According the NHL, the Jack Adams Award is an annual award presented by the National Hockey League Broadcasters’ Association to the NHL coach adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success.

Listening to the supposed national expert’s picks for coach of the year makes me sick. You wouldn’t know that Claude Julien has the Bruins, who many picked to finish nowhere near a playoff spot, sitting in 7th place. Instead, Versus and ESPN has  coaches such as Mike Babcock, Bruce Boudreau, Guy Carbonneau, and Ron Wilson picked to be leading candidates for the award. There wasn’t even a mention of Bruin’s coach Claude Julien. That reason, I have no idea.

Now I’m not just being a homer and believe that Claude Julien is the Bill Belichick of hockey, because i don’t. As a matter of fact I wanted to see Mike Milbury behind the bench when the Bruins were searching for a head coach after the Dave Lewis debacle.  So why am I lobbying for Julien as Coach of the Year, because no coach has done more with what he’s been dealt this year. No other coach has gotten more from their team than the Bruin’s coach.

The national media thinks otherwise. What really upsets me is that Julien is not even mentioned for the award after the job of transforming a last place team into a playoff contender. I was so ticked off by this, that I started finding reasons why one of their candidates were better than Julien. I couldn’t find much, so hear are my arguments. What I have done is compiled a list of the leading candidates according to national opinions.

Mike Babcock, Detroit Red Wings
Ron Wilson, San Jose Sharks
Bruce Boudreau, Washington Capitals
Guy Carbonneau, Montréal Canadiens
Brent Sutter, New Jersey Devils
Peter Laviolette, Carolina Hurricanes

Let’s start with Mike Babcock and Ron Wilson. How can you be a coach of the year candidate when your roster is loaded with NHL all-stars. Going into the season these two teams were picked by many to win the Stanley Cup. If anything they should be given accolades for not screwing things up. The cases are made that Babcock guided the Wings through injuries while Wilson help the Sharks bounce back from a bad start. This is why one of them should be coach of the year? Are you kidding me? Babcock guiding the Wings though injuries, is only something that every other NHL coach has to do every year, except the other 29 teams have less talent than Detroit. As for Wilson, turning around a team that played under their abilities is not coach of the year worthy. The Sharks not playing to their potential in the beginning part of the year is Wilson’s fault, he was behind the bench for that. San Jose has only looked like the Stanley Cup contenders they were supposed to be after they acquired Brian Campbell from Buffalo at the deadline. Instead Wilson should up for the “My GM Saved My Job Award”.

Bruce Boudreau has done a great job down in Washington. Don’t get me wrong, he has had a good season and I’m not down playing his importance to the Caps. But when you have Alexander Ovechkin and a GM that actually makes the right moves at the trade deadline then your team is in pretty good shape. The addition of a solid number one goalie in Cristobal Huet at the deadline has much to do with the success of this team down the stretch than any other reason.  The fact of the matter is that Boudreau has a really good roster that combines exciting goal scorers up front with puck moving defensemen and a good goaltender. Anytime you have these three areas working, your team will win no matter who is behind the bench.

Now I will use my homer status on Montreal Canadien’s coach Guy Carbonneau and rule him out of the running. This decision is not entirely based upon my hatred for the rival Canadiens. The Habs, under Carbonneau, have had a great season and are one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference. However when you play much of the year with two number one goalies on your roster in Cristobal Huet and Carey Price, then the results are not surprising. I would take those two over Tim Thomas and Alex Auld any day of the week. If you disagree with that then you are more of a homer than I am.

Brent Sutter of the New Jersey Devils has Martin Brodeur, nuff said. The guy plays almost every night and gives you a chance to win every night. You add that stability in the back end with capable forwards like Patrik Elias, Brian Gionta, and Zach Parise then I like my chances.

Julien’s toughest competition comes in the form of a former Bruins’ assistant. The fact that Carolina is still fighting for a playoff spot is a true testament to the job that Peter Laviolette has done. Laviolette’s season has been good despite losing key players like Justin Williams and Rob Brind’Amour for the year. Perhaps his biggest accomplishment has been the revival of old friend Sergei Samsonov’s career. However I give a slight edge to Julien based upon the divisions in which they play in. Playing in a stronger Northeast Division, Julien has endured the same types of injuries to key players and also had a reclamation project of his own in Glen Metropolit. There is no doubt in my mind that Boston would be higher up in the standings if they played in the weaker Southeast Division. Any team would rather play  Washington, Florida , and Tampa Bay as divisional games over playing Montreal, Ottawa, Buffalo, and Toronto nine times a year.

My case for Claude Julien is simple. If the Jack Adams Award is given to the coach that has contributed the most to his team’s success then Julien has surpassed that criteria. While other coaches start the year having to meet expectations, Julien had to create them. Coming in after the system-less Dave Lewis, Julien has transformed the Bruins into a style that is difficult to play against. They are a better defensively and a tougher bunch of players. He holds players accountable and he gets results.

Finishing the year with 85 points would have been a success for the B’s in the eyes of New England.  Coming into the 2007-08 season the Bruins were pick to finish dead last by many experts. Now to see them on the verge of a playoff birth in unfathomable to B’s loyalist.

When you start the season being the favorite to finish in bottom of them league, expectations are not high.  Combine that with the loss of your best player, Patrice Bergeron, and your number one goalie, Manny Fernandez,  your talking about an even worse year than the previous. Yet Julien’s team has responded despite all the adversity, never making excuses. He just fills in the missing spots with other players and molds them to fit a role.

The only two other teams that have been hit harder by the injury bug have been the Chicago Black Hawks and the Florida Panthers, both of which are not in the playoffs. The B’s have lost almost 400 man games to injuries. Its not so much the amount of games lost, its who has been lost that has been hard. Here is the list of players and the amount of games they have missed to date. 

Patrice Bergeron C 74 games
Manny Fernandez G 73 games
Andrew Alberts D 51 games
Bobby Allen D 40 games
Shawn Thornton LW 20 games
Glen Murray RW 19 games
Aaron Ward D 17 games
Andrew Ference D 23 games
Peter Schaeffer LW 10 games
PJ Axelsson LW 7 games
Tim Thomas G 6 games
Zdeno Chara D 6 games
Milan Lucic LW 4 games
Chuck Kobasew RW 10 games
Marc Savard C 8 games

Besides the wins and loss differential, Juliens biggest accomplishment has been the development of its kids. Julien’s ability to actually play the young guys is a big reason why they are in the position they are in. Phil Kessel has improved his all around game from a season ago. David Krejci has looked like an NHL superstar this past month and Milan Lucic is reminding the Hub what life was like when Cam Neely wore the Bruins sweater.

In a city that features great coaches, Julien is the least known. However, this past year he may have out coached all of them. The Patriots, Red Sox, and Celtics have arguably the best roster in their respected sports. The Bruins don’t. Not even close. This club will likely make the playoffs with a roster that most of New England can’t name. And who can blame them. I won’t say Julien is the sole reason for the success of the Bruins, but he is the main reason.

He may not be the best coach in this area. He may not win the award. He won’t get a lot of attention in Boston if he does or doesn’t. Then again neither does the NHL anymore. But in my mind he certainly deserves at the very least a mention. Claude Julien for the Jack Adams Award.

One Response to “Making A Case For Julien”

1. ed conroy Says:
   April 6th, 2008 at 7:24 am

   I agree totally that Claude Julien should be a leading candidate for the coach of the year award for the job he has done with the Bruins.However, the problem that Julien faces is the same one that countless other Bruins coaches have faced over the years. The franchises unwillingness to bring in the one or two quality players with goal scoring/playoff experience to compliment the younger players and give them the invaluable lessons that being around winners can create. And until the Bruins change ownership the same formula will continue to play out…lack of top-tier talent-coach does best with what he is given-management blames coach-he is fired. And year after year the nonsense goes on. The Bruins will get equal coverage with the other three professional sports teams in the area when they start putting forth the effort to put a winning team together for their fans as those teams have done.

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