Julien gets his tribute
Ex-B’s boss in town with Habs
Bruce Cassidy was a minor league functionary in the Bruins organization in the spring of 2011 when then-head coach Claude Julien was leading the team to the Stanley Cup.
Now the Bruins head coach, Cassidy was a Providence Bruins assistant when he and several Baby B’s players were summoned to Boston. They were members of a Bruins playoff support group that was tagged the Black Aces.
Cassidy was along for the ride as the B’s got past Montreal, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay and Vancouver to drink from hockey’s Holy Grail. He learned about coaching, defensive strategy and locker-room management from Julien, the man he would replace behind the Bruins bench on Feb. 7, 2017.
Cassidy and Julien will be in opposite camps tonight when the Bruins host the Montreal Canadiens. Julien’s old team plans to air a video montage of the finest moments during his 10 seasons in Boston.
“I was part of the Black Aces in the Stanley Cup run,” Cassidy said after yesterday’s practice. “I was appreciative that (exBruins general manager) Peter Chiarelli allowed me around to kind of soak that all in,” Cassidy said. “I was an outsider on the inside. I was an hour away for most of that, and there was communication with up top. I was only beside him for a few months.”
Julien coached with Montreal and New Jersey before being hired by Chiarelli in 2007. He stayed for more than nine seasons and coached 704 games with a team-record 393 wins.
Bruins captain Zdeno Chara believes the strength of Julien’s record and list of accomplishments should be cheered by the Garden crowd when he is introduced tonight as the Canadiens coach.
“He definitely deserves it,” Chara said. “He was here a long time, and he’s done great things with the team, the organization and the community, and he should be recognized for that.”
Chara, Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Adam McQuaid and Tuukka Rask are the holdovers from Julien’s title team here. They first saw Julien on the Canadiens bench in the Bruins’ 4-3 shootout win in Montreal on Saturday.
“Obviously he is a great coach and a great person, and he taught me a lot about how to play the game the right way in certain situations, and he was a great teacher,” Chara said. “Anytime you have that kind of teacher, you want to learn as much as you can.”
Marchand developed under Julien and contributed to the Bruins title run as an instigator and scorer.
“I’m sure he’s excited to come back, and he deserves that video,” Marchand said. “I’m sure a lot of people will be excited to see him again, and I’m sure it will be a memorable game.
“I learned a lot and went through a lot of different things. I think the biggest thing he preached to me was how to be a good pro and how to be consistent, that was the one thing he talked about a lot. If you want to play for a long time, you have to bring your best game every night. That was the biggest thing I took away.”
Bruins notes
Cassidy excused center Noel Acciari, left winger Jake DeBrusk and defenseman Kevan Miller from practice yesterday. DeBrusk and Miller were “under the weather” while Acciari was out with an upper-body injury. Acciari is listed as dayto-day, but Cassidy expects him to be on the ice tonight against the Habs.