They'd get more power plays, and with Sacco gone too, they might actually be effective...
But seriously, I like Julien, I respect him. I'm not one of those "he hates the kids," but he had a much better roster last season, and choked down the stretch, an even better roster the year before, and choked down the stretch, and even better roster the year before and choked in the 2nd round. I think his time has run its course, and his rigid system is wearing on the players. They play tight, afraid to make mistakes, then make even more. They start off by playing a more uptempo game from the D out, then if there are any missteps, right back to D to D and force it up the boards to a stationary winger.
He brought me a cup win I didn't think was coming, and am forever grateful, but the game has changed so much in 5 years. And there's a cloud of frustration around this team that they just can't skate through. I firmly believe it would be a breath of fresh air in the room. He is too tight and rigid. Nothings going to change otherwise.
Claude Julien didn't choke against the Habs, Kevin Miller, Matt Bartkowski. Torey Krug and Rask did among others. Could have used more from the first line in that series as well. We lost that series because we were without Seidenberg and McQuaid. Not to mention Plekanec slashed Chara and broke his wrist. Replacing Seidenberg and McQuaid that year with Miller and Bartkowski killed us against the Habs. He has had more players of impact removed from his team every year since that year and has often been given no replacement player of substance yet people expect him to do better as a coach (Lucic, Boychuk, Smith, Hamilton, Iginla, Ference, etc). The power play sucks because a key player, Louie Erikkson was let go and replaced with a guy who is not a significant power play producer in Backes. I don't care how Louie is doing in Vancouver he worked well in Boston on the power play and clicked with Krejci last year. He now has Cassidy and Sacco as assistants instead of Houda and Jarvis. Cassidy and Sacco have never won anything of note as coaches and Houda and Jarvis were both well respected and have Stanley Cup rings as coaches. Lets really break down the coaching situation before we call for Claude's head and offer the job to Cassidy or Sacco.
Cassidy: No championships as a Coach at any level. The few teams he has coached who have enjoyed regular season success have always choked in the early rounds of the post-season. He has never made it past the second round as the P Bruins coach and has not developed any significant prospects of note in Boston. You can blame management for its drafting but the fact remains that Cassidy has no track record of successful prospect development.
Sacco: Zero winning seasons in the AHL, one winning season in the NHL which was followed by a six game first round elimination in the playoffs and three last place conference finishes. Matt Duchene and Tyson Barrie only began to emerge following Sacco's dismissal.
Doug Jarvis: Stanley Cup Winning assistant coach in Dallas and Boston. Stanley Cup Finals coach in Boston. Coached the Hamilton Bulldogs to three consecutive winning seasons during his time there between 2003 and 2005 including a trip to the AHL Calder Cup Finals in 2003.
Doug Houda: Spent three seasons as an Assistant Coach in Rochester where the team made the playoffs two out of the three seasons he was there and made the conference finals in 2003-2004. Stanley Cup Winner and Finalist in Boston. Helped hone/develop Johnny Boychuk, Adam Mcquaid, Torey Krug, Matt Hunwick, etc.
Claude Julien: 1997 Memorial Cup Championship. 11 Playoff series victories, 1 Stanley Cup and 2 EC Championships. Has developed Milan Lucic, David Krejci, Blake Wheeler (Scored 20 plus goals in his rookie year), Reilly Smith (Scored 25 goals in his first year as a Bruin), Tyler Seguin (Lead the team in pts and appeared in the All-Star game during his second season), Brad Marchand, Johnny Boychuk, Adam McQuaid, Zach Parise, Johnny Oduya, Paul Martin, Sheldon Souray, Andrei Markov, Michael Ryder and Mike Ribeiro among others. Coached Team Canada at the WJC (they don't just let anybody have that job) and has two Olympic gold medals as an Assistant Coach for the best hockey team on earth, Team Canada. Once again they don't pick names out of a hat to coach team Canada. Jack Adams award winner. During his days in the QMJHL he ran arguably the best hockey prospect off season development camp in the Ottawa region for several years.
Seems to me that we had some good assistant coaches and fired them for the wrong guys. Also seems like firing Claude for any of the stiffs standing next to him on the bench would be a bad idea too. Sweeney has done the right thing in keeping Claude but has missed badly on his assistants... Don't believe me fine just do a google search, read and see for yourself...
