It’s not everyday that ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun goes on a rant, so we thought we’d share an excerpt from his latest blog post, about the Boston Bruins and the decision they still haven’t made about head coach Claude Julien:
I agreed with the Bruins’ original decision after Peter Chiarelli was fired to wait until a new general manager was hired to decide Julien’s fate. That makes sense to me.
And certainly had a new GM been hired from the outside, you would understand that he would need some time to get to know Julien before making a decision.
But the fact that the GM was an in-house promotion -- and I think Don Sweeney is going to be a very good GM -- what’s the wait now? What does Sweeney not know about Julien now that he didn’t know for the past eight years Julien has been behind the Bruins’ bench?
I mean, it’s getting to the point where it’s almost unfair. Make a decision, fire him or keep him, but decide already.
For the record, Sweeney said last Wednesday that he didn’t want to rush his decision on Julien.
“I have some things that I want to sit down with Claude and go through in a very orderly fashion, as to where I think things need to change, and what direction we need to change as a group,” he said.
“So it’s just about lining up philosophical approaches that I believe in, that he believes in, and that we can move the group forward.”
But that was nine days ago. And as LeBrun points out, Sweeney and Julien have been in the Bruins organization for years and years together. It’s not like they had to get to know each other.
Anyway, it’s unlikely we’ll have to wait much longer for the B’s to make their decision public. We’ll be surprised if they don’t make an announcement in the off days leading up to Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, which is scheduled for Wednesday.
Related: Sweeney won’t make ‘impetuous’ decision on Julien’s future