What’s happened in Boston – and Montreal – since Claude Julien left the Bruins for the Canadiens
Bruce Cassidy's Bruins are going up as Julien's Habs struggle.
February 7 marks the one-year anniversary of the Bruins firing long-time coach Claude Julien and the promotion of Bruce Cassidy to interim head coach. Come Feb. 14, Julien will celebrate his one-year anniversary of his second-tenure with the Montreal Canadiens.
It’s been an interesting 11-month journey for the Bruins and Canadiens with the two teams trending in opposite directions.
The firing of Julien — the winningest coach in franchise history — on the same day as the Patriots paraded through Boston celebrating their fifth Super Bowl victory was seen as the beginning of the end for a Bruins squad that was coming off back-to-back late regular season collapses in 2014-15 and 2015-16. Instead, Cassidy got the Bruins to play inspiring hockey through an 18-8-1 mark in their last 27 regular season games of 2016-17 and earned a trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, where they lost in six games in the first round to the Ottawa Senators.
Initially, the Julien hire paid off for the Canadiens as they went 16-7-1 in their final 23 games under their new bench boss. The Habs captured their second Atlantic Division title in three years before ultimately falling to the New York Rangers during their six-game first round series.
Only one team kept the momentum going from last year and that’s Cassidy’s Bruins. The talent gap over the Habs is significantly in the Bruins’ favor entering the first Boston-Montreal matchup of the year Saturday night at the Bell Centre.
From top to bottom, the Bruins possess a deep squad. Behind a healthy mix of youth and veterans, Cassidy has been able to run four lines and three defensive pairings with great success, especially during their torrid two-month stretch.
Not much has changed for the Bruins structure wise. But a few tweaks from Cassidy under Julien’s previous system and an added offensive emphasis have put the Bruins on a good path.
Julien, meanwhile, is navigating through some rough waters. Their captain, Max Pacioretty, is on the trade block, while Jonathan Drouin and Alex Galchenyuk are struggling to find their footing in Julien’s system.
Like his last few years in Boston, Julien doesn’t have the greatest roster to work with. Instead of having a top line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak at his disposal, the former Bruins bench boss is still trying to find a top line center while working through a thin defensive core that’s at the bottom third in the league in goals allowed per game (3.05) — even with all-world goaltender Carey Price.
Unlike his general manager, Marc Bergevin, Julien is not on the hot seat in Montreal — yet. Cassidy, however, is far from having a cold seat.
Still, anything can happen whenever the Bruins and Habs meet three times in a one-week span beginning Saturday. Both teams are coming off their bye week and look to set the tone for their second-half run.
“I guess we’ll see tomorrow, right?” Cassidy said after the Bruins took the Bell Centre ice for their first practice since the bye week. “He’s got his team to worry about and I’ve got mine, but at the end of the day I think that’s where our focus is and I know that my focus is to get us back to playing at the level we were before the break.”
Julien would like nothing more than to get a few wins against his former team and get his current squad back in the playoff picture. Cassidy and company hope to keep their 13-game point streak going and create further distance from the Habs – who trail the B’s by 13 points – and the rest of the bottom-feeding teams in the Atlantic Division.
For all the storylines surrounding Julien’s first game against his former squad and the Bruins rookies getting their first taste of the historic rivalry, the importance of the two points at stake is a bigger picture.
“It’s going to be different,” Bergeron said about facing Julien for the first time since the coaching change. “It’s special. Once you’re on the ice, you know you have to go out there and play your game, but that being said – and I’ve said it many times – I owe him so much, and I hope we’re able to shake hands. He’s had a huge impact on us and we all know that, but once we look at the big picture it’s two big points and we have to continue to play the game and be good.”
No one will deny Bergeron and the Bruins being on a good run. The opposite is true for Julien and his Habs as the two teams are set to write another chapter of the NHL’s greatest rivalry.
