Maybe Julien's system just doesn't fit in with the current group of players anymore? From the cup teams, there are really only 3 forwards who have carried over in Bergeron, Marchand, and Krejci.
I don't share that opinion because the systems he used during the Cup team are long gone...
This team used to hold all the forwards back so they could breakout as a 5 man unit. They didn't have the D to make stretch passes so they used a lot of small area support plays and schemes to create delays. This is where the (double) D to D pass was born. We also saw a lot of turn backs (deeper into our zone) to create that same time and space. They relied heavily on support and puck possession. Their offense was the same. Lots of cycling and corner play.
Now, the forwards fly the zone. When a D has the puck for more than 2 seconds there isn't a forward left in the defensive zone. They all sprint to the Nzone. They use area passes (that sometimes look like dumps off the walls/glass) that get skated onto by their quicker forwards in the Nzone. They still go D to D, but now it's to buy time for the forwards to stretch and because the forwards are quicker, they need less time and can move it up quicker.
In the offensive zone, they hardly ever cycle anymore. Someone made a comment in last version of this thread about how all this team does is dump it in, cycle and use the D, so I watched the FLA game with a pen and paper...
In the ENTIRE game, they cycled the puck a grand total of 3 times. Literally, didn’t see a cycle until 7 minutes left in the second period, didn’t see another until 7 seconds left in the 2nd. Both 2nd period cycles were by Krejci. The 3rd cycle of the game came at 17:15 of the 3rd and it was by the 4th line.
There were more scissor plays, give and go’s, D-dives, high rotations, D pinches and high/low plays than any other scheme. Fwiw, the high/low plays (aka playing it back to the D) is very common in the league right now because modern defenses try to outnumber you in the corners. So the guys who are open tend to be the D and specifically the backside D. Moving the puck from low (corner) to high (D) helps spread out the team you're playing against so that you can work the puck back into the house. Marchand is really good at this. Krejci too.
In terms of dump-ins, I focused specifically on the power play...
Their first 7 PP zone entries were carry-ins. That spans 2 PP’s. They didn’t attempt a dump in until their 3rd PP when Carlo went cross corner to Czarnik who retained possession. Next zone entry was a Bergeron dump in, a hard rim around that went to Marchand for possession. Their last zone entry on that PP was a pass from Czarnik at the blue line back to Miller in the middle of the red line and then up to Pasta at the other blue line who carried it in and shot it off the post. Overall, they had lots of variations on their ZE's, lots of movement and even their “dump ins†are really area passes that are intended to create possession based on timing and retrievals by speedy wingers.
So... long story short. To my eyes, this team doesn't play the way the Cup team played. Most of the offensive systems have changed. Some of the older players from that team still fall back on some of those old moves (you still see Chara do a lot of DtoD, and Krejci still looks to cycle once in awhile) but for the most part, they are trying to play a more dynamic game.
