team.

To his credit, he took responsibility for the dearth of NHL-quality players.

Insert picture of Kevan Miller here. I honestly believe that between being asked to do too much & coming off shoulder surgery this is why #86 struggled so much for so long this season.

 

[jgatie]

I thought the assessment was somewhat bizarre, ex. that Julien wants to go somewhere else but he's a character guy and wants to stick it out and stay here in Boston because he wants to show Boston what a great dedicated Coach he is.

Ummm huh, you were able to gather all that insight from that press conference??

I think we might have been watching differrent pres conferences.

You must have watched a different one, because Claude said exactly that:

To be honest with you, would it be easier to go somewhere else and start fresh … that's not what I wanted. This organization has been good to me, it's been loyal to me. I love this city. I love our fans. You want to be somewhere where people are passionate about this game. I don't want to be that guy that fails because you hit a bump in the road. You want to be the guy who perseveres. It's fine to be the winningest coach in Bruins history, but I want to be remembered as the guy who went back, dug his heels in and turned this franchise around.

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/bruins/bruins_insider/2016/04/don_sweeney_claude_julien_will_continue_as_bruins_coach

 

[FallsForItEveryYear]

In a word, yes. Puck movers are more inclined to move with the puck, towards the puck, etc leaving a hole for his opposite number to exploit. If you have two puck movers on the same line the chances are they'll open up two holes that can be exploited. If you have a PMD with a stay at home defenseman this is pretty well eliminated. IMO. I've always favored pairing a puck mover with a stay at homer, it gives the team the best of both worlds.

exactly the type of thinking that keeps this team years behind the cream of the crop. acting like every puck mover is a defensive liability. it is possible to be a two way defense. not every puck mover has to be small fast and easily out muscled just like not every stay at home defender needs to handle the puck like a live grenade and skate like hes dragging an anchor.

if this team has chara seidenberg k.miller and mcquaid on the blueline again this coming season you can kiss the playoffs good by right out of the gate. two of these need to be gone. chara is a borderline first pairing but if hes on the first pairing you better have a stud who can handle the puck next to him. if even two of the remaining three are here its too many. they are all bottom pairing guys. ideal seidenberg is gone and only one of kmiller or mcquaid is here going forward. (miller is good if he gets a deal at 1.5 mil max) if your going to overpay the bum you might as well keep mcquaid at least he fights and battles and brings some attitude.

 

[jrbz88]

You must have watched a different one, because Claude said exactly that:



http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/bruins/bruins_insider/2016/04/don_sweeney_claude_julien_will_continue_as_bruins_coach

Those sound like completely separate things to me...maybe we are from different planets??

 

[Therick67]

Management did, coming out of the lock-out.

He had a very good team in 2004 and was clearly out-coached by Julien and out-played by an inferior Habs team in that years playoffs.

Not a terrible coach, but not a great one at the time either. There is a reason it took him 10 years to get another head coaching job.

He was a rookie head coach. Losing to Montreal wasn't a rare occurrence.

JJ wanted that lockout, but for some reason wasn't prepared for what happened. That season is on management IMO. Sullivan had a lousy team and paid the price.

 

[jgatie]

exactly the type of thinking that keeps this team years behind the cream of the crop. acting like every puck mover is a defensive liability. it is possible to be a two way defense. not every puck mover has to be small fast and easily out muscled just like not every stay at home defender needs to handle the puck like a live grenade and skate like hes dragging and anchor.

if this team has chara seidenberg k.miller and mcquaid on the blueline again this coming season you can kiss the playoffs good by right out of the gate. two of these need to be gone. chara is a borderline first pairing but if hes on the first pairing you better have a stud who can handle the puck next to him. if even two of the remaining three are here its too many. they are all bottom pairing guys. ideal seidenberg is gone and only one of kmiller or mcquaid is here going forward. (miller is good if he gets a deal at 1.5 mil max) if your going to overpay the bum you might as well keep mcquaid at least he fights and battles and brings some attitude.

You do realize that a big, strong, fast puck movers who are good defensively are as rare as hen's teeth, cost a fortune, and are so coveted that other teams lock them up early? ****, PK Subban isn't that big and is questionable defensively and he makes $9 Million. It's impossible to ice an entire defense like that. In fact, for most teams, it is impossible to ice a single defenseman like that, they just don't exist! So you make compromises, and one of those is pairing a defensive liability with a stay at home guy.

 

[BruinDust]

No, I don't think they can trade Seidenberg. I believe they can buy him out and Sweeney said they'd look at all options including buyouts so that's an option that would save you $3m next year.

If they wanted to hold off on buying out DS44 for one more year, they could look at him as an expensive mentor in the third pair next to Colin Miller. I'd be okay with that for one year, even though it would be costly.



Yeah, he's the ideal solution there. Another guy that's a step down from Shattenkir but still very interesting to me because he's a UFA, is Jason Demers. I think my third choice would be to ask Yandle to play his off-side with Chara but he might end up being the only one of the three you could get.



Fair point, but I think the kind of D you're describing is extremely rare. Someone big and strong and mobile, who's good defensively and good offensively... You're describing defensemen with #1 potential and they're so hard to find. Most defenses are made up of imperfect pieces. Krug is highly skilled but small and less effective in the corners. Miller is unskilled but strong and highly effective at winning puck battles. In lieu of icing the perfect defense, I like to see balance.

I think teams need guys who are big and strong and win corner battles, but too many of them and you get no transition or breakout game. I think teams need guys who are skilled and creative puck movers but I think if you have too many of them they lose their effectiveness because they get outworked and outmuscled along the walls and spend the game hemmed in their own zone.

Fair points as well.

I'm glad you mentioned Demers. Cause he's the type of guy I'm talking about. He's not really big and strong, but he's not small and weak defensively either. Just a well-rounded guy who can defend pretty well and move the puck, will never put up big numbers, if he did he'd be a top end guy, where he's really just a solid 3-4.

The need more guys like that and less of the McQuaids and Millers. Who I personally think that style of D (Slower, stay-at-home defensive types) are going the way of the dinosaur.

People always try to point at reason's for the collapses of the last few seasons. One reason I believe is when the heat is turned on, the speed and pressure is up, stay-at-homers who generally lack composure with the puck are more prone to mistakes and glaring errors. The more stay-at-homers you have, the more mistakes are made with the puck once the intensity of the playoff race goes up.

But ideally I'd like to see:

3 Well-rounded guys similar to a Demers
2 Offensive guys similar to a Krug or a Yandle
1 Stay-at-homer, in this case Chara.

Tough to do in one off-season unless some of the younger D can become more well rounded guys overnight.

 

[BMC]

exactly the type of thinking that keeps this team years behind the cream of the crop. acting like every puck mover is a defensive liability. it is possible to be a two way defense. not every puck mover has to be small fast and easily out muscled just like not every stay at home defender needs to handle the puck like a live grenade and skate like hes dragging and anchor.

if this team has chara seidenberg k.miller and mcquaid on the blueline again this coming season you can kiss the playoffs good by right out of the gate. two of these need to be gone. chara is a borderline first pairing but if hes on the first pairing you better have a stud who can handle the puck next to him. if even two of the remaining three are here its too many. they are all bottom pairing guys. ideal seidenberg is gone and only one of kmiller or mcquaid is here going forward. (miller is good if he gets a deal at 1.5 mil max) if your going to overpay the bum you might as well keep mcquaid at least he fights and battles and brings some attitude.

Many puck movers are defensive liabilities because of their tendency to think offense at the expense of defense, not just because of their lack of size not that there are a lot of big puck movers out there. It comes with the territory. So you cut down on the risk of a turnover or being caught out of position by pairing a PMD with a SHD.

McQuaid & Seidenberg have issues (health & contract) that will make it tough to trade them in return for anyone decent. Chara isn't going anywhere either.

 

[jgatie]

Those sound like completely separate things to me...maybe we are from different planets??

No, just really different agendas. If you can't see where he stated he'd be better off going someplace else, but he'd rather stick it out here, turn the ship around, and be remembered as the guy with that type of character, then we will agree to disagree.

 

[BB88]

Felger On Julien’s Return: Bad Day For The Bruins

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/04/...ns-claude-julien/?cid=twitter_985thesportshub

He has a good point, what has Julien done in these last 2 years.
They've been completely wasted years.

It's a good question that is Julien the right coach when you want to add puck moving D-players to your lineup when we look at his work with the Bruins.

Detroit is playing in the playoffs, and it got laughed at here, called brutal and not a threat to the Bruins, tells how bad we really were.

 

[toasterjam]

I am overall OK with how the forwards did..not all too concerned about Kelly coming back or having to trade Krejci.

But the D...I just don't see how we are gonna roll out the same guys and expect different results.

They were bad for the majority of the year. Terrible net front presence...so many games the other team would just throw the puck to the front of the net, chaos would ensue and they could pop in a goal to an empty net.

Our D were bad at clearing the front of nets, controlling rebounds. Turnovers were a consistent issue starting right with Chara.

Anyway, I don't see how they expect more from the D.
Chara- will be a year older, has already slowed down, his shot is gone, makes bad plays with the puck, plays too many minutes at this point

Seids- another year older, no mobility left, still physical but odds are he is probably gonna get hurt next year, I'm questioning his durability at this stage.

Krug- tough year scoring wise, but overall I thought he had a solid year, looked stronger, better defensively. Hopefully he continues to develop his D game more and gets his clutch goals back.

Mcquaid- really up and down year for him, had stretches where he played solid then very bad. I still like him as a #5 PKer, still hits, physical, will punish guys and one of the last guys on the team who can still fight good. He'll be hurt some point next year too.

K.Miller-Started out terrible I thought, was done with him, making terrible plays with the puck, getting hemmed in zone, too much running around in front of the net. As season went on he found his groove and really played solid, hits still, tough, can fight. I like him as a #6 NOT in top 4 or playing with Chara.

I don't see us as a playoff team with K.Miller consistently in our top 4 D.

So ok...player X to round out our top 6 D. Whether that's a trade-free agent- C.Miller or Morrow...I don't see an improved D core.

I don't see how we can roll out the same guys and hope things go better. Chara Seids another year older, slower, injury prone.

Mcquaid-K.Miller redundant and both have had some injury troubles in the past

Krug

We need to pick 1 D to keep out of Mcquaid, K.Miller and Seids.

We need to move on and update our D to have a better mix of talents, need to be faster, push pace, skate.

 

[BruinDust]

Many puck movers are defensive liabilities because of their tendency to think offense at the expense of defense, not just because of their lack of size not that there are a lot of big puck movers out there. It comes with the territory. So you cut down on the risk of a turnover or being caught out of position by pairing a PMD with a SHD.

McQuaid & Seidenberg have issues (health & contract) that will make it tough to trade them in return for anyone decent. Chara isn't going anywhere either.

Yes but how many turnovers do SHD cause by just banking pucks off the boards because they don't have the ability to make a clean pass or skate the puck out of the zone under pressure?

A turn-over is still a turn-over? I guess the difference is one results in odd-man chance off the rush, where the other just results in the other team being able to re-commence the cycle in your own zone.

But that's Claude's system. Limit odd-man chances as much as you can, allow the other team the cycle if need be, bend-don't-break in your defensive coverage, bank it off the boards again hoping your forward can retrieve it, rinse and repeat.

Was much more effective when teams could control the neutral zone better. Now with other teams employing more PMDs and quick young forwards, controlling the neutral zone is becoming harder and harder. Thus you spend more time in your own zone and less time attacking.

The 1st period of that Sunday game against Chicago was a perfect example of the drawbacks of Claude's system and his stay-at-home D corps. Bruins were on the defensive for 20 mins, everytime they got the puck the D couldn't make a clean play to the forwards, and Chicago was on the attack again. It was only a matter of time before Chicago broke through, which they did, and they whole team imploded.

 

[FROMSHORETOCHARA]

Ftorek was lousy too, IMO.

Yes and so was goring who was beyond terrible. And while cheevers had a good regular season he really was not a good coach either, but that's nit picky. Goring kasper Ftorek were horrid, other than that working cheap appealed to Harry it was a mystery how they ever got hired. Oreilly was excellent but sinden and terry reportedly feuded and 1 average year was the end of him (one year removed from cup final). Going way back and he did have a good record coaching a virtual all star team but bep guideline was considered a lousy hire and Harry canned him too. Wasn't a Sullivan dan either but there were talent issues too. I liked Rick bowness and give Harry credit for good hire but again his impatience got the best of him and soon tired of bowness. Mil bury was good but frankly odd and cherry was great hire but we all know how that ended with yet another Harry feud.

 

[jgatie]

Yes and so was goring who was beyond terrible. And while cheevers had a good regular season he really was not a good coach either, but that's nit picky. Goring kasper Ftorek were horrid, other than that working cheap appealed to Harry it was a mystery how they ever got hired. Oreilly was excellent but sinden and terry reportedly feuded and 1 average year was the end of him (one year removed from cup final). Going way back and he did have a good record coaching a virtual all star team but bep guideline was considered a lousy hire and Harry canned him too. Wasn't a Sullivan dan either but there were talent issues too. I liked Rick bowness and give Harry credit for good hire but again his impatience got the best of him and soon tired of bowness. Mil bury was good but frankly odd and cherry was great hire but we all know how that ended with yet another Harry feud.

I always heard Terry O'Reilly left coaching to care for his son, who had a rare liver disease. I never heard anything about him feuding with Harry. Mad Mike, yes. But not Taz.

 

[DKH]

FLUTO SHINZAWA | ON HOCKEY
Don Sweeney made right call to keep Claude Julien

Of course - Fluto is Julien's guy. Great day for Fluto

 

[jgatie]

Of course - Fluto is Julien's guy. Great day for Fluto

Good day for Fluto, bad day for the CHB. It's a Press Conference Day Miracle!

 

[FallsForItEveryYear]

You do realize that a big, strong, fast puck movers who are good defensively are as rare as hen's teeth, cost a fortune, and are so coveted that other teams lock them up early? ****, PK Subban isn't that big and is questionable defensively and he makes $9 Million. It's impossible to ice an entire defense like that. In fact, for most teams, it is impossible to ice a single defenseman like that, they just don't exist! So you make compromises, and one of those is pairing a defensive liability with a stay at home guy.

Many puck movers are defensive liabilities because of their tendency to think offense at the expense of defense, not just because of their lack of size not that there are a lot of big puck movers out there. It comes with the territory. So you cut down on the risk of a turnover or being caught out of position by pairing a PMD with a SHD.

McQuaid & Seidenberg have issues (health & contract) that will make it tough to trade them in return for anyone decent. Chara isn't going anywhere either.

i never said they had to be great at both. there are plenty of players who are solid defensively and can handle the puck decently. Seidenberg used to be the exact kind of defensman you want. boychuk was the kind of defensman you want. Liles for the short amount of time he was here brought a bit of both. its not just about bringing offense its about bringing speed and vision and a good break out pass. right now chara is hit or miss. seidenberg is too slow to ever have time to make a good pass. mcquaid just doesnt have the talent and k.miller is as likely to pass it to the opponent as his own team. i thought k. miller had the best upside. last year showed promise. this year was erratic to say the least.

 

[Fenway]

Any links to the press conference for those of us that missed it ?

There are partial clips available

http://www.csnne.com/video/don-sweeney-claude-julien-will-remain-coach-bruins


http://www.csnne.com/video/julien-i-dont-want-be-guy-bails