Boston Bruins hire Claude Julien as coach
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Bill Jempty | Thursday, June 21, 2007 |
He will be the NHL franchise’s third coach in just one year.
Claude Julien was hired as coach of the Bruins on Thursday, less than a week after Boston fired Dave Lewis and two months after Julien was dismissed by the New Jersey Devils in the season’s waning days.
Julien is the Bruins’ third coach in a year. He was let go by the first-place Devils in April with three games left in the regular season and the team preparing for the playoffs.
Lewis led to the Bruins to a 35-41-6 record in his only season. He was dismissed Friday — more than two months after they missed the playoffs for the second consecutive year — and will be given another job in the franchise. Boston hasn’t won a playoff series since 1999.
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In his only season with New Jersey, Julien was 47-24-8. He also coached the Montreal Canadiens for three years, leading the Canadiens to the Eastern Conference semifinals in 2004 — when they beat the Bruins in the conference quarterfinals — before he was fired midway through the 2005-06 season with a 19-16-6 record.
“He demands execution,” Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli said. “He demands that his players do what he wants.”
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Julien is the 17th person to coach the Bruins in 30 years.
Julien has had some success with other teams. The Bruins on the other hand have been poor to mediocre since the cancelled 2004-05 season. Something tells me Julien will be looking for employment again in 2 to 3 years at most.
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