Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Pre-game reading: Beantown columnists put the boots to the B’s

6eo7pq5GIvLU
Mike Milbury and Keith Jones take a look at the state of the B's and the challenges that face Bruce Cassidy after the decision to fire longtime coach Claude Julien was announced Tuesday morning.

-- Up top, Mike Milbury and Keith Jones delve into the dismissal of Claude Julien, as well as the general state of the Bruins.

-- Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy ripped into the B’s for firing Julien on the same day the New England Patriots celebrated their Super Bowl victory. Shaughnessy writes: “Do the Bruins think we are stupid? Did owners Jeremy and Charlie Jacobs, and hockey bosses Cam Neely and Don Sweeney, think nobody was going to notice if they axed the coach during the parade? ... The Bruins held their coach-firing news conference Tuesday at 11:30 a.m., minutes after the Duck Boats started rolling up Boylston Street. NESN, the Bruins’ team-owned flagship station, televised the Patriots parade while the team was firing its Stanley Cup-winning coach.” For the record, Sweeney blamed the schedule for the timing. (Boston Globe)

-- More criticism of Bruins management from Mike Loftus of The Patriot Ledger, but this is about the roster that Julien was forced to coach. “With all due respect to players like Riley Nash, Tim Schaller, Dominic Moore - players acquired last off-season, after being deemed expendable by other teams - and Jimmy Hayes and Matt Beleskey, who were among those added in the summer of 2015, they’re role players, and rarely difference-makers. Some are the sorts who can plug holes on an established, contending team, but the Bruins have been slipping from that designation for years. And they’ve been losing that status because too many role players have been added while better, more established players - some dispatched by Peter Chiarelli, Sweeney’s predecessor and mentor, and some by Sweeney himself - have been subtracted.” (The Patriot Ledger)

Read more: Sweeney says Bruins’ core deserves chance to ‘win now’

-- It’s not quite time for Canadiens fans to panic, writes Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette. But the way things are looking down the middle, there’s definitely reason for concern. “Phillip Danault, who moved into the No. 1 spot after Alex Galchenyuk went down with a knee injury, has one goal in his last 12 games. Tomas Plekanec has one goal in his last 11. David Desharnais, who missed 24 games with a knee injury, has one goal in his last 12 games and fourth-line center Torrey Mitchell hasn’t scored in 27 games and has only two goals in his last 44, both in the same game Dec. 8 against New Jersey.” For more on this topic, see: Martin Hanzal trade rumors. (Montreal Gazette)

-- Pierre LeBrun wonders if the Dallas Stars, as their playoff hopes keep fading, will start selling their pending free agents soon. “Topping the list would be cagey veteran Patrick Sharp, whose Stanley Cup experience and creative hands could help any contender. ... Forward Patrick Eaves, another pending UFA, is a smart player who can play up and down on forward lines and help a second-unit power play, so he would be a useful addition to a contender.” (TSN)

-- Elliotte Friedman published his must-read “30 Thoughts” yesterday, and he included this tidbit on the 2018 Winter Olympics, which may or may not include NHLers. “For the 2018 Olympic hockey tournament, Canada and the USA are in different pools. Local game times are noon, 4:30 p.m., and 9 p.m. That’s 10 p.m., 2:30 a.m. and 7 a.m. Eastern time. It is expected that the Canadians and Americans will never be scheduled for that 2:30 a.m. (ET) game. It is hoped that will alleviate one of the NHL’s concerns, that the two marquee North American teams will never play in the middle of the night for this continent’s viewers.” (Sportsnet)

Enjoy the game!