For many American hockey fans, the fact that this Canadian hockey team that did not dominate teams like USA did won the Gold medal this year feels unfair. But nevertheless, their lack of dominance, their teeth gritting, shot blocking all around grind it out style of play that earned them international hockey's number one prize for the second straight games was not accidental.
The fact is that anybody who has watched Bruins hockey in the past 7 years knows this style well. Why? Because it is one pioneered and mastered by Bruins coach, Claude Jullian. After a period of Bruins history that saw the team go through 5 head coaches in 7 years, the team and their newly appointed GM, Peter Charelli came together prior to the 2007-2008 NHL season bent on finding a man who could bring long term leadership to this team in turmoil.
Knowing that the number of times their fans would come back after playoff-less seasons was dwindling, they settled on a then 47 year old former player and journey man coach named Claude Jullian. Looking at his resume before Boston, Claude had already coached both the Montreal Canadians and New Jersy Devils but had proven to be a passive playoff coach and was actually fired from his Devils job before the team even gave him a chance in the postseason. But the Bruins saw something in him that they liked and it had to do not only with their team but the background Jullian brought with him.
In hindsight while we do not really know why exactly he never fully clicked in his first two NHL jobs, a few fair speculations might include the fact that neither the early 2000's Canadians nor the 2006 Devils were teams with any interest in the defensive aspects of hockey. With guys like Brian Gionta and Scott Gomez, goal scoring was never a problem on the Devils in particular. But in the case Jullian, who spent his up and down 12 year hockey career as a defencemen, neither team was working to exploit his coaching experience.
The Bruins however were different. At the time of the Jullian hiring, they were a team stacked with names tied to defensive dominance. Names like Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara and PJ Axelsson were some of the most talented. All three of those men were strong hitters and selfless players who loved to skate without the puck and were willing to take anything that came their way so long as it either prevented a goal for the other team or scored one for theirs. Because of these players, it did not take long for Claude to thrive in Boston. In just his first year with the team, he led them to the playoffs and 1 year after that, to their first division title since 2003. By 2009-2010, Claude had further skewed the Bruins draft and trade priorities in favor of defense and grit, picking up guys like Milan Lucic and Shawn Thornton and pushing March Reccie towards the more physical sort of game that he owned in his final years with Boston.
Even despite the crushing collapse his team suffered in 2009 against the Flyers in the playoffs, the Bruins liked where Jullian was taking the team and did not fire him following the season. With his job safe, Claude proceeded to push Peter Charillie towards a young man named Brad Marchand whom they would draft prior to 2010-2011. With one of the best Bruins teams in years assembled before him, Claude went all out that season nudging his team towards the path of fighting body checking and instilling a culture of 'defend your blue line' within his defenders that made breakaways a rare thing that Boston goalies would have to deal with. Everyone played rough that year, even Tim Thomas who not only fought Carey Price in the regular season but also reminded us that it is still legal for a goalie to deliver a body check.
7 seasons into his NHL career, Claude Jullian has rebuilt the Bruins into that rough and tumble team nobody wants to play against. He has won 2 Conference titles, 1 Cup and now, and now he has won Olympic gold, but with another but similar team.
Whether it be the Bruins or team Canada, Claude Jullian proved this year that he does not care who is players are so long as they are willing to do what he wants them to. With a Canadian team that included Sideny Crosby, Ryan Gestlaf and even John Tavares, many predicted them to win not by defense but instead by offence. Those people could not have been more wrong.
On their way to winning all 6 of the games they played at the tournament, the Canadian men notched just 1 6 goal game and actually scored just 17 goals overall thus averaging less than 2.9 goals per game. If you exclude the 6 goal rout of Austria, than that average drops to 2.2 goals per game. But lucky for Canada, their offence was not the only part of their game that did not conform to pre-tournament expectations. Riding an unexpected goal-tending charge made by Carey Price and a phenomenal penalty kill, the Canadians allowed just 3 goals in the entire tournament not once letting a team score twice on them in the same game.
Much like the Bruins, these Canadians forced players to the outside and worked with a selfless back checking unit. Additionally, their penalty kill shut down offences at a 100% clip and did not hide the fact that when it came to defense they went not to their head coach but instead to the 54 year old assistant to his left, Claude Jullian.
All and all, Boston fans watched Team Canada win gold in Sochi this year and they saw a team that looked like theirs. Though other coaches like John Tortarella try to convince their teams to block shots to a ridiculous and reckless extent, Claude Jullian is a man who has begun to change the world of hockey in a way no one else has succeeded at. To him a win is a win and in his mind, the way to get that win is to pack it in and make teams afraid of playing against you. Now that style works in the long run as represented by Jullian's already being among the winningest coaches in Bruins history but it also sacrifices goals. It turns teams like these Canadians from ones who would love to win in track meet 6-4 games to one that wins in nail biting, maddening 1-0 finals.
Honestly, Bruins fans have no right to complain about this man who has brought the Bruins back to a level of constant victory but for those outside of Boston, it may be smart to question the real undelying truths to how these games are won. Is this new, pack it in, win by 1 style of play really for the better hockey?
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