Boston Bruins will keep head coach Claude Julien

The Bruins have decided to keep head coach Claude Julien despite two consecutive seasons of missing the playoffs.

The Boston Bruins, after a disappointing season that saw them narrowly miss the playoffs for a second consecutive season, have announced that they will retain the services head coach Claude Julien. The decision makes sense because Julien was not the problem in Boston. While general manager Don Sweeney has made few good decisions in his first season in his current role, keeping Julien is one of them. 

Claude Julien is the Boston Bruins’ most successful head coach of all-time. He has 392 wins in eight seasons with the Bruins. It took legendary head coach Art Ross 17 years to get 387 wins. Julien also has the most playoff wins of any Bruins head coach ever with 57. Julien led the Bruins to the franchise’s sixth Stanley Cup and their first in nearly 40 years in 2011. Boston also returned to the Stanley Cup Finals under Julien during the lockout-shortened 2013 season where they lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games.

Julien did extremely well utilizing a roster that wasn’t always optimal during his tenure in Boston. While sticking with veterans over playing younger, better players was questionable of Julien, that wouldn’t have fixed the Bruins blue line and at best would have prolonged their fall. These issues lie at the feet of Sweeney, not Julien. While the Bruins can still go back and fire Julien, it appears that Boston has made the first right decision in an offseason that will require them to make multiple right decisions.

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