When Claude Julien was fired as Devils coach by Lou Lamoriello with three games remaining in the 2006-07 season, despite the fact the team was in first place with a 47-24-8 record, it was in the aftermath of an incident in which Julien would not confront John Madden — and a corps of veterans — after the center had shot a puck at him in a sign of overt disrespect at practice.
Ten years later, and following a run of 9 ¹/₂ seasons in Boston that included a 2011 Stanley Cup championship and a run to the Cup finals two years after that, Julien’s dismissal Tuesday came after taking metaphorical pucks shot at him for years by Cam Neely, the Bruins president, who seems to hold sway over a dysfunctional front office.
Cry not for the coach, who essentially will be the front-runner for any job he chooses to seek, with the Panthers the most likely and most appetizing landing spot for the 56-year-old. This assumes the Puddy Tats’ progressive ownership is not married to interim man (and associate general manager) Tom Rowe and Julien would be able to operate independently under a clear chain of command.
The Bruins long have been a quirky operation. For all the New England love lavished on Raymond Bourque, it was the miserly ways of Jeremy Jacobs’ ownership (ironically previously championed by the defenseman when he took management’s side in contract disputes with teammates) that ultimately forced Bourque to go elsewhere to win his Cup.
A 25-year-old Joe Thornton was traded in about 15 minutes for a package of spare parts before anyone other than the Sharks knew he was on the market. Somehow, 21-year-old Tyler Seguin and 22-year-old Dougie Hamilton were traded within two years of one another under vague circumstances following the Bruins’ 2013 six-game defeat in the final and are operating in Dallas and Calgary, respectively, rather than as standard-bearers of the next generation to succeed Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara.
Who knows whether interim coach Bruce Cassidy, last behind an NHL bench in what was a calamitous try in coaching Jaromir Jagr in Washington in 2003-04, has the undivided support of Jacobs, his son, club CEO Charlie Jacobs. Neely and GM Don Sweeney? Who knows whether Sweeney has the support of Neely? And who knows, exactly, what the lines of responsibility are in the Bruins front office?
Those are the critical questions in Boston, not whether it was fair to fire a coach whose team had great Corsi totals.
Tell me the last time a youngish, first-pair right defenseman was traded at or proximate to the deadline and then tell me how exactly the Rangers are supposed to get one between now and 3 p.m. on March 1?
Because that’s the needle in the haystack GM Jeff Gorton would need to thread without unraveling what he and his team have up front. If the alternate plan is to acquire a veteran righty who would slide into the equation with Dan Girardi and Kevin Klein while Nick Holden shifts to the left and Brady Skjei sits, then count me out.
These Islanders of Doug Weight — including John Tavares — are the engaged, hungry and dangerous Islanders we expected from the start.
Barring a difference of opinion from a presumed incoming president of hockey operations with presumed autonomy to be hired by the Scott Malkin-Jon Ledecky ownership — one source reports perhaps before the season ends — deference should be paid to Weight if the assistant GM wants to continue with a full ride behind the bench.
Expanding on last week’s list: The top 10 non-dynasty Islanders: 1. Pat LaFontaine; 2. Tavares; 3. Pierre Turgeon; 4. Zigmund Palffy; 5. Pat Flatley; 6. Derek King; 7. Billy Harris; 8. Kelly Hrudey; 9. Mariusz Czerkawski; 10. Kenny Jonsson.
The puck-over-the-glass, delay-of-game penalty is not subject to video review — motions to include the black-and-white call in the review process have been repeatedly rejected for no good reason by the league — so then why in the world did Toronto get involved to mistakenly confirm what by the way was an erroneous third-period call against Kevin Hayes at the Garden on Tuesday?
The entire video review/coach’s challenge process is what needs review as lengthier stops of play that yield inconclusive results mount. Time limits need to be applied to both the time in which a coach can challenge a ruling and the ruling can be made.
Maybe this Lightning season of utter underachievement simply is karma bouncing back on Steve Yzerman for hard-balling restricted free agent Nikita Kucherov into submission last summer, not because the GM had to because of cap constraints, but because he could.
Has any team ever had a more powerful and deeper alignment on right wing than the 2002-03 Senators, who presented Marian Hossa, Daniel Alfredsson and Martin Havlat down that side and did any organization reap less for owning them?
Alfredsson stayed in Ottawa until. the final year of his career, but Hossa was sent to Atlanta for Dany Heatley in a deal that ultimately backfired, while Havlat was traded to Chicago for a package not even close to commensurate with his worth.
The best free agent signing of the summer: Eric Staal to the Wild for three years at $3.5 million per season or Michael Grabner to the Rangers for two years at $1.65 million per?
Is it just me, or doesn’t P.K. Subban, he of the big heart and of the big-time aura in Montreal, somehow seem diminished dressed up in that Predators uniform?
Finally, why don’t the Coyotes, apparently again with no place to play in the desert, just get it over with and announce their intention to move to Brooklyn when the Islanders leave for Belmont Park?