Why is everyone laying around?
I’ve made the argument on these pages many times before that my favorite Bruins coach was Pat Burns. You’d see Pat Burns on the bench ripping into his players or the officials and you knew whoever he was yelling at, they got the message.
If the team played like crap in a period you knew that he would rip into them at the intermission. If it came on the heals of a loss, you knew practice the next day was going to be a tough practice. I picture his speeches like Robert Loggia in Necessary Roughness.
I don’t get the same “warm and fuzzies” from Claude Julien. I feel that the team is an extension of the coach and that this team is playing like “we’re just happy to be here.” I think that Claude’s attitude is that if they win, good, but I’m just happy to have gotten the team to the Finals. The team is an extension of the coach.
I don’t think there’s any accountability with the players. I don’t picture Claude calling out Chara in front of the team and telling him that he needs to stop playing like a seven foot pile of monkey crap. Or that Claude would ever take a page from Scotty Ferrall (or Da Guy) and SHAKE IT UP!!!
Nope, Claude reminds me of a tortoise. Slow and steady will win the race, don’t get too excited one way or the other, and if the media becomes too much, duck into your shell and suck your thumb till it’s over. Francona gets away with it because he’s won two World Series. Until Claude actually wins the Cup, I want to see him with a little more fire.
So tonight the Bruins look to bounce back from the game two loss that saw them cough up a lead for the first time in the series but also saw them lose the game just 11 seconds into the OT. Down 0-2 this is where I’d like to see some of that Pat Burns fire. Grab Johnny Boychuck and punch him in the face in front of the rest of the team. Tie a rope to Tim Thomas at practice so he doesn’t go too far out of the net and gets used to the limit.
Bottom line is that they need to stop clowning around and play some hockey. Play like your hair is on fire or whatever analogy you want to use, the bottom line is they need to wake up!
Back tomorrow with a recap.
