Boston Bruins Must Make Playoffs This Upcoming Season

Boston Bruins Need To Make The Playoffs Or Else Major Change Will Come

The Boston Bruins must make the playoffs in this upcoming NHL season. If they don’t, the future of the franchise is in serious jeopardy. Two straight seasons of missing the playoffs have taken their toll on Bruins fans, players, and on team ownership. This upcoming season will be very important for Bruins Head Coach Claude Julien, General Manager Don Sweeney, and Team President Cam Neely, as their very livelihoods are on the line.

After missing the playoffs last season, the Jacob ownership group allowed the Bruins management team to stay together. It was the first time in their ownership history that the head coach wasn’t fired after two missed playoffs. When the Bruins fired Peter Chiarelli, Neely was spared. Now he has to take ownership of the team failures because it is his team as well.

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Sweeney has done a remarkable job, in my opinion, to bring in prospects to the organization. Many of the prospects in the system could one day fill out the top-four on the Boston Bruins. Sweeney, however, has failed to bring in NHL talent to complement the prospect acquisitions. Most of all, he’s failed to field a competitive defense that fits Julien’s system. Even though I like the hiring of Sweeney, the Bruins might have been better off hiring someone from outside of the system, and not Sweeney. A chance of culture was needed, and it wasn’t achieved..

Hiring From Within Made Sense at the Time

Bringing in a new general manager is tricky with the better ones wanting to have their own coach installed immediately. At the time the team didn’t want to move on from Julien which is understandable given his success as a coach. So going with Sweeney isn’t a bad choice if you agree with the thinking they had when they made the choice. Sweeney’s true impact on the team will most likely be seen after he is gone in regards to his prospect management.

Claude Julien isn’t Worth all the Blame

Julien gets a lot of heat from Boston Bruins fans, but the fact is he doesn’t have the players to make his system work in the NHL. In order for Julien’s system to work he needs a strong defense.. A luxury he hasn’t had in the last two seasons. So I don’t blame him as much as others when the team fails, but whether or not his system still works in the NHL is a topic that is worth debating.

Julien is a great coach, but if this team fails to make the playoffs once more the management group is going to get axed. If they are still here after three straight seasons of missing the playoffs it has to be over. The team was an annual Stanley Cup contender and now they are a middle of the road team that hasn’t made the playoffs in three seasons, though not through lack of trying.

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This coming season the headlines will be “make the playoffs or else.” This type of threat is one the Jacobs family will have made clear to Neely, Sweeney, and Julien. You can expect these three to get desperate at times if the team starts to slide. Based on talent alone though, they are still a playoff team as long as the defense can hold up.

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