The Boston Bruins are once again out of a playoff position. To help right the ship, Claude Julien chose to mix things up before Monday’s practice.
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Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien knows the team is in trouble. The B’s are out of a playoff position for the first time in months. The B’s have lost a season-high four straight games.
The Bruins bench boss knew he had to shake a few things up to show the team what was going right. He also had to show them what was leading them to a possible third straight season without a playoff appearance. Claude Julien decided to use a video review session to go over all the things the Bruins have been doing.
“Sometimes, you have to go back to the drawing board when you see enough of different things,” said Julien about his presentation, according to the Boston Bruins website. “We decided that we need a little eye-opening moment.”
The Bruins players seemed to appreciate the coach’s effort. The players saw the good, the bad, and the ugly. Hopefully, the B’s can take this information and use it against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night.
“He was showing details that we were doing well early on in the season to have success, and little things that we’ve gotten away from that we need to correct,” said captain Zdeno Chara. “We need to start doing them again. It’s a game of little details and we need to make sure we do them right.”
Julien’s video presentation delayed the Bruins practice on Monday by over an hour. After practice, Bruins captain Zdeno Chara talked to the media about what went on at the review. He also talked about what the Bruins need to do to get themselves back into playoff contention again. The Bruins chances of finding a way into the playoffs are a depressing 26.3%, and Chara knows what is needed to raise that number.
“It’s commitment,” said the long time Bruins captain about how the team needs to find success again. “That’s for sure, that we need to have everybody doing that. We shouldn’t . . . at this level, at this time of the season, asking guys to work hard. We’ve got to make sure that everybody is working hard, and everybody is paying his dues to be in the lineup and earn a spot.
“That’s the No. 1 priority: You have to compete and you have to work hard. Usually when you do those things, good things happen. We’ve got to back to those little things hard work, commitment and competing every shift.”
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Hopefully, the Bruins players will learn from this. The Bruins should use what they learned on Monday and use it to play better hockey. If they want to remain a playoff contender, they’ll need to.