Players credit Julien
Marchand, Bergeron thank ousted coach
Brad Marchand is one of the elite players in the NHL, a long way from the fourthline grinder he was when he entered the league.
Marchand credits deposed coach Claude Julien with that transformation.
“He was huge in my development,” Marchand said yesterday of the only NHL coach he has known. “He gave me a shot to be here. He gave me an opportunity to grow as a player. He didn’t push more on me than I could handle, and he always knew how to coach me and how to get the best out of me. He really pushed me every year to be better and to not be satisfied. He always used ( Patrice Bergeron) as an example, to be more like him. He placed me with him to learn with him and grow with him and to be more like him. He always pushed me to get away from the agitating stuff and be more of a player. He always defended me and had my back. That’s one thing I always respected. When it came time, he always stuck up for me. I respected him, I do respect him tremendously, and I can definitely say I wouldn’t be the player I am today, I wouldn’t have been on the World Cup team, I wouldn’t be a Stanley Cup champion if he hadn’t been my coach the last seven or eight years.”
The players learned of Julien’s firing via text message from general manager Don
Sweeney yesterday morning then went through a whirlwind of meetings and their first practice under interim coach Bruce Cassidy.
Despite rumors that have persisted for years about Julien’s possible firing, it came as a shock to some.
“Obviously it’s unfortunate,” Bergeron said. “Claude has obviously meant a lot for me. I can only speak for myself as a player, but throughout my career with my development, I owe him a lot and wish him the best.”
Will this give the team a boost?
“I hope it does,” Bergeron said. “But at the end of the day, it falls back on the players. We’re not executing on the ice, and we have to realize this is not going to fix everything. We have to go out and do the job and be better as a whole.”
Bergeron believes the B’s can be better.
“I like our team, I like the way we’re built,” he said. “We’ve obviously underachieved if we’re talking about this right now. We have to go out there and realize what needs to change to be better. Today we had a few meetings before practice, and it’s been crazy. It’s hard to fix everything in one day, but there’s been a few talks, and we have to move forward. We have to concentrate on the next game against San Jose (tomorrow) and go from there. But we also have to realize it’s on us, and we’re the only ones who can make that change.”
Asked if he thought any players had “tuned out” Julien, Tuukka Rask said no.
“He changed too,” the goalie said. “It wasn’t like he was the same guy the nine or 10 years he was here. He realized that if you keep sending the same message all the time, it’s going to get old. He recognized that, and he changed and he improved. That wasn’t the case. I don’t think anyone was tuning him out.”
Need for change
David Krejci took a more fatalistic approach.
“He’s been there since Day 1 for me,” he said. “We did some good things and obviously some great memories that I’ll cherish for the rest of my life. At the same time, you can say it hasn’t been working. . . . We haven’t made the playoffs in two years. Something has to change. If it’s players or coaches, it’s not always the coaches’ fault. The management, they do what they do, and as players, we support the decision and we’re here to win the games. We’ve been playing the game for a long time. Players get traded. Coaches come and go. All we can control is our game, our work ethic and that’s what we’ll focus on.”
Lineup shuffle
Krejci was excited to be placed on a line with David Pastrnak and newcomer Peter Cehlarik, who was called up yesterday when Austin Czarnik was put on injured reserve. Frank Vatrano was moved up to play with Bergeron and Marchand while David Backes was a third-line winger with Ryan
Spooner and Matt Beleskey. “Every time there’s a little line change, it gives you a little boost,” Krejci said. “I played with (Pastrnak) a lot, not much this year. I’m excited obviously, so hopefully we can contribute as a line to the team. We had one line scoring most of the goals for our team, now I feel like it’s more spread out. Hopefully all four lines can step up and score some goals.”
While Backes felt bad that Julien took the hit for the team’s inconsistency, he said he hopes he “can find a place where I can have a bigger impact on the game.”
Cassidy said one of the things he wants to figure out is whether Spooner is better suited to play center or wing. For now, he’s keeping Backes at wing and Spooner in the middle.
“Ryan Spooner I’ve had a relationship with (in Providence), so there’s some internal knowledge with him, some motivating factors that I think I’m aware of,” Cassidy said. “As for Backes, it’s a new situation for him. We’ve had a short discussion this morning, how he fits in and what type of line he has the better chemistry with.” . . .
Zdeno Chara was “under the weather” and did not practice.