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Cam Neely: ‘Unfair’ to say Bruins coach Claude Julien on hot seat
Imagine you’re a professional hockey coach.
Your team missed the playoffs, by only some fault of your own, for the first time on your watch, a span of eight seasons. Your general manager was fired for this failure. The new general manager takes two weeks to decide your fate, despite having been the assistant general manager under the previous regime. You admit to that the waiting game was excruciating, especially when it seemed all was well following a multi-year contract extension.
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Now, if anyone claimed you were on “the hot seat” in light of these circumstances, would you bristle? Would you say it was a mischaracterization of the situation at hand?
No? Well, Cam Neely thinks differently.
At Boston Bruins media day, the team president vowed that anyone saying Julien is on the hot seat is being “unfair” to the veteran coach despite the Bruins having basically placed him there.
Neely said he had seen reports that “Claude may be on the hot seat” before the season. “I don't think that's fair... I think it's unfair to Claude,” he said.
"Claude is a very good coach in the league. I think it’s unfair to say that he's on the hot seat,” Neely said during a press conference during the team’s annual preseason media day.
Julien, on the same dais with Neely, CEO Charlie Jacobs, owner Jeremy Jacobs and GM Don Sweeney, had said he doesn’t feel any pressure moments before Neely spoke.
Like, what else is he going to say in front of Julien, right? Or perhaps Cam has total faith in the new system the Bruins are going to play.
As we’ve seen countless times, a show of support is as good as a kiss of death for most coaches, and probably is here. Is there any chance Julien’s back if the Bruins miss the playoffs for a second time, despite what we assume is a sizable contract with multiple years left on it?
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