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.

Boston plays Montreal. Boston loses to Montreal. Sound familiar? That’s because the very scenario has happened all seven times the B’s have faced off against the Habs this season.

The reeling Bruins dropped another one to their northern rivals last night at the Garden. Just how bad have things gotten for the Bruins in the last couple of weeks? The B’s have only managed three wins out of 11 games this month, Philadelphia and Buffalo are within two points of Boston for the final two playoff spots and Washington sits only three points back.

The B’s may have been home last night but it looked like an away game, as Montreal fans flooded the Garden. There were giant pockets of red, white, and blue throughout the sea of fans. Although, Montreal fans are well traveled and Boston is only a hop, skip and a jump from Montreal, as a Bruins fan this is like Fenway Park having more Yankee fans attending the rival game than Red Sox fans.

Boston Bruins forward Glen Metropolithas been nominated for The Bill Masterton Trophy. The Masterton Trophy is awarded to National Hockey League player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey. For the second year in a row a Boston Bruin is up for the award.

You may remember last year when Boston’s young forward Phil Kessel won the award. Kessel was diagnosed with testicular cancer in early December. He played a Dec. 9 game against New Jersey, knowing he would be admitted to the hospital for surgery on Dec. 12. He missed only 12 games before returning to the club.

This year Glen Metropolit didn’t have to overcome life threatening odds but he did endured much of the same uncertainty of playing in the NHL. After splitting time last season with the Atlanta Thrashers and the St. Louis Blues, Metropolit had an extremely difficult time finding an NHL team that was interested in his services. With a rather successful campaign split between the two teams, no NHL GM had called Glen by the middle of the summer.

In a very entertaining hockey game, the Boston Bruins defeated the Washington  Capitals at the Garden yesterday afternoon 2-1. The Bruins avenged an early week lost to the Caps, in which they let in ten goals, and snapped a three game losing streak.

Alex Auld played well in net for the B’s, only relinquishing one Washington goal, an early first period powerplay tally by Brooks Laich. Auld ended with 23 saves on the day and gave the B’s a chance at the end of the game.

The game started off with two consecutive fights when Milan Lucic dropped the mitts 5 seconds into the game and Shawn Thornton 10 seconds after that.

“We wanted to try to get the momentum our side and really try to get the fans into it, and I thought maybe it was a good idea to get it going right [then],” Lucic explained.  “It was back just like last year, junior-style, back up and take the helmet off.” bostonbruins.com

“I think our guys just showed that we got pushed around last time in Washington, [and] we were ready for whatever they were going to throw at us,” said Coach Claude Julien. bostonbruins.com

The Bruins lost their third consecutive game last night against a team that is behind them in the standings in  the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs, playing inspired hockey as of late, have won seven of their last 10 games and spanked the Bruins 8-2 at the Garden last night.

The Maple Leafs entered with the league’s 24th ranked power play. Yet, the Bruins allowed four powerplay tallies to Toronto. The Leafs special teams’ dominance on the penalty kill was equally impressive as they  killed off all six of the B’s powerplays.

Tim Thomas was pulled yet again, allowing five goals on 23 shots. In Thomas’ last two outing he has pulled a total of three times, a far cry away from  being that NHL all-star the Bruins need him to be.

This team is only going to go as far as their goaltending will take them and its important for Thomas to get out of this mini-funk his is in. Otherwise the Bruins will miss the playoffs again.

“I don’t think it’s time to panic,” Boston coach Claude Julien said. “It’s certainly time to make the adjustments and address. I don’t know if it’s we’re totally out of sync or the pressure. We’ve just got to take a step back.” -nhl.com-

The Bruins look to end their mini two game losing streak tonight against division foe the Toronto Maple Leafs. Unhappy with his team’s play in the last two, Coach Claude Julien is looking for a better performance out of his squad. After winning five in a row, following the non-moves at the trade deadline, the B’s have lost the last two from a combined score of 11-2.

“I think sometimes, as they say, you need to quit reading about yourself,” said Julien, rather a-matter-of-factly. “We’re not that good.

“We’re a good team, but we aren’t so good that we can just rely on going out there and playing.”

“We’re good because we are a dedicated group,” he said, “together,  we’re in sync, we work well…and we commit to doing the things it takes to win.

“The minute we stop doing that we become a very ordinary hockey club.”

Quotes courtesy of John Bishop, BostoneBruins.com