Claude Julien is going to win this poll by a landslide.
He's my favorite Bruins coach of all-time. But I can't comment on anyone prior to 1990 as I didn't follow the team then. The fact that the culture of defensive accountability he instilled (along with help from Mr. Chara and Mr. Bergeron among others) is still at the foundation of what they do today speaks volumes.
If I were to make some honorable mentions, I always got a kick of of Brian Sutter when he would get angry. If there was one Sutter I wouldn't want to mess with, it was Brian.
Speaking of coaches I wouldn't mess with, Pat Burns did a heck of a job here bouncing back from a complete meltdown in 1996-97 under Kasper.
Never coached the Boston Bruins, but I always wonder how things turn out if they promoted Laviolette from Providence instead of bringing in Ftorek.
He went on to success, but I couldn't stand Mike Sullivan as Bruins coach and still don't like him.
Hiring Ftorek was a massive mistake and isn't given a big enough space in the narrative that was the mess that was the early 2000s Bruins.
As already mentioned in my previous post, Mike Keenan had Joe Thornton actually moving his feet and busting his ass in 2000-2001, which resulted in a career high in goals. He was on the path to reaching his potential as a net-crashing power forward. Keenan's hardass act has always broken down and pissed off Stars after 1 to 2 seasons everywhere he went, so maybe MOC/Sinden made the right call in cutting bait before things hit the fan, but passing up Laviolette (another demanding motivational coach) and going to a twice-failed country club players' coach in Ftorek was the start of Joe Thornton's slide into becoming a pass-first perimeter player.
I also think that they gave Sullivan the job a year or two too early as a direct panic response to the success Laviolette had on Long Island after they neglected to promote him from Providence. Sully was correctly considered to be a strong future coach and was being groomed for it, but barely had a half season of AHL head coaching on his resume when he was named Boston coach, and I believe he got run over by that clique of Thornton/Boynton and their friends because he hasn't found his authoritative voice yet.
It's all butterfly effect stuff though, hard to say what would've happened if they brought Keenan back for a second year in 2002, or if Laviolette was retained for 02 through 04 - do they match the regular season success, do they overcome the Habs in the first round each time? We'll never know.